One way to gauge your effectiveness as a leader is to examine the relationships you have with the people around you. Take an inventory of any troubled relationships in your business life. Are they suffering from a lack of communication, trust, encouragement, or passion on your part? All you can control is your side of any relationship so analyzing your role is all you can and should do. Create a detailed inventory of your troubled relationships, look for the common patterns among them, and get a general idea of your leadership style.
Great leaders teach and inspire. Do you inspire people? Do you pass on your knowledge to others? These are just a couple examples of leadership skills you should evaluate.
If your leadership is suffering due to unhealthy, unproductive relationships with your clients or employees, you need some face-to-face time with each person, if possible. Once you have an idea of your weaknesses, start setting up some meetings. Ask questions about their experience working for or with you. Let them do most of the talking.
Remember that if you approach this in a humble way, you will get insights that will not only improve your leadership skills, but inspire the person sitting across from you.
If communicating is not your strength, you must focus on improving that skill, and ironically, active listening is the best first step. It’s not possible to have a great relationship with everyone you meet, but it is possible to make the best of every opportunity to form a great working relationship with every employee, client, and vendor you encounter. That is a sign of great leadership.
To measure your success at this point involves reviewing your relationship inventory. Do you see improvements in your relationships? Even if it there is just one improved relationship, that is a great step forward.
Identifying the strengths and weaknesses in your leadership style can be difficult. None of us like to closely examine our flaws, but when we decided that we wanted to become successful business owners, the time for avoiding the reality of our weaknesses ended.
After putting most of our focus on improving relationships and strengthening our communication skills, we must now look at how we are nurturing people around us and whether or not we inspire people.
Now, few people can deliver a passionate address that moves the masses, but anyone can inspire others by setting a good example or by passing on their knowledge and vision in business. Great leadership is not about keeping anyone from discovering their potential. It is always about inspiring growth in the people around you.
While becoming a great leader is the goal, leadership is something you can always improve on. And in time, you should be seeing some of the fruits of your labor.
There are not going to be flashy signs congratulating you on your progress. Sometimes the results will be in your bottom line and sometimes they will come in the form of increased morale.
Is your business better off than it was a few months ago? Do you see improvements in your relationships? Do you see happier employees? Those are the measures of success that will make this journey worthwhile.
After all, the journey was never meant to be solely for your benefit, but for the benefit of everyone around you.
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