You’re the Master of Your Domain, but are you a Good Leader?

Friends, today we are touching on a topic that I believe speaks to all of us. It’s about leadership and what you can do to become a better leader in your workplace.

Being a leader takes a lot energy, skill and hard work but becoming a great leader is something so much deeper.

It’s about being able to connect with those you are responsible for whether its your family or your co-workers and being able to give them what they need.

You probably worked hard and dedicated a lot of your time to your craft to be in the position you are in now. Being a leader means you are guiding someone, your family,  a group, an organization, a business to collectively work towards an end goal.

A leader should have the ability to inspire, motivate, and bring out the best out of those they are responsible for yet many of us fall short in doing so. Being a great leader isn’t a skill you’re born with but something that is learned and practiced over time.

As Simon Sinek says,

“Everyone has the capacity to be a leader, doesn’t mean everyone should be a leader, and everyone doesn’t want to become a leader.”

Understand that great leaders understand that leadership is a skill that takes time get good at and is a skill that needs to be practiced like everything else.

When things go wrong at home or at work, why is it that the employees or the ones who weren’t in charge always the first to blame?

Many leaders assume that they can simply hand off tasks to their employees and that the performance of that task is 100% the employee’s responsibility.

While the work is being handled by the employee, you have to remember that you are responsible for the ones who are responsible for the actual work at hand. This means that a great leader should make sure their employees are provided with the  correct information and the tools to get the job done.

Remember that the people you lead will perform at their best when they feel like they are being taken care of and that the work they do is valued. Your true responsibility as a leader is to take care of those responsible for the job.

As Simon emphasizes in the video, the one trait leaders can focus on the most is empathy. Being able to put yourself in the shoes of others and to be able to understand from someone else’s point of view is the most valuable quality in a leader.

Many of us in leadership roles don’t even realize that a lot of the actions we take are to cover out backs. As a leader our priority should be to protect the ones in our charge not throw them under the bus the first chance something goes wrong.

Let’s say you’re playing a game of competitive pickup basketball and you were brought on team last minute to substitute for one of the guys who would usually play. The game is tied up and it’s coming to an end soon. You get the ball to win the game, but you end up missing a wide open lay up.

How would you feel if the guy who’s in charge of the team came up to you and said,  “How could you miss that shot? Seriously? It was a wide open lay up?”. You probably wouldn’t feel great about it and you probably won’t pick up the phone the next time they need a sub.

Instead if the captain of the pick up team came up to you and said, “Hey man, I appreciate you subbing in for our 5th, thanks for coming out and giving it a good go at it.”. You would feel much more encouraged and maybe even feel motivated to work on your game for the next time.

That is why empathy can be such a powerful trait to practice. Get used to putting yourself in someone’s else place and try to share their emotions and experience. The more you are able to do that, the better you will be able to lead.

To wrap things up, a true leader isn’t about the knowledge they possess or their skills to get the job done, but at its core a great leader is able to bring out the best in those under their leadership.

If you’re struggling to communicate to your team, family, co-workers, start by practicing empathy. Learn to recognize emotions and learn to understand. These are the keys to becoming a great leader.