Understanding your current leadership style is essential. What are your
strengths? Which areas need some improvement? One way to start assessing your
skills is to take this leadership style quiz to get a general idea of how you lead. Once you have
completed the quiz, read about the major characteristics of your dominant
style. Are these qualities helping or hindering your leadership? Once you've
determine which areas need some work, you can begin looking for ways to improve
your leadership abilities.
2. Encourage Creativity
Intellectual stimulation is one of the hallmarks of
transformational leadership. Followers need to be encouraged to express
their creativity.
Effective leaders should offer new challenges with ample support to achieve
these goals. One way to foster creativity is to offer challenges to group
members, making sure that the goals are within the grasp of their abilities.
The purpose of this type of exercise is to get people to stretch their limits,
but to not become discouraged by barriers to success.
3. Serve As a Role Model
Idealized influence is another of the four key components of
transformational leadership. Transformational leaders exemplify the behaviors
and characteristics that they encourage in their followers. They walk the walk
and talk the talk. As a result, group members admire these leaders and work to
emulate these behaviors. If you want to become a better leader, work on
modeling the qualities that you would like to see in your team members.
4. Be Passionate
Would you look to someone for guidance and leadership if they did not
truly care about the goals of the group? Of course not! Great leaders are not
just focused on getting group members to finish tasks; they have a genuine
passion and enthusiasm for the projects they work on. Start by thinking of
different ways that you can express your zeal. Let people know that you care
about their progress. When one person shares something with the rest of the
group, be sure to tell them how much you appreciate such contributions.
5. Listen and Communicate Effectively
Another important characteristic of transformational leadership
involves a focus on providing one-on-one communication with group members. Good
leaders should express sincere care and concern for the members of
their group both verbally and nonverbally.
By keeping the lines of communication open, these leaders can ensure that group
members feel able to make contributions and receive recognition for their
achievements.
6. Have a Positive Attitude
Transformational leaders have an upbeat, optimistic attitude that
serves as a source of inspiration for followers. If leaders seem discouraged or
apathetic, members of the group are likely to also become uninspired. Even when
things look bleak and your followers start to feel disheartened, try to stay
positive. This does not mean viewing things through rose-colored glasses. It
simply means maintaining a sense of optimism and hope in the face of
challenges.
7. Encourage People to Make Contributions
Let the members of your team know that you welcome their ideas. Leaders
who encourage involvement from group members are often referred to as democratic or participative leader. While they retain the final say over all
decisions, they encourage team members to take an active role in coming up with
ideas and plans. Research has shown that using a democratic leadership style
leads to greater commitment, more creative problem solving and
improved productivity.
8. Motivate Your Followers
Transformational leaders also provide inspirational
motivation to encourage their followers to get into action. Of course,
being inspirational isn't always easy. Fortunately, you don't need motivational
speeches to rouse your group members. Some ideas for leadership inspiration include being genuinely passionate about ideas or goals,
helping followers feel included in the process and offering recognition, praise
and rewards for people's accomplishments.
9. Offer Rewards and Recognition
A good leader knows that offering effective recognition and
rewards is one of the best ways to help followers feel appreciated and happy.
It may also come as no surprise that happy people tend to perform better at
work.
10. Keep Trying New Things
Who says leadership is a one-way relationship? As you work toward
honing your leadership skills, don't forget to look to your followers for
feedback an inspiration. Pay attention to the things that have been effective
in the past and always be on the lookout for new ways to inspire, motivate and
reward group members.
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