Leadership is not an easy job; it takes a lot of sacrifices and hard work to make it succeed. If leadership is not effective there is a big problem. If you happen to be a leader with some struggles in leadership, you don’t have to fret. You just need to learn how to improve leadership effectiveness.
In this article, we will share with you some essential information on how to improve leadership effectiveness.
Let’s start by understanding what leadership effectiveness is…
What is Leadership Effectiveness? – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
Leadership effectiveness is the successful influence of an individual on the people they lead in working together and accomplishing goals.
It is not achieved by the use of coercion or manipulative tactics.
Leadership effectiveness ensures that while goals are being met, the people who work to achieve them get personal fulfillment and accomplishment.
It is most times used as a means of assessing the failure or success of a leader.
Hence, leadership effectiveness cannot be achieved if a leader cannot help develop his followers while achieving goals.
Qualities and Skills Leaders Need To Possess to Achieve Leadership Effectiveness
For a leader to achieve leadership effectiveness, they have to possess certain qualities and skills.
These qualities and skills work hand-in-hand to ensure that leaders can influence their followers and achieve leadership effectiveness.
Let’s take a quick look at these qualities and skills.
Charming Personality
One great quality that helps a leader to be more influential is a charming personality.
A person’s personality is a combination of social, mental, and physical qualities.
When leaders possess a charming personality, their followers will be more willing to follow their lead.
However, when leaders possess a bad personality, people will not feel willing to follow their lead.
Interpersonal Skills – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
Interpersonal skills make it possible for a person to understand the emotions, expectations, and feelings of others.
When leaders possess these skills, it helps them to develop great relationships with their subordinates.
When built, these relationships ensure a mutual understanding between leaders and subordinates, making it easier for a leader to influence their subordinates and work to achieve their goals.
Interpersonal skills are otherwise called human skills.
Administrative Skills
Leaders have to possess administrative skills to ensure leadership effectiveness.
Administrative skills include organizing, planning, and directing.
Communication Skills – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
Every leader has to possess communication skills if they intend to achieve leadership effectiveness.
This is because communication is the tool used to pass and receive information from one person to another.
Hence, if leaders fail at this, it will affect the way their subordinates work and co-ordination.
Therefore, every leader should be a good communicator.
Conceptual Skills
Leaders have to be conceptual.
This is because it enables them to see and analyze situations or problems.
Also, it helps them to handle a complex or difficult situation with ease.
Conceptual leaders are capable of considering a perspective that serves in the long term.
All of these are important if a leader wants to achieve leadership effectiveness.
Decision-Making Skills – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
Leaders need to be capable of making effective decisions to achieve overall effectiveness.
When leaders possess decision-making skills they will be capable of analyzing different options and choosing the best option.
Respect For Others
When leaders have respect for their subordinates, it helps to build trust among the subordinates.
As a result, their subordinates will be loyal to them and work to achieve every set goal without much supervision.
Therefore, leaders have to be respectful.
Integrity Qualities – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
Every leader needs to possess integrity if they want to achieve leadership effectiveness.
Integrity ensures that a person stays ethical and keeps away from any form of corruption.
When leaders possess this quality, they will work to achieve every set goal with discipline.
As a result, their subordinates will be more inspired to do their best.
Delegation Abilities
One person cannot perform every task on their own.
If anybody tries to attempt that, it will wear them out and possibly lead to failure.
Delegation enables leaders to know the weakness and strengths of their subordinates and thereby helps them delegate tasks effectively.
When leaders delegate tasks to their subordinates, they will feel recognized and appreciated.
This will motivate them to do be better.
Innovation Qualities – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
For leadership effectiveness to be achieved, a leader has to be innovative.
Hence, leaders should be capable of coming up with new ideas to handle situations or activities.
This will impress and motivate the subordinates.
Intellectual And Emotional Intelligence
Leaders ought to be intellectually and emotionally intelligent.
This is because it will help them to deal with situations and people better.
When leaders are intelligent, they will be more strategic.
This will consequently help to facilitate leadership effectiveness.
Be Responsible – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
An irresponsible leader will cause problems in an organization instead of solving them.
