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Tag: inspiration (page 2 of 2)

June 26, 2016

4 Practices that Define Inspirational Leadership

Henna Inam, a contributor on Entrepreneur.com, has shed light on interesting research regarding employee psych in the workplace. This research has shown if an employee is focused on his/her valuable purpose, this in turn creates a mental strength allowing us to become both more resilient and courageous when faced with stressful situations.

As a result of Inam’s extensive experience analyzing organizations’ structure, she has also compiled information pointing to what exactly sparks the difference between when coaching goals are met or missed.

1. Inspirational leaders take accountability
The single biggest differentiator in terms of making or hindering progress during the coaching process is how the leader takes or deflects this concept of accountability. Studies show that the most inspirational, successful leaders do not blame others, their colleagues or other circumstances, and instead rely on themselves to make the change they want to see. Thus, these leaders set an example by showing initiative when they see a fault in how to approach a specific obstacle.

2. Inspirational leaders connect with their purpose
Through the coaching process each leader connects with their authenticity. The leaders that practice bringing their unique strengths, purpose, and values into the office on a day to day basis exude admirable behavior. A useful, simple practice for leaders to connect themselves with their purpose is to craft a short list of skills or processes they need to accomplish before the day begins.

3. Inspirational leaders take appropriate action
At the root of it all, inspirational leaders are willing to challenge their habitual ways of behaving, and therefore try out a new approach when once isn’t being effective. In other words, they are willing to experiment and develop new parts of themselves to increase productivity, enhance their skills, and challenge their discomforts. Inspirational leaders ask themselves how to best approach a difficult situation before it occurs.

4. Inspirational leaders look for change
When change happens, transformational leaders practice finding the opportunity in whatever mishap may have occurred at that moment. Focusing on learning from a situation instead of ignoring it entirely will help you improve whatever skill sets you lack. This will allow leaders to focus their energy on enhancing qualities they have not had the chance to improve on in the past.

June 1, 2016

5 Ways to Become a More Communicative Leader

More so than simply just speaking in an effective or polite manner, effective communication is based on qualities related to understanding the other party, active intelligence, and most importantly, emotional intelligence. Similar to what or how you say something can attribute or deter from one’s character, keeping in mind that leadership is indeed a privilege that will allow you to not only lead a team to its full potential, but is also a challenge or a goal that you should try to achieve everyday.

Be Mentally Present
As you go throughout the day from meeting to meeting, connecting with your team even for a few minutes a day can be a difficult task when leaders are emotionally drained. Regardless of how tired or completely worn out you may be, maintaining engagement in either work or personal conversations for a certain amount of time will create a more comfortable social environment for your team.

Questions
Fostering an open, comfortable atmosphere on the team produces efficient, intelligent communication throughout various members on the team. Building a great team with support, proper training, and open-mindedness is one of the fundamental qualities of a great leader, regardless of industry, field or department.

A useful way to guide a conversation centered around an exchange of ideas is to lead a conversation with a specific topic or goal in mind. This way, you can better decipher the strengths and areas of improvement moving forward.

Let others speak
Actively listening complements asking the right questions to initiate a healthy, robust social environment geared towards an exchange of ideas, opinions and strategic approaches to a certain problem. During the conversation, make an effort to not think about what you’re going to say–instead, take the time to let others lead the conversation while you actively listen.

Emotional intelligence
Although this is often deemed as unnecessary or frivolous, learning how to utilize emotional intelligence in your day to day leadership tasks is imperative to long-term success on your team. Exhibiting qualities such as self-awareness, discipline and empathy all collectively shape a leader who is prepared for any positive or unexpected business situations.

Positivity
Remember, you are the face of the team. Even if you are very stressed about a business deal, meeting, or client, be sure to stay calm during anything that may come your way. Along with delivering said words with a relaxed tone, using appropriate language throughout this process will also ease the nerves of your team members.

February 17, 2016

Leading Younger, Junior Employees to Excel

Meeting the demands of growing market can be a bit hard to maneuver, but with the increase of junior staff making their way into the workforce, a set plan to ease a clear onboarding process in place is vital. Contrary to what some hiring professionals may say, enthusiasm, mental freshness and overall eagerness to learn new material all are great qualities that younger professionals contribute to a growing company or brand.

As leaders, it is our responsibility to effectively implement a strategic plan in order to for these young, newer professionals while also promoting a work environment which allows your business to continue growing.

Business experience recommended

Throughout the hiring process, it may be routine to sometimes hire the person with the most enthusiasm or passion, but it is important to reevaluate the young professional’s previous work experience. On paper it may seem like the best option to hire an employee who just graduated university, however once this person is onboarded, be prepared for a learning curve on their behalf. Since these new professionals have little or minimal work experience, mistakes are a common way for these employees to learn. At the same time, this could also interfere with efficiency on both micro and macro levels within the company.

Training

Even if the training process is a work in progress, providing these young professionals with consistent, useful training is the only way for them to receive an encompassing understanding of their role as an entry level employee. Although it does take a fair amount of time for the employee to grow into their role comfortably, steady training with either one or two upper level management is a productive way for them to also understand the inner workings of the company.

