Skills in Leadership: Transforming Teams and Inspiring Leadership

Leading on its own is not enough. Leaders need to set and inspire their team members for success and bring all their abilities and talents to the surface. Inspiring leadership is a skill that can be learned and practiced. There exist many ways to learn it, but the following three strategies have worked the most for me.

Lead authentically: Drop the masks and titles

To lead authentically, you must ensure to be your true self and always remember that you are an integral part of the team. In other words, you must never wear any masks or boast about your title.

In addition, to lead with empathy and compassion is to help your team when times are rough. Lead with integrity, always mean what you say, and don’t make promises you can’t keep. Care for your team members and their career development, treat them with respect, and share information that matches your true beliefs and values. 

Think of your team as a family composed of sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters. Naturally, you want the best for your family. Your job as a leader is to get them to their desired destination by encouraging, coaching, and educating them along the way.

Lead by example and inspire team members for success

Do the things that you want your team to do. Nothing is beneath you. Have a humble attitude. Roll up your sleeves and work with your team. When they see you working hard and doing your utmost for the good of the company and for their benefit, they will know that you truly care. Furthermore, providing them with the necessary tools to help the team succeed will allow for a safe space to learn and develop. 

Strive to become a great leader, one who gets to know their team and builds relationships every day. By growing that relationship and caring about your group’s future goals and aspirations, your employees will work hard in conjunction. 

Have you ever seen a humble and hardworking leader who goes above and beyond but is not liked by his team? I can notice great leaders with such attributes and know that they have a successful team behind them.

Trust your team members

Confidence in their abilities means you are giving them autonomy to think on their own, make decisions, and bring their great talents out to the surface. A great leader sees the vision before their team does and has a strong belief that they will succeed. In addition, leading with integrity is very important, always do the right thing for them and you’ll inspire them to reach for their goals to create a great career for themselves. Here are two examples:

When I met John, he was all to himself. He didn’t want to interact with team members and he would take on projects on his own. He was good at it. But he was introverted and so, I slowly started developing our relationship and learning new things about him. I saw that he has a lack of self-confidence. Even if teammates or customers complimented John on the great suit he was wearing, he would tell people he bought it for a cheap price instead of saying thank you. He was shy and couldn’t relate to people.

I gave John projects and teamed him up in small groups that included me. I noticed his sense of humour once he began to feel comfortable enough to tell stories. He started smiling more and went on to build friendships with other employees. When I met John, he had been working there for more than two years and he hardly attended any work gatherings. But soon after, he started to show up at parties and interact with people. It was great to see John’s true personality shining through.

On the other hand, Nia, another employee with whom I worked, would always engage in negative self-talk. Whenever a new position opened up at the company, she would say she was not good enough to apply for the job. She did not believe she could earn higher positions. Often hearing such phrases, I was determined to help her overcome her negative self-talk and self-sabotage. I started working with Nia on exercises and praised her daily for her outstanding work. I set her up for some classes and, after a few months, the negative talks stopped.

You never know the impact you could have on others So, keep Inspiring!