As a result, such an organization will find it hard to achieve effectiveness.
Hence, every leader that aims at achieving leadership effectiveness needs to be responsible.
Responsibility in a leader will ensure that they do what they ought to do at the right time without external prompting.
Also, it enables them to make decisions without delay or inconvenience to their subordinate and other people.
Appreciation Skills
Any leader that wants to achieve leadership effectiveness has to learn to appreciate their subordinates.
In so doing, the subordinates will feel that their roles and person are valued and appreciated.
Leaders should know to reprimand their followers in private and praise them in public.
Benefits of Leadership Effectiveness – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
We will now share with you, some benefits that come as a result of leadership effectiveness.
We hope they serve as an extra push and motivate you to improve leadership effectiveness.
It Produces Effective Teams – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
One of the benefits of leadership effectiveness is that it produces effective teams.
This is possible because leadership effectiveness aims not only at achieving goals but also at developing the followers.
An effective leader will motivate, encourage and lead his followers well.
It Increases Productivity
Another benefit of leadership effectiveness is that it increases productivity.
Productivity is an outcome of having followers who are determined to succeed and work toward achieving shared goals.
When there is collaboration and co-operation, it motivates people to work harder and better.
It Builds Loyalty and Increases Happiness – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
Another benefit of leadership effectiveness is that it builds loyalty and increases happiness.
This will make the followers trust their leader.
It will also help to build a strong bond between the leaders and followers.
Additionally, it increases happiness for both the leaders and the followers as they can work in harmony to achieve their goals.
It Helps to Train Other Leaders
Leadership effectiveness helps to make and train other leaders.
This is because effective leaders work to develop and train their followers.
They also serve as great mentors to their followers because they will like to see them become better and even exceed them.
It Helps the Organization to be the Best– How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
Amidst all the numerous organizations in different fields of profession and business, things can be very competitive.
This is especially true for those business sectors where customers are few and every organization is struggling to keep and get customers.
As a result, every organization will want to up their game and be on top.
When there is leadership effectiveness in an organization, it will help such an organization to be and remain the best.
Such an organization will not have to struggle as hard as the others who do not have leadership effectiveness.
It Promotes a Good Company Culture
The company’s personality is said to be a company’s culture.
It encompasses the working environment which includes the company’s ethics, values, goals, mission, and expectations.
When there is leadership effectiveness in a company it helps in promoting and maintaining a good culture.
It Increases Organizations’ Revenue – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
Leadership effectiveness helps to increase the revenue of a business.
This is because productivity will increase due to the efficiency of the workers.
When a company has leadership effectiveness it will flourish and this will make both the leaders and workers happy.
Tips on How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
Knowing the qualities and skills that enable a leader to achieve leadership effectiveness, is not all you need.
There are certain things you need to know and do to achieve leadership effectiveness.
The following tips will help your leadership effectiveness will improve.
Figure out Your Strength and Weakness – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
An important thing to do if you desire to improve your leadership effectiveness is to figure out your strength and weakness.
You cannot lead others well if you do not know what you are good at and what you are not so good at.
Growth has to start from you before it goes on to your team or subordinate.
Hence, take out time to figure out what you are good at and think of how you can work to improve it.
For your weaknesses, if they are what you are failing at, work to improve them.
If they are things that draw you back, you should work to minimize their effect.
Once you can improve on yourself, you are on your way to achieving leadership effectiveness.
Figure out the Leadership Competencies and Behaviors needed for Your Organization’s Growth
Another thing you need to do is to figure out the leadership’s competencies and behaviors needed for your organization’s growth.
You need to know the requirement for your organization’s growth to achieve leadership effectiveness.
For instance, if your organization requires its leader to be ethical, then you need to be such a leader.
Also, your behaviors have to be in line with such requirements.
Thus, you need to figure out those competencies that your organization cannot do without and work to develop them.
Encourage and Provide Feedback – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
To ensure that your leadership effectiveness improves, you have to learn to encourage and provide feedback.
You are to influence people to work together in achieving goals while helping them to become better at what they do.
