How to develop leadership skills - instructions for online store owners

Take the initiative

Alexandra Yang, financial analyst at Investopedia ULC, recommends starting a new habit - trying to take the initiative at least several times a day. She explains the recommendation this way: most managers give employees a certain minimum of tasks. When a person takes on responsibilities beyond this minimum, he stands out from the competition. The boss immediately sees the desire to achieve something more.

It’s not a fact that being proactive will help you right away. This is more of a tool for deferred reputation building - gradually people will get used to the fact that you are proactive and will begin to trust you with more responsibility. And where there is more trust, there are more prospects.

Another benefit of taking initiative is the growth of your skills, both technical and soft. You will be engaged in tasks in which you are not an expert, that is, you will be out of your comfort zone. This automatically means active learning - a great way to improve your skills and score points as a future company leader.

How to raise a child to help him in life

It is important for parents to worry about how to develop leadership qualities in their child as early as possible. Moms and dads are advised to observe how their child behaves with his peers to understand whether he has leadership qualities.

It is believed that those who show discipline and perseverance from an early age are able to think outside the box and make fateful decisions in the future. Seeing the beginnings of these qualities in the baby, they need to be developed.

Convince your child to realize “I can do it.” There is no need to focus on failures - do not criticize him or scold him for mistakes. Learn from every trouble to learn a useful lesson for the future. The development of leadership qualities will be facilitated by the formation of a competitive spirit.

The child does not need to be overprotected. Accustom him to independence by giving him tasks around the house from the first years of his life. Over time, there should be more of them, and their complexity should increase.

Financial literacy is an important quality of a future leader. Therefore, teach your child to handle money wisely. Once he realizes their value, start playing economic games. It’s normal if at the age of 6 your child already has pocket money. Tell us how you can save so that he can save up to realize some cherished desire.

All of the above are ways to cultivate leadership qualities in a child.

Strive for productivity and results-driven work

Develop leadership skills through the habit of working for results. To develop such a habit, Maxim Dorofeev in his book “Jedi Techniques” suggests perceiving any task from the point of view of two approaches - “did” and “did.”

For example, your wife instructed you to buy something at the store and bring it home in the evening.

You go to the store in the evening. Choose a retail outlet in front of the house. When you ask for the desired product, it turns out that it is out of stock. You go to several more stores, but it’s too late - they are either already closed, or they have also run out of goods. You go home without the groceries you need. This is the "did" approach.
When your wife asks you to buy groceries, you ask why she needs them. Having found out that she plans to make dinner out of them, you are interested in what alternative will suit her if the necessary products are not on sale. Then go to the store near work so you can buy the groceries you need before the last minute. As a result, you arrive home with delicious products and get a satisfied wife. This is the "did it" approach.

To be productive and work for results, you need to be proactive. Try to train yourself to think ahead - always ask yourself, “what if?” Gradually, you will learn to anticipate problems and be able to become as effective as possible in solving any problem.

Recommendations

Be sure to read the book “How to Become Leaders,” which Warren Bennis wrote with Robert Thomas. They studied leaders from different generations, for example, those who grew up witnessing war firsthand and those who fought opponents in computer games. So, together they found out what exactly influences the formation of leadership qualities. A very interesting publication that will be useful for both managers, executives, and all those who just want to get a championship.
To cope with enormous responsibility and stress, you must be in excellent health. So take care of yourself, get rid of bad habits, sleep the number of hours necessary for your body, drink purified water, review your diet and exercise. You are a role model, so teach others to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Another interesting book worthy of attention is “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,” written by John Maxwell. Using simple examples, life stories of other people, with successful and not so successful outcomes, he talks in detail about each law, which will help you understand the very philosophy of primacy and take the first steps towards it.
Write a list of reasons why you have not yet won the championship. Think about what was stopping you? And is it possible to transform them into an advantage, your personal feature? Be honest with yourself; at the very least, you can burn this leaf.
And make another list of 15 sentences, starting with “I am responsible for...”. Write everything that comes to mind. This exercise will show you how you sometimes underestimate yourself, considering yourself unable to be responsible for various processes.

Delegate

The need to learn how to competently delegate tasks is discussed in many self-development books and lectures by leaders. One source is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The politician argued that the best leader would be the one “who has enough common sense to choose good people and restraint not to interfere with them.”

The point of delegation is not simply to transfer tasks. An effective leader analyzes the situation before delegating - it is important for him to make sure that the subordinate has the necessary skills and capabilities to solve the task. Therefore, train the skill of delegation - look for suitable people and create situations in which they can prove themselves.

