Managers oversee tasks, duties, and deadlines, while leaders must transcend above operations to inspire and motivate human beings who call them boss. Many new leaders go wrong by assuming that their employees want them to roll up their sleeves, solve their problems, and do the dirty work themselves, when what most employees really want is much different.
These leadership basics can help you find your footing as a leader and motivate your team to do great things:
Challenge your employees. Don’t feel pressured to know all the answers but to lead them to their own answers by asking questions. When asked, “What should I do about this?” consider responding with something like, “What are your ideas on this and where is your gut leading you?”
Trust your team members to do hard things. Delegate more than task items; delegate complex projects, difficult assignments, and challenging problems to allow them to step up and demonstrate their own leadership ability.
Celebrate wins. When somebody steps up and takes on a project outside of their comfort zone, acknowledge their boldness and ambition in a team setting. When somebody achieves something new, use it as a case study to demonstrate to other team members what it takes to stand out and get recognized. Allow the achiever to discuss what went well for them and what lessons they learned that might improve the outcome next time.
Be human in public. Employees are most likely to follow a leader who owns up to his or her mistakes, apologizes when wrong, and shares his or her own life with the team from time to time, including challenges, fears, and emotions.
Show them the bigger picture. Millennials have a strong desire to understand how their work impacts not only humanity as a whole, but those at other levels in the organization. Ensure your team understands how their role fits into the organization and how the outcome of the efforts impacts the end user.
While leading people can be challenging at times, providing them with meaning, autonomy, and challenge often produces the best results.