Therefore, you do not need to hold back any advice or constructive feedback you have for them.
Also, you should encourage your subordinates to provide one another and yourself with feedback.
This will make it possible for everyone to get better and work more closely together in achieving common goals.
However, when you allow this, ensure that the feedback being shared in your organization is helpful and constructive.
Appreciate and Acknowledge Others
One way to ensure that leadership effectiveness improves is by being appreciative and acknowledging others’ efforts.
No matter who they are or what their roles are, when they do something good, learn to appreciate and acknowledge them.
You can also do this even when they are not doing well, this will make them want to do better.
Saying “thank you” and “I appreciate your effort” goes a long way in achieving leadership effectiveness.
When you do this to the people you lead, they will feel valued.
This will make them respect you and build loyalty which is needed between a leader and their followers.
When this happens, you will realize that you do not have to do or say much before they go on to carry out instructions effectively.
Get to Know Those You Lead – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
For you to lead effectively, you need to know those that you lead.
This will help you recognize the things that inspire and motivate them, as well as their fears and shortcomings.
Identifying these will enable you to harness and help their strengths and weaknesses respectively.
Additionally, knowing your followers helps to build strong bonds between yourself and them.
Learn to Respect and Treat Everyone Equally
One important thing you need to improve leadership effectiveness is to respect and treat everyone equally.
Additionally, it is paramount to create a work environment where fairness rules.
When fairness and equality are your core values, your subordinates will feel safe and assured and follow your direction without fear or restraint.
It will also facilitate a healthy work environment.
Learn to Make Decisions – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
For you to improve leadership effectiveness, you need to learn how to make decisions that are timely, balanced, and effective.
A great deal of your leadership depends on your decision-making ability.
Hence, you need to be capable of making decisions that will ensure that a business’s visions or missions keep moving forward.
Do not procrastinate on making a decision when your followers are waiting for your decision to take action.
When you do this, it affects the productivity of an organization.
Therefore, you need to be timely with your decisions.
However, when making those timely decisions, you have to be sure that they are balanced and will be effective.
This is what makes great leaders.
Work on Your Communication Skills
As you lead, you have to ensure that your communication skills are impressive if you intend to improve your leadership effectiveness.
This is because communication is an important aspect of leadership.
It makes it possible for a leader to pass across information or instructions.
Communication has to be balanced if you want to improve leadership effectiveness.
Hence, you have to be capable of listening to others as much as you are at speaking to others.
Communication does not stop at speaking and listening, you also have non-verbal communication and written communication.
Therefore, you also have to work on those aspects of communication.
Challenge the People You Lead To Become Better – How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
You have to challenge your subordinates to become better.
Have them perform some tasks by delegating them.
You can also organize programs or training for them to get better.
When you do this, they will not be the only ones to benefit but also the organization.
Consequently, they will become more efficient in doing their jobs.
Create Time for Other Activities
As a result of the work and busy schedules, there might not be enough time to know your subordinate in the work environment.
You can create time for other activities where you will all have enough time to socialize.
These activities can be something fun like sports activities or a get-together.
You can go as far as inviting their family or anyone close to them.
This will also provide an opportunity for you and your team to rest from work.
Just as we earlier discussed, getting to know your team or subordinate is very important for leadership effectiveness.
Conclusion on How to Improve Leadership Effectiveness
To be a leader is not an easy job.
It is not easy for a leader to achieve leadership effectiveness either.
Hence, you need to learn and know some things that will help you improve leadership effectiveness as a leader.
We shared with you the qualities and skills that enable leaders to achieve leadership effectiveness.
These skills include communication skills, administrative skills, interpersonal skills, decision-making skills, and delegation skills.
Leaders have to possess a charming personality and integrity, they have to be intelligent, respectful, responsible, conceptual, and appreciative.
When leaders possess these qualities and skills, they are on the right path to achieving leadership effectiveness.
Leadership effectiveness comes with certain benefits.
These benefits are: it produces effective teams, increases productivity, promotes loyalty, and builds up new leaders.
If you aim to improve leadership effectiveness, the tips we shared in this blog are sure to help you.
