SKILL UP EXPERT CARE

LEADERS LEAGUE

WAYS TO BUILD EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS

Adopting positive leadership behavior can motivate your team to be more effective and increase its ability to reach goals. It also helps you to retain top talent within your department, as team members will value the opportunity to work alongside you. Learning how to behave like a leader can take practice and a strong sense of self-awareness as you monitor your own actions. In this article, we discuss why leadership behaviors are so important within an organization and share some simple steps you can take to start to develop your own effective leadership behavior.

What is leadership behavior?

Leadership behavior is the traits and actions that make an individual effective as a leader. This behavior is the process by which a person can guide, direct and influence the work of others to meet specific goals. These actions and strategies can be learned to increase the effectiveness of those around them. Individuals use these behaviors to motivate people into action when they have a vision for an organization, a product, or a group of people.

Related: Leadership Skills: Definitions and Examples

Why are effective leadership behaviors important? Good leadership behaviors are crucial to becoming someone who inspires and leads people to maximize efficiency and to achieve the goals of the organization. Leadership behaviors are essential to:

? Increase the productivity of a team: Consistent leadership can motivate a team to greater performance.

? Retain people: Employees are less likely to leave if they receive great leadership and mentorship in their current roles.

? Nurture future leaders: Leadership behaviors are integral to develop and nurture future leaders within an organization.

? How to demonstrate effective leadership behaviors:

? Here is a list of ways you can behave like a leader:

? Be honest.

? Be confident in your decisions.

? Be approachable.

? Provide objective feedback.

? Lead by example.

? Create a reward program for staff members.

? Change how you approach your work.

? Address potential issues before they become problems.

? Pay attention to the needs of individual employees and try to meet them.

? Encourage creativity by keeping lines of communication open.

Related: 7 Ways to Improve Your Leadership Strengths

1. BE HONEST: Honesty helps to create a work environment that feels fair and open. Employees will be more likely to trust your decisions and trust you with their problems if they feel that you are honest with them. Doing what you have said you will do can show your team that you are trustworthy.

? Be confident in your decisions

? Making decisions swiftly and confidently is one of your primary duties as a leader. Your team should have faith that you are capable of making a decision. When you confidently commit to a decision, your employees will have confidence in your abilities as a leader.

? Be approachable

? Work to keep lines of communication open so that your team feels like they can talk to you. Display active listening skills to encourage communication, such as asking open-ended questions and being attentive while the employee speaks. Keep your employees informed by communicating with them regularly about decisions and what is happening within the team and organization.

? Provide objective feedback

? Your team should know what you expect of them and how they can improve. This should be done positively with a focus on educating employees rather than punishing them. Corrections should be done privately so as not to embarrass team members. Create a positive, trusting relationship by identifying what the employee is doing correctly and suggesting ways they could do better.

? Lead by example

? Hold yourself to the same standards as employees. If your team is required to stay late, stay late with them. If your team must reach a particular goal, it should be something you can also attain. While delegating is an essential skill that leaders must possess, your team will appreciate it when you can work alongside them toward a common objective.

? Related: How to Demonstrate Leadership Skills at Work

? Create a reward program for staff members

? Publicly recognize the achievements and milestones of each team member. When employees feel as though their accomplishments are appreciated, they are more likely to work towards new goals and achievements. Having a reward program in place helps motivate employees towards reaching individual and team objectives. Even a simple thank you to staff members for their efforts is a way to show appreciation and encourage employees to continue to do their best.

? Change how you approach your work

? Becoming an effective leader is a skill that needs to be practiced daily. One way to start the process of becoming a leader and being recognized as someone with strong leadership behavior is to change the way you think. People who wish to become leaders should redefine their job duties. Consider what you could do in addition to your typical tasks to help your team, department or organization. The goal is to be proactive with your work and find a way to contribute meaningfully.

? Broaden your connections by networking with employees outside of your group, peers outside of your organization or people in different industries. Give yourself a bigger perspective to stimulate creative and strategic solutions. This can strengthen your problem-solving skills and the ability to come up with innovative new methods.

? To begin to implement these new behaviors, start with just two actions you can do that will display leadership. For example, you could notice and recognize the achievements of your peers or any staff members that you supervise and provide positive and objective feedback on how to improve. Actively focus on two leadership behaviors until they come naturally to you. Then identify two more leadership behaviors and incorporate them into your daily routine until they become a natural part of your leadership style.

? Address potential issues before they become problems

? By closely monitoring your staff, you will be able to notice areas that have the potential to develop into a problem. If there is a lag in productivity, for example, you will recognize the issue and be able to take corrective action before it becomes a larger problem.

? Pay attention to the needs of individual employees and try to meet them

? In addition to monitoring your team members for potential issues, you can also note what their individual needs are. Some people may work better with minimal supervision, while others may find they work best when presented with a challenging variety of tasks. When you know what each individual needs, you can try to meet those needs and gain the respect of your team. This can improve motivation and job satisfaction.

? Encourage creativity by keeping lines of communication open

? Allow and encourage people to approach you with their ideas. When your team knows they can talk to you about potential changes and ways to improve the work environment, you are more likely to hear creative solutions from them. For example, someone may have a suggestion on how to make a task more efficient.

? In spite of having all your team’s tools and work processes in place, do you still feel your employees are disengaged and uninspired? A clear and confident leader is one major component of an active, motivated workforce.

? When speaking of leadership, it’s useful to note that there are several different types of leadership styles, all with benefits and downsides. One such unique type of leadership style is transformational leadership.

? Transformational leadership is a system where leaders work towards creating change and influencing the behavior of their followers through inspiration rather than with rewards, punishments, or other tangible results.

