Effective leaders are often the most approachable. This type of leader makes employees feel comfortable to open discussions with them. Approachable leaders are often characters that are able to build strong relationships and this is what makes the employees they are leading motivated to try their best.
Whilst traditionally leaders were seen as strong and unapproachable, this is an outdated perspective of leadership in the modern workplace.
Leading effectively often boils down to how you interact with people on a day to day basis. Recently a number of clients have found that when problems occur they know they are not communicating as well as they could.
Leadership Test
This simple ‘test’ often helps to start thinking what you need to change to make yourself safer to talk to and develop a better way of communicating with your staff.
Rate honestly each of the following according to how often you respond in this way when you help. The lower the score the more safe you are!
Very frequently 4
Frequently 3
Occasionally 2
Almost never 1
Never 0
Characteristic Rating
- Directing and Leading
“I would like you to talk about this today”
- Judging and Evaluating
“You are just too aggressive”
- Blaming
“It’s all your fault”
- Moralising, Preaching and Patronising
“There’s more to life than office politics, you know”
- Labelling and Diagnosing
“I think you need to address your inferiority complex”
- Reassuring and Humouring
“You’ll be alright”
- Not Accepting the Client’s feelings
“You shouldn’t be so negative, just get on with it”
- Advising and Teaching
“Why don’t you have a coffee with her and talk it over”
- Interrogating
“What do you do at lunch time? How much are you drinking? Do you drink
on your own? What are you going to do about it?”
- Over-Interpreting
“Your reluctance to talk to your team is because you made a mistake last year and you are frightened you will make the same mistake again”
- Inappropriately Talking about Yourself
“You think you have problems, let me tell you mine”
- Putting on a professional façade
“I’ve had a lot of training and experience with problems such as yours”
- Faking Attention
“That’s really interesting”
- Placing Time Pressures
“You had better be brief as I have a lot to do today”
The importance of good leadership
Leadership is always going to be an important function in management. Helping to maximise efficiency and achieve organisational targets are the foundation of most leadership goals. Here are just several factors why good leadership is important:
- Motivates and encourages employees to do their best by leading effectively
- Provides guidance to employees that need it and keeps communication channels open so employees feel comfortable discussing their concerns
- Encourages employees to boost their confidence which in-turn motivates employees to improve efficiency of future projects
- Creates a workplace culture that is efficient and stable. When problems or issues do occur, this environment gives the employees the process they need to be able to help resolve it as best as they can
Future Resume helps businesses recruit better
With Future Resume, your organisation is able to completely understand the motivations of potential and existing employees. With this information you can then recruit more effectively and use what you know about your employees to lead them more efficiently.