In this edition, you’ll read about how leadership skills are honed. And as much as we like reading these articles each month, how many of us know how to take what we are reading and put it into action?
I want to show some simple things that we can do to identify those leaders in our organization and how to give them the skills to break them through the walls that hold them from success. If we can all find a way to build in-house leaders, we can make their success, our success.
Setting the Tone
Everyone inherently has their own leadership style. So, in order to develop your teams’ skillsets, you must first learn and understand what your own are. There are a few ways that you can determine what these are, including reaching out to a consultant that works specifically with the EOS (entrepreneurial operating system) program. However, it's important to remember that your leadership style may adjust depending on your role and therefore, your team will as well. Take the positive points in your leadership style and train these to your managers. If you find that they are not picking up these skills, it may be that you are working counter their leadership style. Great systems have unique personalities, but they generally have one or two driving forces. Identify what yours are and look for these in your leaders.
When you really want to instill a leadership development program in your system, EOS is a really great tool to set you on a path forward. It is not free to start this process of organizational change. However, a quick online search will give you lots of great ideas. One in particular that you should look at is leadership development strategies by Tony Robbins. It is very similar to EOS ideas; he points out that you must first determine what your leadership style and strengths are to set your path. But his ideas also add to the component that will get your teams to buy in to what you are selling. Building empathy for your leaders and their strengths and patience in the execution of your plan. Don’t make rash moves if someone doesn’t hit the round block, round hole of your puzzle box.
Allow Leaders to Shine
So, you have identified your strengths and put together a plan for a system to build your leaders into the mold that you want for success. The next step is to step back and allow your teams to lead. Micromanagement of your system will not give you the answers that you are seeking to find in your program. This will lead to leaders who don’t lead, but simply execute orders. What you want to do is set goals for your teams and follow-up with the teams to give advice, not answers to them. You want to start by deciding where you want to be in five years’ time. Break this apart into smaller section. Decide what you can do in year one to drive you in this direction and then break that down into quarters. These are your goals. As you start firing towards these timelines, don’t be afraid to admit a mistake and change course. No one is perfect and no plan will stay that way either.
So now you have a good idea of your strengths, your leadership style and have a vision for your leadership. You have put together a set of goals to drive your organization to the next level. So what’s next? Well, you want well rounded leaders. People that have skillsets that will allow you to step back and spend more time on building your business, rather than running it. The key to that is to mold the soft skills of your teams. In that nifty EOS system, they can identify which skill sets your leaders need to develop. Invest in your people and they will invest in your goals. Spend some money and send them to skill training seminars or college courses. You will find that the more skilled your team, the more the impact will be on your bottom line at the end of that five years.
These ideas will not be for everyone. You may think that you are either too big or too small an organization to put together this type of change. Even if this is not for you, in totality, there is always something that you can use to make small alterations. Don’t forget to check out online posts for leadership skills and/or change.
Find your strengths, execute your plan and hone those soft skills and you will set into motion real changes that will have a positive effect.
