If you were to take ten random people from the street, place them in a group in a meeting room, and task them with organizing an event, for example, the chances are that you would very quickly see the different personality types and, more specifically, who out of the ten is a natural born leader.
However, like anything else, such leadership skills can be taught and learned as long as the individual is dedicated to self-improvement when it comes to management and is open to learning as much as they possibly can.
So, if this sounds like you, then continue reading to learn everything it takes to become a dynamic and effective manager of people.
Expand Your Educational Horizons
No great leader can ever set an example to their team if they are not willing to expand their own knowledge bases, however extensive they currently believe them to be.
It is, therefore, crucial for you to know that, by far, the most effective way of improving your skills in management and leadership is to enroll yourself back into further education. This is particularly important for those that never completed their degree due to securing a job and working their way up through the company. If you never finished your degree, don’t feel you can’t return. It is easy to get back into the education world. Fortunately, educators have realized the demand for working professionals to improve their career prospects and have created degree completion programs. What is a degree completion program? Learn more from the renowned academic institution that is Northern Michigan University. Never let life and work get in the way of you achieving a degree that could better your career prospects and lead you toward becoming a more effective manager and leader.
Focus on Mentoring Rather Than Managing
Although it seems, upon first read, a direct contradiction, it is true to state that the most respected and the most effective leaders across the entire spectrum of industries behave much more like understanding mentors than disciplinarian managers.
Company culture and a working environment conducive to positivity and motivation is so incredibly important. As the manager of a team, you are responsible for the cultivation of one. Essentially, even though your job title states that you are the ‘top dog’, it is crucial that you do not take the job title too seriously and instead remember that the success of your own job relies on the success of your team.
Work on Your Core Communication Skills
Open, honest, and constructive communication is the epitome of an effective manager, and if you want to lead a group of people who not only trust you implicitly but also look to you for the answers to various issues within the business, then working on your communication skills is the natural way forward.
There are, fortunately, a myriad of ways of looking to improve your aptitude for communication, including the following:
- Communicate more frequently with every member of your team
- Make yourself much more available
- Have an ‘open door’ policy
- Take advantage of the many methods of virtual communication
- Focus on nurturing and helping your employees to progress
SMART Goals
If you have not previously been made familiar with SMART goals, then this is certainly something to start focusing on during your quest to be a better and more effective manager.
Setting SMART goals (Specifics, Measured, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) for not only your team members but also yourself will help you see the fruits of your labor a lot faster.
