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Leadership

Is Your Leadership Style a Motivator or Morale Killer

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Is Your Leadership Style a Motivator or Morale Killer

One size does not fit all when it comes to how you lead your team. Yes, we all have a default leadership style, but you have to learn the other styles to be most effective as a manager.

Think about it: Some days you need to be a coach while other days require you to be visionary and motivational. Occasionally you even need to be a dictator.

There is no right or wrong leadership style. Every leader has their own unique voice and their own individual approach to people and projects. However, it is important to realize that different styles may work best at different times, and to achieve different purposes.

While being genuine is an essential part of leadership, you must learn to adapt your leadership style as the business environment; team members and goals change around you. Any leader, even a highly collaborative one, uses a range of different styles at different times – even, perhaps, in the course of a single day.

The different leadership styles fall into five basic categories:

  • Authoritative – also called autocratic
  • Coaching
  • Coercive – also called transactional
  • Democratic
  • Pacesetting

Authoritative leadership

Authoritative, or autocratic, leadership works best when a team needs strong direction. This type of leadership identifies the challenges ahead and focuses the team on a common goal, yet allows individuals to decide how their efforts will get the desired end result. Authoritative leadership doesn’t work if the team members are more expert than the leader because you can’t be authoritative on a subject where you lack deep knowledge and experience.

Authoritarian leadership is best applied to situations where there is little time for group decision-making or where the leader is the most knowledgeable member of the group. The autocratic approach can be a good thing when the situation calls for rapid decisions and decisive actions.

Coaching leadership

This style of leadership is most effective when employees are receptive to change and learn. The coach does just what the name implies: Helps employees grow and learn. This leadership style focuses on the long-term personal development as well as job-related skills. Coaching is least effective when an employee is defiant or if the leader lacks proficiency in what they’re trying to teach.

Coaching leadership is best applied when performance or results need improvement. When using this style, your goals should be to help others to advance their skills, build bench strength and provide a lot of guidance.

Coercive leadership

Coercive leadership is also called transactional leadership and is the most directive of the leadership styles. Think of it as the “do what I tell you right now” style. Coercive leadership should be used sparingly because it stifles creativity and enthusiasm. However, this style works well if the building is on fire, a teammate is out of control, or the organization requires an immediate overhaul.

Coercive leadership is best applied during a crisis or during a period of significant change.  A manager might also employ this style when a business unit is not operating profitably due to wasteful practices.

Democratic leadership

It’s easy to understand what democratic leaders do: They let their team have input in decisions and share their ideas. Democratic leadership works when the team needs to feel ownership in the plan or goal.  Everyone is given a seat at the table, and discussion is relatively free-flowing. This leader will synthesize all the available information into the best possible decision. Since this style is time-consuming, it should be avoided if a deadline is imminent or employees don’t have the expertise or experience to offer helpful advice.

Democratic leadership is best applied when situations change frequently. This style offers a great deal of flexibility to adapt to better ways of doing things, but it can be somewhat time-consuming to make a decision in this structure.

Pacesetting leadership

Think of this style as lead-by-example leadership. Pacesetting leaders set high expectations and demand quick results. It works if the team is already motivated and skilled at their jobs. Used too much, pacesetting leaders risk burning out their team and depressing innovation. It also doesn’t work when training or coaching is needed.

Pacesetter leadership is best applied when a business or department needs quick results from a group that is already highly motivated and competent.  There is no time to learn on the job or teach someone a skill with this leadership style.

How to choose a leadership style

To determine which leadership style fits a given situation, you must first know what your team needs for the task at hand. Analyze the strengths of your team and yourself, the results that are needed, then flex your leadership style to fit the end goal. For that reason, being conscious of both your own style as a leader and those of others you hire as leaders can be crucial to keeping your organization on the right track.

And, while it’s easy to say you should change your leadership style to fit different teams, employees and situations, it’s not that easy to do. Spend some time thinking about what you think your default style is, and consult a trusted colleague or mentor to ask if they agree.

Questions to ask yourself: How do I behave under stress? Do you find yourself asking others for opinions or do you tell everyone what to do? Which leadership style seems most comfortable to you?

From there, it will take more time to discover what best motivates your people in which circumstances.

Eventually, you will create your own leadership style, one that is authentic, balanced, adaptable, visionary and best leverages your employees so that you all achieve great things.

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Leadership

How an employee showcase that they are ready for the Next level of role

Ravi Panchal

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How an employee showcase that they are ready for Next level of role leadership

If you’ve been in the same work for a while, it’s all too easy to believe that you’ll get a promotion every year as a reward for your service. To advance to the next level, though, you must work more than earlier. More responsibility entails deliberately demonstrating (and, in some cases, telling) where your manager says that you’re ready to take on greater responsibilities.

If you’re a severe developing leader, you’ll need to show that you’ve got what it takes to advance and succeed. Here’s how to do it.

Provide solutions

Show your passion and ability to solve challenges to demonstrate your value to the firm. Demonstrate that you’re not only concerned about your job but also about the company’s overall performance. For example, let someone know if you notice a process that could be improved. Managers enjoy seeing critical thinking in action.

Delegate

If you want to advance in your career, be sure you’re ready. Managers must hold employees accountable, yet discussing performance can be unpleasant at best. Is that something you can tolerate as part of your job? Can you offer people leeway to achieve the team’s goals in their way, or do you need complete control over the process?

Work efficiently

When it comes to letting people know you’re ready for a promotion, you need to be strategic. Working harder isn’t going to get you anywhere. It’s about focusing on the right things, establishing the right relationships, and informing those who can have an impact on your career. Prioritize based on your values and set aside time to ensure that you follow through.

