## **WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?** The focus of leadership is inspiring & directing the people towards a common goal. This helps in team building & increasing efficiency. Everyone has his/her leadership style. For example, some leaders have patience & their style is soft leadership. On the other hand, some leaders are risk-taking & their style is dynamic leadership. It is a natural talent because first, you have to understand your strengths & weaknesses in-depth to understand the capabilities of others. ## **HOW TO INCREASE YOUR LEADERSHIP?** You should have clarity about the following three things if you want to improve your leadership skills: #### **1. Understanding leadership style:** Be your self & don’t copy the leadership style of another person. Neither you will become like him nor you will remain you. Adopt a leadership style according to your personality. There are many types of leadership styles discussed as follows: - ==**Affiliative style:**== You complete all works through teamwork, collaboration & solve conflicts in a collaborative way. This is a democratic style of leadership where the main focus is on developing communication & understanding. - ==**Autocratic style:**== You are a strong leader who believes in completing work quickly. Everyone does their work on an individual level to maintain speed. - ==**Bureaucratic style:**== Leadership style is rules & process-oriented. Work is done according to rules & regulations. Risk is taken less. - ==**Charismatic style:**== You have the talent to inspire others & they follow you on their own will. You should use this power to achieve your goals. - ==**Coaching style:**== You give guidance & mentoring to your team. Roles are properly defined. - ==**Commanding style:**== You like to take complete charge & maintain an urgency. This is a no-nonsense attitude. This style is very effective during the crisis. - ==**Transformational style:**== You motivate your team like a visionary to achieve an aspirational goal. #### **2. Finding your weak spots:** You should overcome your weakness by improving them. You have to do an honest self-examination about the following things: - Are you confident to make your self-decision? - Do you have self-doubt on some things? - Do you understand the need of others? For this, you need to understand your weak spots. #### **3. What is your leadership style:** Choose your leadership style according to your strengths & weakness. Make it a part of your game plan. You will achieve success if you follow these three steps. _If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more & become more, you are a leader._ If your behavior is inspiring others, you are a leader in true sense. ## *TIPS TO BUILD YOUR LEADERSHIP SKILLS** #### **1. Practice discipline:** You should maintain discipline in personal & professional life. Others will respect you & follow you when you maintain discipline in your life. Complete deadlines at the right time. When you are maintaining discipline in personal life to give time to health & family, you are developing qualities to become a leader. #### **2. Be passionate:** Passion is energy, so you should be passionate to achieve anything. Feel this power & focus your passion to achieve something. It provides innovation & motivation to move forward. A leader must be passionate. #### **3. Learn to follow:** A leader should know how to follow because others might know also. Also, a true leader is never afraid to keep ahead of his team. When you follow someone, you learn to read them & their habits. You learn diplomacy & collaboration as well. So, keep an open mind & give merit to others at the right time. When you do this, they will always stand for you at the time of need. #### **4. Inspire others:** You will not be able to inspire others if you keep on complaining about little things. Listen, appreciate & believe in the ideas of your employees. If you do this, their attitude towards you will be changed. #### **5. You have to see a big picture:** As a leader, you have to see a big picture. Build the capability to think about the future. Always think about 2-3 outcomes of any decision. Learn to handle complex problems. If you work on these skills, you will get recognition. #### **6. Empowering your teammates:** Trust your teammates. Delegate work to them. Build their strength & they will feel that company is with them. #### **7. Set concrete goals & execute them:** Mostly successful leaders did not become great leaders overnight. They have covered the entire journey. Goal clarity is very important to move forward. Make the right plan, set milestones, execute & implement them. First cover one goal, then another & so on and this will become your work style. #### **8. Be a listener:** You don’t need to be always in the spotlight. Work on your listening skills also. Take feedback, listen to suggestions, note problems are important skills of nonverbal communication. >_Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people._ **by Steve Jobs** Companies don’t become successful alone, they become successful by the team. Good teams require direction so that groundwork becomes strong to build a successful company. According to data, around 23% of entrepreneurs fail because they are not able to build & manage good teams. ## **WAYS OF TEAM MANAGEMENT** You should do the following things for team management: #### **1. Mapping organisation requirements with job roles:** This is an important tip for hiring. You should ensure that organisational goals are mapped with individual goals. Focus on what they want. In absence of this mapping, you might hire people but you won’t be able to retain them in your organisation. #### **2. Don’t criticize & don’t complain:** This will demotivate the other person if you always criticize them. Try to handle the situation if your teammate does any mistake. Explain his mistake in such a way that he gets some learning. For example, you can say to your employee “ you do such good work, how this mistake is possible with you?” #### **3. Praise your minor achievements:** An appreciation given on a small achievement can be converted into a large victory. Maintain this positivity in your team. Praise your team members from time to time & their motivation towards work will be maintained. #### **4. Be respectful to other people’s ideas & opinions:** Don’t look at everything from your point of view rather try to understand other’s perspectives also. It is not necessary that you have to implement their idea, but at least you should listen to them. #### **5. Accept your mistakes humbly:** Humbleness is the biggest quality of a leader. Everyone commits mistakes, but intelligent people accept their mistakes & never repeat them. #### **6. Set a high bar for people:** If you believe in your team, you will be surprised about their achievements. #### **7. Understand equity theory & practice procedural justice:** - According to equity theory, you should: - Set your team understanding about your expectations - Explain their rewards for meeting those expectations - Give them incentives that provide them value - According to procedural justice, you should: - Be fair in processes - Be transparent for your actions - Provide an opportunity to others for keeping their ideas & opinions - Impartial while decision making #### **8. Focus on communication:** Open communication builds confidence levels in employees.it maintains team balance & improves productivity. #### **9. Focus on team management:** You keep track of team performance but focus on employee engagement also. Employee engagement is an important aspect of team management. Share your personal & emotional feelings with your employees. Share tea breaks with your team. If you engage with your team, your image will not be of a boss who is interested in work only but a person who cares for them as well. The role of leadership & team management is very important in personality development because you have to interact and work with your team. There are two things behind a leader, his smartness & his army of team members. This army converts dreams into reality. Work on your leadership skills.