No one knows it all

A common mentality for young professionals who have recently entered the workforce is that they are simply unaware of how to execute most of their job. Younger staff may be more likely to affirm everything is going well with self-assurance instead of openly addressing any lingering questions or concerns they may have to avoid showing any signs of “weakness.”

In the leadership position, it is imperative to make it known to your younger employees that your interactions with them are based on two-way communication, where it is essential for them to raise up any issues at hand. As a result, your direct reports will be more inclined to share concerns with you as means to make the fresh, business relationship more stable through a steady workflow between you and your new hire.

January 25, 2016

Success Through Moderate Self-Criticism

While there are opposing views as to whether being actively self-critical can positively or negatively affect the way you can operate or better yourself in the workplace, one chief recruiting officer based out of Chicago thinks of this concept in a different light. While also stating that being overly critical can definitely damper your self-esteem and feelings of self-worth, there is no doubt that Krisi Rossi O’Donnell doesn’t effectively use self-criticism as a means to improve herself in her career. Promoted ten times at LaSalle network in Chicago in the past ten years, there is no question that O’Donnell is aware of how to successfully tap into self-critique as a motivating, useful way to push herself in her career.

The first beneficial part of being self-critical is the process of overthinking every move or decision in order to holistically view a certain situation or address a specific issue. By sometimes over analyzing aspects of your work life, you have the potential of developing the mentality of not only coming up with the best solution through intense examination, but also envisioning what potential outcomes could result in your decision. This art of envisioning for both the short term and long term effects will help you anticipate many outcomes until the result occurs which is very useful for managing expectations.

In terms of self-awareness, O’Donnell highlights some ways in which we are able to embrace this notion without overusing it excess, which in turn can be detrimental. “People who are self-critical are self-aware,” O’Donnell says. “They know exactly where they need to improve, which is crucial to continue growing and developing in your career.” It’s certainly true that the ability to see yourself as others see you is a key skill for effective leaders, and just about everyone else.

Moreover, with all this self-criticism as a primary way to provide you with the mental or emotional resources to strive and therefore better yourself, one of the salient ideas to keep in mind is to always remember there is more room to learn. Growing through the process of never failing to learn in your career is an essential cornerstone in relation to building and moving forward in your respective industry.

Similarly, by embracing failures more than successes in your career is the most beneficial form of capitalizing on how to improve some of your weak points that you weren’t previously aware of. While self-criticism is a great resource for advancement, using it sparingly is a must to achieve a healthy balance or dose of emotional security in your day to day work life.

January 4, 2016

How To Effectively Motivate Employees

In spite of the fact that leaders maintain various practices to effectively demonstrate or inspire leadership in others, there are some basic rules as to how leaders can successfully cultivate and further increase productivity in their employees. While leaders come in all management styles and personalities, following these simple guidelines is key to sustaining workflow by focusing on the needs of the team or specific employee instead of letting bias or partiality interfere with what’s at hand.

Leave Your Emotions At The Door

Easily one of the most unprofessional tendencies of poor leaders is to act on impulse instead of actually understanding the goal or overall point of the task. Letting your emotions dictate the way you lead your team or conduct business in the workplace is not only unprofessional, but also is very counterproductive. As a leader, it is your responsibility to rectify whatever situation occurred and continue to implement best methods and practices to ensure fluid workflow among the team. By getting angry and yelling, it makes your employees feel uncomfortable and unapproachable which isn’t good for anyone.

Use Honey Instead of Vinegar

Kindness is a super important, useful tool that allows both the employer to reach to level of a well-functioning leader and the employee to feel appreciated in the work they are fulfilling. According to a U.K. study, companionship and recognition are more important than even high salaries in promoting employee loyalty, which in turn, can be seen in increased productivity across the board. Although expressions of anger may have a few benefits, holistically speaking, studies have found that negative emotions generally cause managers to be seen as less effective, while maintaining a level of unapproachability and emotional distress for their subordinates. Little things such as simply asking how someone is doing personally and attempting to listen to what the person is saying actually affects people a lot more than you would think.

Take Responsibility

This tool is a little difficult for many leaders or managers, as subordinate employees are easy to blame because of their lack of positional power. While this something that happens across companies around the world, it is important to note that as a team leader, whatever goes wrong is technically on your shoulders. Granted that when your team excels, you often receive the credit, there should be no question that the leader of the team assumes all responsibility for the work done well, poorly or not at all.

Perks

Asking what the perks are of a company can sometimes show how much they care or are willing to retain the talent that allows them to produce a great deal of revenue. According to Sabine Sonnentag from the University of Konstanz in Germany, exercise, yoga, breaks from work,and more strict boundaries between work and home can reduce job stress and increase employee well-being and engagement. By providing simple perks such as yoga in the office, discounted gym passes or fresh produce in the kitchen, it motivates employees’ physical/mental state, while highlighting the fact that the company cares about their health. Learn more on how to improve leadership from HBR and Forbes.

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