9. Leaders Are Good Connectors

“All good leaders are connectors. They relate well and make people feel confident about themselves and their leader – John C Maxwell”

In Western culture, we give far too much credit to leaders for a team’s or organization’s success or failure. Because those leaders are great connectors, their main aim is to connect with followers as much as possible. They don’t force their decision to be accepted by every follower, they just share their ideas on how to achieve the toughest tasks, this close connection that we have with leaders causes us to see them as the primary reason that things get done.

Connecting may be learnt and executed through experience, leading to improved leadership and communication, a more productive team, and more influence. A leader can relate to their team and peers in a variety of ways, including expressing gratitude, exhibiting trust, and forming an emotional bond.

The stronger the relationship you form with followers, the greater the connection you create and those followers will always be on their toes to help you.?Whether you are speaking in front of a large audience or chatting in 0ne-to-one with individual the guidelines are the same.

Connect with yourself: You must know who you are and have confidence in yourself if you desire to connect with others. The better you connect with yourself the better you are able to understand creating a connection with followers. Get each day started optimally by spending a few moments reading books and paying attention to your feelings during the day in and day out at your home and work. At work, someone corrected you in a business meeting, as they did not find it correct and you felt embarrassed or offended, instead, feel happy and thank them with a smile and appreciate them for correcting your mistake. If you do this, you will be able to connect deeply not only with those who corrected you but also with all stakeholders in the meeting. This kind of attitude will give you more energy and enthusiasm, when you choose what is right for you, you don’t have to push yourself too much to be connected with yourself. Connect yourself by noticing what your energy is telling you. Write down your dream and go through it daily, have you taken a small step to achieve it. One small step at a time will bring you big results. You will become more focused on what you and your team want to achieve.

Communicate with Openness and Sincerity: “Nothing is more effective than sincere, accurate praise, and nothing is lamer than a cookie-cutter compliment.” Open and honest communication leads more quickly to a mutual connection and respect for different views, interests, and needs. If you are clear and perceived as open and honest in the way you communicate, there is a good chance that the team or person with whom you are communicating will feel like reciprocating, leading to an open and honest, and sincere connection with you. Give sincere appreciation when your team or a member has performed a particular task assigned by you flawlessly within the deadlines. Moreover, this appreciation will lead them to work more efficiently and diligently. ?Most leaders naturally fall into either the climber or connector camp. They are either highly positional or highly relational. Which type of leader are you?

Know Your Audience: Learn people’s names, find out about their histories, and ask about their dreams. Speak to what they care about. Mentor them on how to achieve their goals, and find out what are the challenges they are facing to reach their dreams. While walking through the crowd, walk slowly, and interact with people as much as you can. Learn people's names, if you are facing difficulty pronouncing their names ask them how to pronounce them correctly, people don’t mind helping you with their correct names. This way you can interact with them on a personal level and they will be more comfortable working with you. Share your vision, and how positively it will impact their lives, and communicate your goals and the deadlines you have assigned for yourself for their accomplishment. This way you will be able to make a strong connection, and they will trust you more than anyone else. Once you gain their trust it is easy to lead them. Don’t just focus on climbing the leadership ladder, focus on connecting well with people.

?Live Your Message: Practice what you preach. Remember, you can only preach what you practice yourself, don’t expect of others what you don’t demonstrate yourself, and always set a good example first before suggesting it to others.

?Go to Where They Are: I don’t like any kind of barrier to communication. I adopt other’s ways because that is an imperative step to remove this barrier. I don’t expect them to adapt to my ways. To make a connection with people you have to go to where they are. Create a flexible way for people to reach you easily to put their views with you, can share their dreams and goals with you. Help them to create a road map to achieve their dreams and goals. Have a connection with everyone in your team and maintain a good relationship with them. Sometimes it is just only working but also you have to give ask about their family, take them for dinner, ask them how they spent their weekend, all these things will help to build a strong relationship with the team and followers. The team also feels that they are connected with their leaders.

?Focus on Them, Not Yourself: The number one problem of inexperienced speakers and ineffective leaders is that they focus on themselves. Connecting is all about others the more you focus on others the more you will connect with them, and the more you influence others the better leader you will become. Many inexperienced speakers and ineffective leaders focus on themselves, they lose the connection with people, and when they lose connection with people leading become more difficult for them. Taking actions to teach and guide another toward learning resources, in order to broaden his or her skill set and understanding is necessary for advancement to a greater level of proficiency and responsibility. The leader’s ability requires a continuous series of top talents under development for positions along the management hierarchy and in other key productive roles. The less effective leaders in organizations are typically less well-developed in their management philosophy and are less organized more generally, leaving them in a mode of operating that is focused on meeting immediate daily needs. Under such management, staff attrition, especially of talented employees, is predictably high. They do not embrace their opportunity to achieve more by helping others advance toward their personal goals and, by doing so, better serve the long-term growth and other interests of the business. The most effective leaders normally understand the need for ongoing employee development and prioritize it.

Believe in Them: It’s one thing to communicate to people because you believe you have something valuable to say. It’s way another to communicate with people because you believe they have value. Believing in those you lead is the hallmark of a true leader. Inspiring, coaching, guiding, correcting, and applauding individuals to achieve their full potential is the responsibility of all leaders. More importantly, it is the most fulfilling aspect of being a leader. Hitting a goal is a momentary “woohoo.” Helping and seeing an individual stretch, grow, and display that inner glow of personal pride in their work is the true reward of leadership that feeds your passion. Keep believing in people. You will have your share of failures along the way, but the heart of a no-compromise leader always has faith in the people he/she leads.

?Offer Direction and Hope: French General Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Leaders are the dealer in hope”. These words are very true when you give hope to others it will also develop your confidence level. This wonderful story will help you to understand clearly. In a school, on Mother’s Day, a competition was going to conduct, and the assignment was given to all the students, “What did you learn from your mother”. The class teacher arranged a rehearsal in the class. The first turn was the girl’s name called Sneha, she went on to the stage, but out of fear she couldn’t able to speak a single word. From behind the class, Aayush, started shouting loudly, “Come on Sneha, you can do it, come on Sneha, you can do it,” with this Sneha confidently presented her speech, “Dreams are dreams, there are no small or big dreams, dream your dreams open-mindedly, dream those dreams which are only yours” when she ended this, all her class applauded loudly. The second turn was of Karan, his show was karate, and his show is to break the brick with his hand. Again, from behind Ayush, started shouting, “Come on Karan, you can do it, all the best.” When Karan was performing on stage, he couldn’t able to break the brick at the first attempt, again Aayush, began shouting, “Don’t give up, your hands have the power, you can break it, you are the strongest child of your mother, I know you are the champion.” Karan did it in the second attempt. The principal entered the classroom heard the voice of Aayush, and pointing out to Aayush, said, “Stand up and tell me what did you learn from your mother.” Aayush, without hesitation replied “Believing others, my mom keeps on telling me that when somebody loses their hope, then you become their hope so that, their confidence level grows double.” When he finished entire class including the principal applauded for him.

?Great leaders build the confidence of others and develop their hope like Aayush, who learnt a great thing from his mother. Believe and offering hope to others, this schoolboy built the bridge of hope for his classmates, he was building great leadership skills.

This learning is taken from the book "The Ultimate Leadership in You" by Sreekanth Ganeshi. This book is available in Amazon https://amzn.eu/d/bKrWjqG