Success Advice

5 Keys to Being an Effective Leader

Good leadership empowers individuals to look up to you and meet their full potential, as opposed to forcing compliance with fear and punishment.

Published

1 year ago

Nov 9, 2022

Derek Parks

Image Credit: Unsplash

The difference between a boss and a leader comes down to how you present yourself to your employees and teammates. Bosses rely on their position of authority to gain compliance, whereas good leaders use their influence to motivate the team. Good leadership empowers individuals to look up to you and meet their full potential, as opposed to forcing compliance with fear and punishment.

1. Seek to inspire others.

When you inspire others, you seek to bring out the best in others. Tyrannical management operates from a fear mindset, where team members fear harsh discipline for small mistakes. This may seem like the best type of leader at first glance, but it only leads to high turnover rate and tension amongst employees.

When you inspire others, you are empowering them to take initiative and achieve more. When everyone is working towards a goal and achieving the success they want to achieve, it reflects solid leadership because you are having a positive effect on their mindset.

Some ways to inspire others is to be passionate about the mission of the company, and to practice what you preach. This also means being honest and trustworthy, because your employees must believe in you to be able to inspire them. Who you are as a person translates to your leadership style, so it’s important to lead and make decisions from a solid moral compass.

2. Show High Emotional Intelligence

Good leaders understand their emotions and the emotions of other teammates. How you interact with and support your team reflects your emotional intelligence skills.

This is why good leaders aim to inspire, guide, and advise their team, as opposed to barking orders and commanding/ demanding.

They know how their team members are feeling and are considerate. For example, good leaders understand that everyone will have off days, and everyone has different learning styles. Some are visual learners, and some are hands-on learners. These factors must all be taken into consideration when guiding your team as an effective leader.

Leaders with high emotional intelligence know how to respond to situations, as opposed to simply reacting. Reacting out of anger, panic, or frustration, can blur your clarity and cause you to make poor decisions. Good leaders know you can’t control everything, just like you can’t force people to look up to you; respect is earned.

Some people I’ve worked with in the past use the 24 hour rule, which means they won’t respond to or make a major decision until they’ve had time to hold space for and process the decision for some time. This is not always possible in every situation, but it’s important to slow down and carefully think before making a decision. You must make decisions based on clarity, and not panic or pressure.

Greeting your employees, engaging in conversation, and making others feel valued demonstrates high emotional intelligence and fosters a sense of belonging where communication can take place without fear of judgment.

“Leadership is an action, not a position.” – Donald McGannon

3. Demonstrate hard work.

Hard work demonstrates dedication, which motivates others to do the same. Leaders demonstrate hard work by being punctual, meeting deadlines, and completing projects from beginning to end.

From a leadership perspective, hard work doesn’t mean only do what you have to do and disregard everyone else. Effective leaders demonstrate hard work by helping other team members with their needs and showing initiative on all projects.

When team members observe that you’re helpful, follow through, and show intuitiveness, it motivates team members to complete their work because they seek to be effective.

A willingness to work hard shows that you, as a leader, are not above any of the workplace tasks, but rather you care enough to help teammates by reducing the workload through your work.

Good leaders work hard because it inspires your workers, as opposed to giving directives on the sidelines and having everyone do the work you don’t want to do.

4. Listen to your employees.

Good communication is essential for a healthy workplace, as well as fostering employee innovation and improving morale.

Contemporary society believes that a leader not knowing every answer is a sign of weakness, but this is not the case…. No one knows everything. And that’s completely acceptable.

A good leader puts their ego aside and develops a solid rapport with their staff so each and everyone of their opinions is valued and used to build the company as a whole. This is why it’s essential to work as part of a team (even as a leader) because you never know who can solve an unexpected problem or offer advice from past experiences.

Good leaders are patient and view situations from an empathetic viewpoint, because everyone has their own unique experiences.

Following a boss is mandatory, but people follow and subscribe to leaders because they want to; they feel guided by them.

People look up to good leaders because the workers are not looked down upon, but rather lifted up by the person leading. This is key to developing solid rapport and being a relatable personal as an individual.

5. Good leaders don’t micromanage

Most importantly, good leaders allow free thinking and autonomy over their own work and creativity. They don’t micromanage because they know it inhibits personal growth and creativity in their workers.

Micromanage is about complete control, stemming from insecurity. Micromanagement starves employees of their creative talents, leading to frustration, resentment, and a high turnover rate.

This means they are not micromanaging, or controlling every little detail regarding their employees work and how they get the job done. Just like there are different learning styles, there are many ways to get a job done and people have a right to do what is best for them. What works for you might not work for someone else. You might even learn a better way to do things if you keep an open mind.

Micromanagement is dangerous because it creates dependent employees, who will be unable to make decisions on their own out of fear of scrutiny.

Good leaders, however, instead build a team with people you trust and allow staff to use their strengths. When you trust your employees, you’re helping to cultivate their creative talents and capabilities.

You never know how far your team can take you… trust and compassion are a must for enhancing team productivity.

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Derek Parks

Derek Parks is a freelance direct-response copywriter with a background in digital marketing efforts. With experience in various industries including b2b, education, and nonprofits, Derek has the experience to create carefully crafted copy for your marketing strategy that converts like a charm.

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How to Break the Cycles of Mediocrity and Manifest Your Greatness

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

Published

3 weeks ago

Nov 16, 2023

Jamelle Sanders

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In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.

I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.

I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.

As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.

I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness.

Everything legal must come through the matrix

I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.

The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.

Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.

The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be.

Every matrix has an incubation process

While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.

In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.

What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.

However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.

Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time.

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier

You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time

When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.

The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?

First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.

In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.

For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.

For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.

Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.

You must manifest your greatness

As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.

I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.

Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.

When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.