Discipline yourself

A leader is someone who must be able to organize people. But what can we talk about a group if a person cannot organize himself? Thus, self-discipline is the foundation of leadership. Those who can cope with themselves can also cope with others.

It’s worth starting with a banal drawing up of a daily routine. It's not enough to have it in your head. You need to transfer it to paper and place it in a visible place. When you learn to follow it unquestioningly, without being distracted, without moving tasks, without being lazy or shirking, you can say that you have taken the path of leadership.

Avoid micromanaging

This is a continuation of the point about delegation. Try to develop the so-called quality of “free will” in relation to employees. Avoid excessive control over people's actions.

The logic here is this: if you entrust a task to a person, it means you trust him. By microcontrolling, you seem to show the opposite, which means you irritate and reduce the motivation of the staff.

It’s better to do the opposite - set a task, but do not prescribe a complete algorithm for its implementation, if possible. Strive to demonstrate trust in your subordinates and help them be creative in solving problems. Consult with them, but do not become immersed in the work you have been assigned.

Your task is to create conditions and check the completion of the task in a timely manner. But let the employees figure out how this problem will be solved.

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Admit your mistakes

Nobody likes to lose. But the difference between an ordinary person and a leader is that the latter knows how to accept defeats with dignity and admit his mistakes.

Why is this so important? Every day a leader has to make responsible decisions on which the fate of the entire team depends. If he made the wrong choice, it is stupid and pointless to shift the blame onto his subordinates and take out his anger on them. By admitting your shortcomings, you will not lose your authority, but will only strengthen it.

Be Passionate

Well-known coach and consultant Tony Robinson, in his guidance to leaders, recommends doing only what causes an upsurge of feelings and passion. The coach believes that passion is a natural amplifier - if we “burn” with what we do, then the result will be better, there will be more energy for work.

Tony Robinson says that a passionate person will seek innovation in completing tasks, can infect other people with his ideas and motivate them to do better - these are the key competencies of a leader. In addition, a passionate leader is a living example for employees - looking at a leader who is completely dedicated to his work, subordinates will subconsciously do the same.

Focus on your strengths

Another tip from Tony Robbins. In many self-development books, coaches suggest analyzing your competencies and qualities, and then focusing on correcting mistakes and developing weaknesses. This, Robinson is sure, is a mistake - it will create an average person without any special advantages.

It is much more effective, the coach says, to develop strong qualities. Since these qualities were perfectly trained without much effort on your part, literally subconsciously, it means that you can improve them many times over. Especially if you focus on training them.

The weaknesses will remain at the same level as they were - no big deal. To level them out, you can delegate tasks and hire assistants who are strong in them. This is the principle of entrepreneurship, and therefore leadership, to create opportunities and solve problems through a diverse, successful team.

Choice of profession

In dreams of leadership, many miss the moment of career guidance. But who you work for can play against you in your desire. Librarian, accountant (even the chief), archivist, forester, clerk, repairman, hairdresser... Without a doubt, these are professions worthy of respect. And yes, you can always grow your career and become a director of a library or archive. But, as psychologists say, all these specialties are too calm, with a minimal level of stress. Therefore, they are not the most suitable field for cultivating leadership qualities.

Here is a list of professions ideal for self-development and leader education:

advocate;
judge;
manager;
director;
teacher;
administrator;
creative director;
clergyman;
insurance agent;
psychologist;
military;
trainer.

All these professions provide a fairly high level of stress, which in moderate doses spurs and gives impetus to self-development. They imply career growth and, accordingly, are fertile ground for leadership.

Help others grow

A leader's effectiveness is determined by the number of people who succeed with their help. Coach Sidney Finkelstein, in her book Superbosses, recommends that managers look for hidden talents in their subordinates and try to develop them.

There are several advantages to this approach. On the one hand, by developing the talents of your team, you make the overall product more successful - the business runs faster and more efficiently. This is a short term positive effect.

But if there are long-term consequences. By helping people develop, you build your reputation as a caring and helpful leader. Gradually you will have many followers, people who are grateful to you for your help. Subordinates who sincerely respect you.

This means that you can manage almost any project - because you will have a team of loyal professionals whose strengths and weaknesses you know thoroughly. And this is already more of an advantage over other managers and businessmen.

How to increase self-esteem

To believe in yourself, you must have high enough self-esteem. This will allow you to become more self-confident throughout life, quickly recover from failures, and endure life’s difficulties.

