The Importance of Effective Leadership

Every organization needs effective leaders. Those leaders can be prescribed (like managers) or emergent leaders (like star employees). Either way, effective leaders can make or break your organization’s strategy and can significantly improve employee engagement.

However, many businesses are filled with well-meaning, but underperforming employees in leadership positions. These employees may be the result of common poor leadership decisions, or they may simply follow guidelines that are outdated and ineffective.

To overcome this, your business can take an intentional approach to leadership and should start by considering the needs and desires of employees.

Active Listening

Before you unveil a new leadership program, you must listen to your employees and stakeholders. However, simply sitting in a chair and nodding while employees vent is not enough — you must utilize active listening to ensure your employees feel respected and share their best insights.

Active listening is the process of listening with rather than to a speaker. It requires that you pay clear attention to the speaker by engaging with them and their ideas. In addition, you should ask questions at appropriate times to ensure that the speaker feels heard.

Active listening is especially important as a new kind of community leadership is emerging across the nation. Community leaders are transforming organizations by leveraging a democratic approach to decision making which values social issues to overcome the challenges which have emerged during the pandemic. This kind of leadership helps everyone feel respected and can give you a clear sense of direction.

Think

Sometimes leadership decisions take time. This can be problematic if your organization requires snappy judgment calls, but you can overcome this pressure by planning ahead and preparing responses to meet any issues you face as a leader.

Preparing leadership decisions will look different depending on your business, but you can draw inspiration from other successful leaders like John Wooden — the most successful coach in college basketball history. Wooden stuck to three golden rules which were firm but fair. These rules didn’t cover every possible scenario but, instead, provided a foundation of decision-making that helped him respond appropriately to every challenge.

Help

Your employees will value your help more than you realize. Even small, relevant acts of help will show that you are committed to them and care about their wellbeing. This boosts loyalty in the workplace, and reduces employee turnover which will surely lead to a more efficient workplace.

Helping your employees has two faces: you can focus and you can make life easier for them.

Focusing on work during a busy period is a great way to signal that you understand the pressures employees face and that you also have an aptitude to complete the tasks you are assigning to others. However, if you do focus, make sure your work is relevant and actually helps them — employees will smell a poser from a mile away.

Focusing is important, but your real job as a leader is to make life easier for your employees. You can do this by using the lessons you learned through active listening and community leadership to guide your next move. This can be as simple as creating new initiatives that recognize the value of underrepresented employees, or you can make holistic changes to the way that day-to-day operations are conducted.

There is a key caveat when helping employees: don’t overburden them by accident. Oftentimes, leadership initiatives are great in theory, but will end up putting more work on an already-busy employee’s plate. You can avoid overburdening your employees by reducing their workload if they’re engaged in initiatives, and should intentionally schedule time for leadership programs.

Set Boundaries

Leaders are often the most committed people in the room. They’ve shown that they care about the organization, and are willing to put in the effort and time necessary for success. However, this can lead to serious burnout which derails efficiency and damages the ethos of leadership in your organization.

To overcome this, you must set clear boundaries which respect your time and preserve your energy. Enforcing boundaries can be difficult, but you should always stick to them. You can make this easier by clearly communicating a boundary before it is broken, and should be consistent in the way you impose them — only make exceptions if you’re willing to change the boundary and stick to it in the future.

Conclusion

Effective leadership makes business more efficient by increasing employee motivation and spotting areas of improvement. This improves working conditions for employees and ensures that your business is on the cutting edge of innovation.

Leaders can improve their effectiveness by utilizing active listening to bolster their emotional intelligence and should set clear boundaries which allow them to regain their energy and remain enthusiastic about the work they do. These key strategies are essential when organizations look to exit the pandemic, as more unique challenges will emerge and employees start to seek out better opportunities.