Will a Mindset Change Make You a Better Leader?

It’s easy to be in charge of people, but being a leader is far more difficult and is the biggest barrier to having your team work in unison with each other. There’s a huge difference between the two, and understanding how to change from simply being a boss to being a leader can be a confusing challenge. Very few people have the opportunity to be leaders when they’re growing up. When you get into the workforce, you’re expected to have this ability yet so few actual do, why?

As a result, many don’t know how to be in leadership positions. The real key to being a good leader is how you think about leading people. There are plenty of different ways to go about that, but there are a couple of changes you can start to make now.

We vs. Me

The biggest change you can make to your mindset is to stop viewing your employees as separate from you. You should be their colleague, not their boss. You all work for the same company, and as such, you all have similar goals. The way you play out those goals may differ, but you are all on the same team. Therefore, their accomplishments are yours, as are their failures. As the leader, they come first, not you. Putting them ahead of you makes them put you first in their minds, giving back what you gave them.

Respect vs. Fear

How many times have you had a boss that just wanted to intimidate people? Unless this is your first job ever, you’ve probably run into that more than once. While using fear can be effective now, it does little to make people want to stay and work. Respect, as opposed to fear, is a long-term motivator, and causes people to want to work for you, instead of just getting through it.

For example, if children are afraid of you, their motto simply becomes “don’t get caught.” On the other hand, if they respect you and value your opinion of them, they will work harder simply because they want to. You have become important to them, and that is a much larger motivator than fear.

Develop vs. Use

Are you simply waiting to see what the next project is that trickles down the pipe, and then assigning it based on what’s been done before? That’s a great strategy for tools, but people aren’t tools. They can literally do anything, and they can learn new skills, and processes if you train them or show them how.

A boss leaves personal development to the employee. They don’t offer opportunities to learn or improve at work, which makes it difficult for people to feel fulfilled or like they’re making any progress. In turn, if they accidentally stumble onto a promotion, they may be less prepared to take on the additional responsibilities.

When a boss, leader or business owner tales personal & professional development for their teams or employees as part of the business growth you can see immediate and life long results.

Today’s job force consists of millennials who are hungry for job development. They want to learn new skills and be prepared. Leaders will treat their employees as people who are always on the verge of a promotion. Offering classes, seminars and working to get people invested in other areas of the company are great ways to expand an employee’s range of skills. It helps make them feel more accomplished and like they’re moving forward at work, even without an actual promotion.

Empathy vs. Indifference

Sure, sometimes you have employees who are flakes. Sometimes they simply don’t want to work and put in the effort. However, more often than not, people actually want to work, but something is stopping them. Whether the reason is personal or professional, the key is to realise that people need to have their needs met in order to do their best. Put yourself in their shoes and try to understand how you can help. Making an effort, however small, can make the difference.

Now vs. Later

Long-term thinking can really set bosses and leaders apart. Leaders look at what kind of benefits could this person bring to the table. A boss might be more concerned with meeting this week’s sales quota or getting the budget balanced immediately. A leader, however, will understand that this week’s quota is low because someone is working to land a major client, or that the budget can’t be balanced this instant because a new system is still working to pay for itself.

Working to become a leader is hard, especially if you haven’t had the chance to work at it before. However, just like understanding that your employees can learn new skills, so can you. Treat yourself like you’d like to treat your employees, and the results will follow, take time to develop your mindset and self-leadership development, if you struggle to lead yourself how are you going to consistently and congruently lead others?

Too soon and too often, is better than too late and not enough, always remember is in the want to that we find the how to in our personal & professional lives.

Conclusions “Guide & Develop”

Always be looking for new ways to connect, inspire, guide or develop your team. Enable them to always push for new ways to do something, enable them to learn from their mistakes and try new things, today more than ever people are looking for challenge, development and happiness at work, be that leader who empowers their team to be, have and do more.

If you or your team are ready for the next steps of your sales & leadership development, ready to grow and develop a mindset to surpass your competition and create your own future, drop me an email or PM.

SOLD: Advanced Sales & Leadership Mindset Accelerator Program focusing on the Mindset & Peak Performance of success.

Change the game in your favour!

Simply inbox me here or email me briefly detailing the hurdles and challenges you are facing. I will then happily arrange a FREE strategy call with you, after which you are free to choose the best course of action.

James Fleming

The Power Within Coaching

[email protected]