To increase self-esteem, it is recommended to correctly use self-hypnosis formulas and develop in those directions where a person has already achieved certain results.

Learn to accept compliments without forgetting that you deserve them. Be tolerant of yourself, do not criticize for every mistake.

Be sincerely convinced of your own worth

Be a leader outside of work

You can develop leadership skills without a leadership position. For example, Tiffany Pham, founder and CEO of MOGUL, recommends getting hands-on experience building a team through volunteer projects. You can find a nonprofit company or society, join it, and put your organizing skills to work.

Working in volunteer teams not only helps you develop. This is also a great line on your resume - with a successful non-profit project you will show that you know how to manage people not only with money, but also with an ideological approach. Prove that you know how to light up and guide different people. Such abilities are needed in any business.

See also: Beginning leader. How to avoid making mistakes

Qualities

Sometimes it happens that a teacher chooses a diligent excellent student for the position of class leader. Yes, she can be responsible and diligent, but at the same time have absolutely no influence on her classmates. As a result, she fails to cope with the responsibilities assigned to her.

The same thing happens in companies. The post of chief is occupied by a diligent and efficient person with the appropriate education. But he cannot establish relationships with his subordinates: his character is soft, his voice is quiet, his eyes shift, he does not express himself in any way, he just follows everyone around and begs them to submit reports on time. The result is that his department has the lowest productivity scores.

These examples show that responsibility, diligence, diligence and diligence are not enough to become a leader.

Therefore, the first step on this path is to find out what abilities a manager needs to become a leader. Make a list of qualities that you need to work on developing. The most basic:

perseverance, iron willpower and strength of character;
dedication to the chosen path;
charisma;
positive attitude;
the ability to support others in difficult situations;
excellent communication skills, the ability to establish contact with almost any person;
high intellectual abilities, broad outlook;
well-delivered speech, allowing you to persuade and win arguments;
activity, initiative, constant generation of ideas;
responsibility and discipline.

This is just a basic set of leadership qualities that need to be developed first. So that you don’t relax, it’s worth mentioning right away that once you set out on this path, you’ll have to work on self-development all your life. A real leader, a leader, a leader, after mastering the above skills, will discover that in addition it would not hurt to learn to calculate risks in advance, critically evaluate every situation, admit one’s mistakes, be generous, trust people, and much, much more. So there is no time to stop.

Practice new leadership paradigms

Sheni Naseem, chief executive officer of the US Center for Leadership Excellence, outlined several principles and soft skills that a modern leader needs.

New leaders don't try to be busy all the time. Instead of filling every minute of their lives with activity, they create ideas and “fill empty spaces with information.” Simply put, they create opportunities for other people to work, organize them and help them achieve success. Constant employment does not equal many realized useful ideas and opportunities.
Modern leaders don't do things for people, they do things with people. They build a model of interaction with the team in such a way that subordinates do not need to seek respect from the leader. Instead, employees should spend energy and time on growing the company.
They create a system in which the company is willing to constantly change. Leaders make mechanisms that can be quickly rebuilt to create new products.
Leaders are interested in the opinions of not only like-minded people. They gather around them people with different, even opposing points of view. They listen to them, analyze arguments and know how to accept criticism.
Modern leaders value humility. They constantly ask themselves - what good can I do with my strength? What harm can I do? How can I avoid harm and do good?
Finally, leaders focus on long-term goals, long-term change. They understand that short-term success can harm the company. Therefore, they choose constant development rather than quick profits.

Advice from psychologists

To become a good leader, follow the recommendations of psychologists who specialize in this particular issue:

Set specific goals for yourself and break them down into small tasks. Methodically achieve what you want.
Be proactive, that is, subordinate every reaction to what is happening to your will. Work on your self-control. No one and nothing should piss you off.
Don't be afraid to take responsibility and make big decisions.
Take criticism appropriately.
Don't be afraid of anything new. Take risks. Be flexible, learn to adapt to situations.
Think and care about others. Volunteer. Do charity work. Become a philanthropist.
Develop your IQ. Expand your horizons. Improve yourself in the profession where you want to take a leadership position. Practice rhetoric.
Cultivate self-discipline. Learn to first organize your life, work routine, lifestyle, before commanding others.
A pessimist will never become a true leader. Believe in the best, always be in a good mood, radiate positivity.
Develop physically, take care of your appearance in order to look presentable and command respect just by your appearance.