Allow your dedication to your work to speak for itself

Have you honed your skills in your current position? Make no mistake about your work ethic. Demonstrate that you can handle your current workload with ease. Your statistics should reflect your current role’s mastery. A high performance can’t be hidden, and it’s difficult to ignore their impact on the company.

Take a look at the part

Your professional demeanour should be reflected in your attire. Don’t undervalue the importance of seeming professional. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on clothes, but you do need to be well-groomed and dressed for your office.

Share your outside-the-office achievements

Outline your leadership experience outside of the workplace. Even if individuals haven’t had the chance to exhibit their leadership abilities on the job, previous experience can be compelling. This is a valuable experience that can help an individual make a case for advancement.

Make a development strategy

Establish a professional growth plan for yourself with your supervisor that includes growing degrees of responsibility to support your long-term objectives. Your manager will be aware of your long-term goals and will be able to see that you are making progress toward them.

 

Conclusion

Finally, they must seize all opportunities as they arise, ensuring that they do everything possible to stand out and demonstrate their ability to advance in their careers. So, for example, if you are a member of a team and your manager is on leave for any reason, and you have many colleagues on your team, taking the initiative to work with them and customers to ensure that you achieve what was expected to be delivered demonstrates that you can lead and get the job done.

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Leadership

How critical it is for SME’s to develop a second line of leadership

Ravi Panchal

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As the team size of SMEs increases, it adds more hardships and critical functions to be managed for the life of the business owner or the leaders. Then comes the time for the current leaders to think about extending the SME’s leadership aura and that add the second line to their employee portfolio.

Statistics already prove that having a second line of leadership increases overall revenue generation. But, this is not the only reason behind the need to have the same.

Why is it essential to have the second line of leadership?

Leadership is essential for all SMEs, and leadership transition is widely essential and common. Second-line leaders are critical for the overall performance of an organization as they can effectively direct and motivate the staff.

With changing time and workflow of organizations, it is essential to get a second line of leadership. However, due to the inherent power dynamics of the role, it is also more challenging. As the team grows, you cannot solely handle all the issues, suggestions, grievances, and feedback of all staff members, and that is where the need for second-line leaders thrives more.

 

Values to look for in the second liners:

Well! Leadership is somewhat compact. It involves various facets: esteem, practice, heartfelt strength, soul skills, discipline, foresight, momentum, timing — and the list continues. Genuinely, there are three essential qualities each leader must possess, which are as follows:

  1. An intellectual approach to a strong leader;
  2. Absolute enthusiasm;
  3. A faithful promise to motivate others.

The thing that matters most is whatever you do day by day, across the prolonged haul. While considering coaching the executives and second-line leaders, the main focus is on the routine of a leader, which informs whether the candidate will be a successful leader. Encouraging them is essential to influence them because this is the approach where all the outcomes improve.

Role of senior leadership for second-in-line leaders:

The Superior Leader might start taking the change from Position to Permission to help approve second-in-line leaders. Whenever second-in-line leaders are cared for, feel liked, included, valued, and trusted, they soon operate with their senior leaders and others. Finally, this cooperates the entire working atmosphere. The age-old line predicts- people move along with leaders they get along with. So, it would be helpful for senior leaders to develop an atmosphere and participate with second-in-line leaders.

Things to help you develop the second line of leadership:

Build a complementary team

It is mandatory to get assured that you have a companion team that promotes your vision. It won’t matter to have people of equal strengths and ingesting the identical kind of things.

Many skillsets come together to administer business challenges, so it is essential to hold a companion set of people and people who like and promote the same vision.

 

Effectively delegating

  • Define Roles:Divide the responsibilities among all. Everyone must identify where the buck pauses and something specific they’re qualified to do.
  • Instill Accountability:Recognize Key Results Areas (KRAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for every area. Keep monitoring and regulating them. Develop benchmarks about what super excellent performance views like. Organize a weekly meeting where these numbers are analyzed and arrange plans to operate them forward. So, it becomes evident if someone is performing a good job or not. Performance and identification of achievements are chief motivators of human performance. Analyze all the skills of your team and identify what will be demanded of them to succeed. Build some training structure to upgrade the skills of the team to succeed.
  • Enabling your team to do day–to–day administration:Assuredly, it might be troublesome for entrepreneurs to enable their team to exercise charge and secure the day-to-day administration.

 

Treating the team members as the partners

Lastly, the final thing is to study to tackle your SLoM as co-workers. Identify some paths in which you can include them in important decisions, so they feel like a part of the team.

Is there some way you can involve them in critical strategic decisions to feel part of the group? Likewise, recognize other things: is there any approach in which you’re qualified to help them capture ownership? All these can be in the duration of employee stock options or profit-sharing. If all the members work well, their firm increases, the value rises, and the profits also improve.

 

Looking for the leaders already available with you

Meanwhile, your team is so large that you need help quickly. The situation becomes more dangerous as time flies by and things grow, and if your team doesn’t progress further.

The most apparent clarification is to recognize and promote from within your team: they are known with your culture, how the team works, and your expectations.

Promoting from your team is a strong move and a confident signal. Whomever you raise is a sign to your team that you compensate; they’re making a new title, new power, and new efficiencies.

 

Have a one-on-one communication

You own a new role where you get problems from other people to solve. Not getting a plan to get guidance and help from your manager makes you feel disappointed and striving. The saddest thing, all the issues hit everyone on your team, so it intensifies.

Became the leader who encourages their new supervisor so they’re not stretched out to air-dry. Moreover, if your manager doesn’t have a one-on-one with you, don’t leave any excuse to lose to support your new managers. Register the meetings and think about giving them more time to get satisfied in their new role.

 

Conclusion

With the enforcement of the second line of leadership, you can scale yourself as your business. This is also effective in helping your team get all the support and assistance whenever required for any reason.

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