Whether you are the manager of a small, independent business with a small number of employees that is just finding its proverbial feet, or rather you are responsible for the management of a giant corporation with different areas, management is a skill that can always be improved upon. And introduce you as a better leader.

4 Tips To Enhance Your Leadership Quality

Whatever your motivation, there are a plethora of proven, tried-and-tested ways to improve and expand on your management skills and expertise, so here, for your information, is how to become a more effective, commanding, and altogether substantially better leader and manager. 

Here are four tips to brush up on your leadership quality.

1. Improve Your Skills In Communication

There is a multitude of excellent ways to improve the communication between a manager and their employees, and here are some of the fundamental changes you can make to your approach to the workforce. 

An excellent example of effective communication is to admit you made a wrong call or mistake instead of literally ignoring the issue or covering it up to the staff. As soon as your employees directly sense and experience a more authentic version of you as a better leader, they are more likely to reflect and return such honesty and authenticity back to you. 

Another excellent way of improving communication between a manager and their employees is to create, maintain and cultivate an overall healthy and more consistent flow of communication of information and to update your employees, also encouraging them to update each other on everything from progress and workload to resources. 

The introduction of weekly meetings with the whole team, a platform, either virtual or physical, to air any issues anonymously, actively encouraging employee feedback, personalizing any written communication, and taking the time to genuinely listen to any issues where possible, will all effectively improve your communication skills as a better leader.

2. Further Education

There are many ways to improve your skills and qualities as a better leader and manager on a personal level, but another tried-and-tested way of becoming an overall better manager of your workforce is to enroll yourself in the world of further education. 

One of the most beneficial and reputable qualifications to obtain that will really make a difference to your leadership qualities, and overall effectiveness of your management style is a postgraduate degree in Executive Leadership.

The advantages of obtaining a postgraduate degree are numerous and will extend to benefit not just your professional life but also your personal one. 

Benefits to studying at the postgraduate level include:

• The improvement of your salary and future earning potential
• The broadening of your intellectual knowledge and interests
• The enhancement of your employability and future hiring prospects
• Your level of personal achievement 
• The general progression of your career in business management
• The ability to specialize in a particular area of knowledge

3. Sharpen Your Decision-Making Abilities

Naturally, as a manager of an office or business, you are tasked with making differences, some in the heat of the moment and others that require lengthy consideration. It is in the best interests of yourself, your employees, and your company to make the right choice. 

Fortunately, there is a host of practical ways to quickly and effectively improve the speed and the quality of decision-making that will directly impact everyone in the business. 

One of the primary ways to sharpen your decision-making abilities is to always include the fundamental working ethos and company values into every decision you make from this day forward.

When workplace values are entirely visible, ever-present, and clearly defined, they can seriously help you to not only make the decision in the first place but also to justify and prove that the choice you made was indeed the correct one, certainly at the time of making it. 

Another fundamental way to improve your process of coming to a decision is to ask objective outsiders for their advice, both professionally and personally. As an objective third-person party and a better leader is unlikely to know and understand the thorough ‘ins and outs’ of the situation, they are far more likely to advise on a more balanced and logical decision as well as the obvious fact that an entirely different person to yourself will present an entirely different opinion to your own. 

4. Hone And Streamline Your Management Style

One of the essential things to cement clearly in your own mind and subsequently into the minds of your employees is to ascertain exactly; what your style of management is. Perhaps you have already developed a management style for becoming a better leader

and it simply needs refining, or maybe up until now, you haven’t fully considered what a management style is and how it can help you become a better leader going forward. 

Basically, a management style is the way in which a manager organizes, plans, and cultivates their team in the workplace in order to achieve a goal or target. Management styles can be designed and decided on a variety of different factors:

• The number of employees you have working for you
• The type of industry that you work in
• The availability of resources you have at your disposal
• The personalities of your employees
• The experience of your employees
• The company ethos

There are essentially six basic, differing styles of management which are divided into Democratic, Persuasive, Autocratic, Laissez-faire, Transformational and Consultative. 

i. Democratic

A better leader with a democratic style of management, perhaps quite obviously, ensures that every single employee that will be affected by the decision one makes is involved in the decision-making process. 

There are a great many advantages to this style of leadership, including ensuring that every single individual employee feels appreciated and valued and the ability to use different employees’ specific skills and expertise in diverse and positively influential ways. 

Another fantastic and indeed somewhat helpful benefit of being a democratic manager is that if there is an issue or area where you lack the appropriate depth of knowledge, you can easily ask for professional help in that particular area. 

ii. Persuasive 

The persuasive management style is when a better leader justifies to their employees the reason why they made that decision in the first place and excel at setting achievable yet challenging targets and goals and making sure that they are completed. 

One significant advantage of the persuasive style of management is when extensive and far-reaching changes are brought into a workplace or when a new change in policy needs to be carried out immediately, it is an efficient way to get things done. 

iii. Transformational

People who work as transformational managers are perhaps most often found in the creative industries, such as journalism, media, and the arts. Transformational managers generally allow their employees the freedom and proverbial wiggle-room to make their own decisions, which encourages and promotes innovation and creativity. 

Another significantly prominent industry that attracts a better leader with a more transformative style is the world of technology, where creators and inventors are encouraged to solve problems and create new products on their own. 

iv. Laissez-faire

The French phrase ‘laissez-faire’ is used to describe another popular management style. Laissez-faire translates to letting things take their natural course and is used to describe managers who not only encourage employees to be innovative and to make choices on their own but also trust their workforce enough to allow them to implement those decisions as well. 

Essentially, a better leader with a laissez-faire style of management takes somewhat of a backseat to the day-to-day running of a company and instead is there for employees to come to them rather than the other way around. 

v. Consultative

One of the popular forms of management style that is found across the length and breadth of different industries is that of consultative leadership. Successful leadership involves regular consultation with employees in various departments within the company to ascertain their thoughts, feelings, and expertise in the subject or issue currently at hand. 

Ultimately, a better leader still makes the final decision, but one that is informed by as many differing opinions, perspectives, and factors as possible so as to make the right choice at the time hopefully. In addition, consultative managers allow employees to expand and improve upon their working knowledge and afford them an increased sense of influence and responsibility. 

vi. Autocratic

The final management style is that of the autocratic but a better leader, essentially involving a manager who usually makes a decision on their own, with barely any input from colleagues and employees. 

Military leaders and many politicians are strong examples of the autocratic management style. 

Conclusion:

Instead of sticking to strictly business terminology and formal ways of signing off emails and phone calls, try to be slightly more informal in how you communicate when not in an official environment or meeting. Obviously, the key here isn’t to start swearing and asking inappropriate questions but more to convey a feeling of approachability and humility in your dealings with every single member of your staff. These tips are always helping you to become a better leader for your organization.

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