Category: Management Training

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4 Characteristics of Influential Leaders

There has never been a time like it in history, where the explosion of corporate expansion has led to the constant need for great leaders. Where companies have grown in size to match the economies of a small country, the prize of a truly great leader has never been so important nor so highly rewarded.

If you are a leader yourself, or are looking to recruit a top leader to manage a team, here are 4 characteristics you should be constantly looking for and developing:

4 Characteristics of Influential Leaders
4 Characteristics of Influential Leaders
Role model

Reflect and model the behaviours you feel are important. Lead by making the changes you see need to be made and stand by these changes as if they are a personal conviction. If you want your team to behave in a certain way, then you have to be willing to demonstrate by example and expect to be challenged. You set the tone of the business environment.

Purpose

Establish a purpose to believe in and let others see this is what is expected of them. Highlight the importance of their roles, and be specific about their skill-sets and where you see the opportunity for their development. Illustrate what success will look like for them, as well as for the organisation. How the advantage of having a positive attitude to solve problems will raise their professional capital and their self-esteem. Outline clearly how their position connects with the outcome.

Coach

Sometimes being obvious works neatly into time frames and objectives, especially where multiple partners or teams are being managed. However, being subtle in your approach, especially when dealing with inexperienced managers, can also be extremely effective.

Allowing people to discover their answers or experience their mistakes can be an invaluable learning process.

Watch for the rhetorical questions, the statements that contemplate – and then lead through a line of questioning that sets a path of discovery. Remember that the ideas and answers that you uncovered for yourself are still some of the greatest moments of transformation you have had, so why deny anyone else the opportunity to experience these moments for themselves.

Accountability

This simple concept goes hand-in-hand with taking ownership of your position. You cannot have one without the other. Being accountable is a reflection of direction and no-one should make a choice without being accountable. Your team needs to realise, and quickly, that as a leader you are more than just responsible for the decisions, and therefore you own them.

You will always get somethings wrong, you will make the mistakes, owning them is one of the great strengths a leader can display. It sets a foundation of trust. It encourages transparency. It builds and strengthens bonds and it raises a level of integrity that will resonate throughout the company.

Summary

There are many qualities that are important in great leaders, but role modelling, a strong purpose, a natural coaching style and courage to be accountable are some of the most important.

To learn more, take a look at one of our management and leadership programmes, in particular our leadership development training course is perfect for developing these specific skills.

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Five Techniques to keep your Virtual Team Engaged

While some staff are starting to return to the office, many organisations such as tech giants Google and Facebook are allowing their staff to work from home until the end of the year. Others such as Goldman Sachs may allow 50% of their staff to work from home forever! But how do you keep teams engaged if they are never physically together?

For managers or small business owners, it can be a real challenge to keep virtual teams engaged, especially if you are new to managing remote workers.

This article will give you five tips to keep your virtual team engaged.

Out of working hours are out of bounds!

Sometimes it’s necessary to work long or unsociable hours when there’s an increase in demand or a huge deadline looming. But remember that balance is important, and usually teams can actually be more productive if they stick to sensible working hours.

Where possible try not to send your team e-mails at the weekend or very late at night. Doing this sends the expectation that you want them to also work at the weekends or late into the evenings, and can lead to guilt, frustration and burn-out.

There may be a valid reason why you can’t contact your team members during working hours, but be sure to put yourself in their shoes and try to be fair. We all deserve a weekend!

Organise regular meetings

Agreed, some meetings can be a waste of time and there’s no point having a meeting for the sake of it. However, to keep your virtual team engaged at minimum a weekly meeting is essential. This keeps everyone is on the same page and held accountable to their tasks and projects.

Woman Using Silver Laptop

Regular meetings also help to build personal connections amongst colleagues, which is so important for team morale, motivation and engagement.

Communicate updates regularly

When working from home some team members can feel isolated, like they’re not in the loop or even really part of the company. Therefore, regular and clear communication from the manager and leadership is essential. Think about the balance between using e-mail, other tools such as MS Teams or Slack and also video or conference calls.

Ask open questions

When communicating with your team members try to ask more open questions, which facilitate good communication, instead of closed questions, which can close communication doors quickly.

Open questions are a great way to get people to talk more about how they are feeling and their emotions. Most people like to be listened to. If you can listen to your virtual team members concerns and demonstrate genuine empathy, it will help you to build and maintain a strong connection with them and improve their engagement level.

Focus on productivity, not hours worked

Some of your staff may work traditional hours, whereas others may prefer to work very early morning and/or late at night. Some night owls even work their best at 2 in the morning!

Mug, Watch, and Planner Book on Brown Wooden Surface

Don’t worry if your staff are not always immediately available, try to focus on what they manage to achieve. Doing this will help you avoid micro-management, demonstrates trust and can actually improve overall productivity and performance.

Summary

It certainly takes a different skillset, and a lot of trust, to build a super-engaged and motivated virtual team. But with just a few tweaks to your management style and approach to communication, you will see huge rewards in all areas of your team’s work.

We believe that engagement is such an important factor in team performance we have a dedicated training focusing on even more techniques for keeping virtual teams engaged.