Leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization. It is also considered learned behavior that becomes unconscious and automatic over time and has nothing to do with seniority or one’s position in the hierarchy of a company.
“Everybody in Business Shares One Universal Problem: To Succeed You Have to Persuade Others to Support Your Vision, Dream, or Cause.” Peter Guber
Successful leaders have learned the art of anticipating business patterns, finding opportunities through situations, serving the people they lead and overcoming problems.
Read the following tips below to learn the seven things that the most successful leaders do automatically, every day and understand how you can incorporate them into your professional career.
1. Show up on time and trust your gut”¦ That’s God speaking to you
It’s that difficult to understand, explain, or identify “gut feeling” or “instinct” that often turns out to be right, in retrospect, however, the most successful leaders get to work straight away and make decisions really quickly. They focus their leadership skills and don’t tend to worry about their decisions as much, but get an instinctive sense of what the next right move is for the business or project.
2. Make 30 decisions in 30 mins
When you ask yourself a question, and your mind immediately comes back with the answer in an inner dialogue. Follow that. Decision-making is critical for in leadership, however, sometimes it’s just about making a decision and moving forward as analysis paralysis can cripple an organization or project for that matter. Time is our most precious asset, yet many don’t know how to manage or value it. People can overthink things a lot when working on projects or in business. The best leaders can make 30 decisions in 30 minutes and decide how things should go on the fly and that works.
The Advantages Are Obvious: Everyone Saves Time and Money
3. Step away from the usual weekly agenda
Successful Leaders Set Ambitious Goals and Do Things Differently
Mix it up, have some fun. Have meetings at unique locations, stand up, go to a park, aim to do something out of the ordinary and when arranging a conference invite a unique mix of speakers.
4. Quit multitasking
Successful Leaders Schedule Time to Unitask
We all do it: Texting while walking, sending emails during meetings, chatting on the phone while cooking dinner. However, multi-tasking is less efficient, due to the need to switch gears for each new task, and then switch back again. Andy Teach, author of From Graduation to Corporation, and host of the YouTube channel FromGradToCorp, believes unitasking has become a lost art.
We’re All so Used to Multitasking, We May Have Forgotten How to Properly Unitask
Unitasking is difficult as you have to purposefully tune out constant interference, but, when achieved, it leads to greater productivity,”
5. Successful leaders learn to overcome fear and pray
According to the Polls the Fear of Public Speaking Is the Most Common Fear and Prevents Many People from Achieving Their Potential
Successful leaders overcome the fear of public speaking by taking every opportunity they can to speak in front of audiences.
Mastering any skill usually requires some element of fear-conquering and practice. Leadership is no different. As a leader, your shortcomings will be highlighted and let’s face it. Failing at anything sucks, especially when all eyes are on you, but If you cant speak in public with confidence, how can you expect your team to follow you into “battle?”
6. Successful leaders are authentic and lead by serving: do you?
Authenticity itself is hard to define and—because of that—it’s even harder to find in people.
“Authentic Leaders Show Love and Are Not Afraid to Show Their Emotions.”
Yes, authenticity is vital. But it’s also very misunderstood. Authenticity has been explored throughout history. Many leaders attempt to be one way at work, while their “true” personality emerges outside of work, however, leadership is not acting. Authentic successful leaders are self-actualized individuals who are aware of their strengths, their limitations, and their emotions are able to put the mission and the goals of the organization ahead of their own self-interest. They are active in acknowledging hard work and efforts.
This approach has been fully embraced by many leaders and leadership coaches who view authentic leadership as an alternative to leaders who emphasize profit and share price over people and ethics.
One leads, first of all, by the example of hard work. Respect others and honor their commitment by your own hard work. Don’t ask anyone to work harder than you do. One also leads through knowledge. Demonstrate that you really know your product/service.
Authenticity itself is hard to define and—because of that—it’s even harder to find in people.
7. Successful leaders work hard
One of the key elements of effective leadership is to never become complacent. Successful leaders work hard, continually look to improve their performance.
What effective leadership traits have you seen? Have you had success emulating them? Let us know in the comments.