? Emergence of the “Transformational leadership” concept

? James V. Downtown, a sociologist who studied leadership and group behavior, was the first to introduce the concept and even coin the term “Transformational leadership.”The concept was further developed by presidential biographer and leadership expert James Macgregor Burns.

? Inspired by Burns’ work, American scholar Bernard M. Bass further researched and developed the concept. According to Bass, transformational leaders possess the following traits, also known as “the Four Is”: Idealized influence, Inspirational motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized consideration.

? Idealized influence is when a leader acts as a role model and leads by example.

? Inspirational motivation means the leader sets challenging and achievable goals and inspires the team to move forward towards achieving them with optimism.

? Intellectual stimulation occurs when leaders encourage their followers to be open to new ideas and be more creative.

? Individualized consideration is the leadership practice of forging and nurturing healthy relationships with their followers. This style often means that the leader is more caring and offers support and empathy.

? Who are transformational leaders, and what makes them stand out?

? Unlike transactional leadership, which follows the principle of gaining compliance through rewards and punishments, transformational leaders inspire and influence their team through their actions and motivate them to strive ahead outside of their comfort zone. They work with the team to enhance their morale and help unleash their true potential. These positive changes in turn affect the entire business.

? Transformational leaders are also typically more charismatic and easily gain the trust and loyalty of their team members.

? Now that you understand the essence of transformational leadership, let’s explore the advantages it can offer a business.

1. Establishes strong relationships: Transformational leaders are conscious of the fact that in order to build a strong business, one must start with building sturdy and healthy relationships.?All strong relationships rely on honest and transparent communication. Forging relationships within a team helps minimize internal conflicts and develop unique talents within the team. Ultimately, transformational leaders help eliminate unhealthy relationships and encourage harmony within the team.

2. Serves as an ideal influence

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” – Ken Blanchard?

Transformational leaders model the behavior that they want their teammates to personify. A transformational leader walks the walk and earns the trust and respect of their teammates.

These leaders quickly grasp the needs of the team and help them achieve their objectives with satisfaction, which on a larger scale enhances the growth of the business.

3. Helps bring enthusiasm and motivation into being

Transformational leaders are also good at analyzing and identifying the gaps in a company’s vision and in formulating a new one when needed. Their charisma helps them bring this vision to their teammates and get everyone on board.

We all know enthusiasm is highly contagious. Transformational leaders are usually eager and upbeat, and in turn, exert the same positive influence on the people around them. They motivate the employees by their behavior and use of effective communication. Effective communication and the ability to motivate go hand in hand with each other. Poor communication is a hindrance to employee engagement.

4. Encourages learning and stimulates creativity

In addition to working towards a unified goal and improving self morale and satisfaction in employees, transformational leaders encourage their employees to continue improving by creating opportunities to face new challenges. They help their teammates discover their own capabilities by bringing them out of their comfort zone.

When an employee’s growth becomes stagnant, it directly affects the growth of the business. Good transformational leaders keep their teammates engaged in their work and open to new learning areas to help them grow consistently.

5. Reduces employee turnover

According to this Berlin by Deloitte study, “The retention of high potentials at all levels has strong links to an organization’s ability to meet and/or exceed financial targets.”

Employee retention is crucial for an organization’s success, partially because finding and training new employees costs so much, and partially because high employee turnover can lower team morale and create roadblocks in work processes.

By boosting employee morale and by helping them achieve personal satisfaction, transformational leaders often are able to retain more employees than other common leadership styles. They usually follow an inspirational process for gaining the trust and loyalty of their team members, rather than treating their role like a dictatorship. As a result, employees admire and trust their leader and find fewer reasons to quit.

Tips for becoming a transformational leader:

1. Foster a positive environment and set high ethical standards

2. Model the behavior you expect from your followers and inspire them

3. Provide individual support and attend to the needs of every team member

4. Set challenging goals and focus attention on boosting the motivation of employees

5. Use a persuasive approach rather than a directive approach

6. Promote harmony and build a strong relationship with your team

7. Motivate your employees to look beyond self-interest

8. Share ethical values and pave way for moral development

A transformational leader has the potential to help businesses evolve in the long run by identifying gaps, formulating a new vision and challenging goals, and helping employees embrace change with optimism. When employees become the best versions of themselves by moving out of their comfort zones with improved morale, they in turn directly contribute to the growth of an organization.

Communication: a major requirement

One important trait of a transformational leader is the ability to communicate effectively. Companies with disengaged employees have a turnover rate of 34%, according to a study by Harvard Business Review. For transformational leaders to motivate and inspire employees, they must master the art of communication.?Communicating effectively is of utmost importance because the majority of their strategies can be implemented and achieved only when communicated properly. Building and maintaining healthy relationships, motivating the workforce, improving the morale of employees, and so on are much easier when leaders understand the value of good communication.

Under flexible work conditions or uncertain situations like the current COVID-19 pandemic, which has led us to adapt to remote working culture, the need for an intuitive communication tool is predominant. It’s impossible to communicate and inspire a team without having the means to communicate in place. So, provide your leaders will tools that help them communicate transparently and collaborate effortlessly with their team.

Conclusion

Leaders should learn to recognize the value of team members, learn from them, and encourage other team members to learn from them. Learn things that you didn't know from a person who specializes in a particular area. If an employee has a new idea, encourage it, and see where it goes. Be one of their biggest fans. Help them to step out of their comfort zone and by believing in them; you'll instill confidence. Recognize when one of your employees is taking the type of initiative that you took when you were just starting out, building your skillset, and honing your leadership skills.

Good leadership skills are essential to career development. If you want to improve your leadership skills, think about what actions you can take to be more influential. If you are already a leader, think about how you can influence others.