To be an inspiring Leader is not an easy task. You have to showcase your leadership skills and traits that win people’s trust. It’s how you conduct yourself at work and your decisions that win respect from your team.
This doesn’t happen in a day.
You have to work consistently to become an inspiring leader. Just getting in the role of team lead or a manager doesn’t make you an inspiration for your team. You must have the ability to bring out the best from all the team members.
As a leader, it is your responsibility to motivate, inspire and help your team outperform.
John C. Maxwell truly said “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flow charts. It is about one life influencing another.”
An inspiring leader is always the one who can motivate people to work towards a cause, a goal. Motivation could be Extrinsic or Intrinsic.
Extrinsic motivation happens when one gets motivated by external factors such as a bonus, salary increase, or a promotion. This can lead to either positive or a negative situation.
But when the motivation is intrinsic i.e. from within, it stays permanently. Intrinsic motivation happens when you can motivate or inspire someone intrinsically by talking, listening to their problems, giving solutions, helping by guiding and coaching so that the person can perform better and become self-driven.
When you are in the leadership position, you must try a mix of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to inspire your team.
A few tips to inspire your team could include the following:
Don’t make assumptions: Sometimes you just assume that a person is a non-performer or a star performer. But deciding on the basis of your assumptions is never a good way to score anyone. Talk to people, understand their skillsets and problems they might be facing at work. The outcome of a one-on-one meeting with each team member will help you arrive at a decisive conclusion. Help that person overcome the situation. This will inspire the team to perform better.
Create satisfaction: A team of dissatisfied members cannot perform. Try and look for the reasons for dissatisfaction. Mostly the reasons for job dissatisfaction could be company policies leading to red tape, job insecurity, micro-management, lack of direction and transparency and many others. Try and create a satisfying environment within the team by providing opportunities for growth, assigning newer responsibilities to the members, providing training, and appreciating them for meeting or surpassing the role expectations. All this will lead to a satisfied team that will deliver and stay fuelled up.
Personalize your approach: Each member in your team is a unique individual and so will their problems and need for motivation be. A unified approach may not work well for all the members. Adapt and personalize your approach with each individual. Some may be introverts, some might be extroverts, some might be in their best elements while a few could be stuck in a distressed mindset. Speak with each member individually to understand their personality type and their state of mind. This will help you strike a rapport.
Create a vision: An inspirational leader will always forge a common vision for the team. It would be reaching a shared goal by achieving the organizational growth objectives.
Be Compassionate: If you are a compassionate manager, you will always stand by your team members through the thick and thin. The culture of sticking together will create the bonding among the team members to work together for achieving shared goals and success.
This can be summarized with a beautiful quote from Jim Rohn:
“The challenge of leadership is to be strong but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor but without folly.”
For coaching on acquiring leadership qualities and becoming an inspiring leader, you may get in touch with Life and Leadership Coach Johncey George – a Certified Leadership Coach in India.