A little boy came to his father one day and asked:
“Dad, tell me, what can I do to make all my classmates like me and follow my lead? I have good ideas, but I can’t convince anyone. I can’t get everyone to take my word for it.”
Being a leader is about leading people along your path so that it becomes theirs too. It’s about setting the current, direction, and being confident in your decisions. Being a leader means believing in yourself, but also believing in the people who follow you. It’s being confident but not cocky.
It’s paying attention to the needs of the people around you. It’s listening, understanding, empathy, and compassion. It’s about creating relationships and, most importantly, about being a leader with a huge amount of faith.
Learn the 5 actions that will make you a better leader!
1. Embedding in time
To be able to make decisions it is very important to understand the time and be able to manage it. Create a plan for the coming week or month. Think carefully about what you will be doing and consider how the people who work with you should act. Remember that time is a relative concept and each person will perceive it differently. For one person an hour is a lot, for another, it is not much. Everyone works at a different pace and interprets it differently.
2. Be a partner, not the boss
Imagine a situation where you walk into work stressed. You are afraid that you will be criticized or judged for bad work at the start, despite trying your best. It’s not a question of you being a bad employee. Your boss is apodictic, oversensitive, and doesn’t respect you as a person. Would you want to work with someone like that? Would you last longer in a job like that despite the good pay? Surely not!
In order to keep the people you work with happy, you must trust them implicitly. Approach them as partners, without any unnecessary distance. Show respect, appreciate their work, and give feedback so they know what they are doing right and wrong. Treat the people around you as you would like to be treated yourself. This attitude will come back to you!
3. Listen!
If you want to be listened to, you have to start there yourself.
This is the most important element that helps to create any kind of relationship. To work with people effectively, efficiently, and pleasantly you need to know what they expect. Try to understand a point of view other than your own by actively listening. Create notes, analyze them, and draw conclusions – you can do all this if you just start listening to the other person.
4. Systematic and hard-working
If you want to succeed, you have to work regularly – at specific times and days. If you get up lacking energy or in a bad mood, you must not give up. Remember why you are working and what you are aiming for – what your goal is. Prioritizing and repeating to yourself the sense of action will keep your work regular, which is linked to diligence. Likewise, for the people, you work with – it is YOU who sets the example and it is YOUR attitude that determines their approach to work. If you are committed and full of confidence, your employees will notice.
5. Take courage and believe in yourself
The one thing that holds us back from success and limits our capabilities is fear. It is an emotion that has a toxic effect on our decisions, causing us to stall and stop acting. To be a good leader you need to be confident and not afraid to work under pressure, sometimes in a risky environment.
*TIP: If you are stressed and afraid to make an important decision, even though you are aware of it – try a simple rule that will quickly motivate you to act. The rule is called 20 seconds and it is based on the fact that for 20 seconds you are to stop restricting yourself. You stop being afraid for this short period of time and make a decision or breakthrough yourself. After a certain period of 20 seconds – if you manage to do what you have always been afraid of, you will be grateful to yourself and the next time the challenge will become easier for you.
A little boy came to his father one day and asked: daddy, tell me, what can I do to make all my friends like me and follow my lead? I have good ideas, but I can’t convince anyone. I can’t make everyone take my word for it.
