Leadership pitfalls and ways to avoid reducing your leadership effectiveness.
Lead by example with a guiding vision and purpose.
Rarely second-guess your decisions.
Possess the courage to move ahead, even in the most questionable times.
Love what you do and communicate your passion to others.
Define and leverage your strengths so your confidence and authority are clearly recognized.
Decision-making
Be clear on exactly the right decision to make even if you have conflicting options or information.
Assist management with ideas outside the established paradigm.
Help management evaluate risks, weigh alternatives and find timely, practical answers to business problems.
Presentation skills and public speaking
Create and deliver presentations and speeches that communicate with clarity, impact and action.
Learn how to deliver presentations it in a fluent, polished manner that strengthens your message and enhances your credibility.
Become a comfortable and effective public speaker.
Develop executive and management presentation skills.
Learn how to deliver a speech/presentation with appropriate use of gestures, vocal variety and eye contact with the entire audience.
Clear and measurable vision
Help the company (or an individual) establish a clear, concise and measurable vision of where they most want to be.
Establish a game plan that includes step-by-step goals to implement the vision.
Execute the goals and objectives of the plan.
Devise strategies and policies to ensure key objectives are met.
Management Development
Managerial qualities critical for success
Develop, implement and hone critical qualities, including: leadership, self-confidence, motivation, decisiveness, flexibility, sound business judgment and determination.
Network outside your company to maintain contacts with people in your industry. This could involve local professional associations, industry conferences and events where you share ideas, information, support and referrals.
Network within your company by staying in contact with different divisions and departments so you can be a source of information, someone who can add value and coordinate activities.
Communication skills
Communicate clearly and persuasively.
Communicate in difficult situations.
Delegation within the company
Delegate many responsibilities, including various departmental activities.
Implement the organization's policies on a day-to-day basis.
Problem coworkers
Deal effectively with problem coworkers (e.g., gossiping, harassment, backstabbing and power plays).
Become a workplace survivor.
Communicate and listen without judgment.
Establish common ground by treating your coworkers as equals.
Discover ways to understand what they think and feel and why they behave the way they do.
Performance Enhancement
Employee development
Focus on employee motivation, development and current strengths.
Empower your people to gain insight into opportunities for improvement.
Enhance performance through improved decision-making and supportive behaviors.
Anticipate, discuss and work through potential issues and barriers.
Motivate employees to find fulfillment from their work.
Retention
Increase employee retention and hold onto the core talent.
Identify exactly what provides your employees career fulfillment.
Offer skill training or continuous learning as an incentive.
Educate employees on how to advance within the organization.
Pay employees appropriately by offering salary increases based on performance.
Offer incentives, fringe benefits or quality of life programs instead of money whenever possible.
Give constant praise. Employees need to know that their efforts for the company are recognized and appreciated.
Conduct exit interviews to expand your understanding of why employees leave and to identify ways to encourage retention.
Job improvement
Identify the top five barriers keeping you from loving your work and then brainstorm solutions.
List skills and abilities you possess and how you can leverage them on your job.
Build your work around what gets you excited and focus on what is going well.
Seek out new career possibilities within your company.
Ask for your company’s support to meet your personal and professional goals.
Take advantage of mentoring and role models.
Retain Star Employees
Empower your employees by helping them to own their gifts at work.
Identify exactly what tasks or responsibilities are most fulfilling to your top stars.
Encourage your employees to focus more on what’s right with their jobs, rather than what’s wrong.
Improve job performance, productivity and profitability.
Develop strong leadership qualities.
Improve your employees’ morale by showing them how to work smarter instead of harder.
Utilize the highly developed personal skills of your employees.
Offer quality of life programs to help your employees maintain balance between their professional and personal lives.
Improve your employees overall satisfaction with their jobs through active involvement and constant praise.
Open their minds to the possibilities and reality of loving their work.
Establish a mentoring or coaching program.
Career Path
Promotion
Promote experienced, lower-level managers for top executive positions.
Identify additional positions that are essential to help your company meet its objectives.
Leverage feedback given in performance reviews.
Learn to effectively communicate your successes to key decision makers.
Renewed enthusiasm for job
Cultivate deeper and more meaningful friendships with coworkers.
Collaborate with fellow workers who enjoy and excel at their jobs.
Reduce your stress level at work.
Conduct informational interviews with other company employees to create opportunities.
Use the vacation time you have earned.
Focus on what is going well at your job and within the company.
Take daily breaks away from your office to revitalize yourself.
New employees or hires
Provide appropriate training and resources within the first ten days of employment.
Observe and model others who have been successful with their professional interpersonal skills.
Assign mentors to provide stability, support and easy access to company information.
Hold group meetings, panel discussions and one-on-one support systems for anyone who is affected by the hiring of new employees.
Define a career path
Provide clear career paths. Identify opportunities for people to excel.
Explain what's required for your employees to move forward in the organization based on the company or department's plans for the next one, three and five years.
Help employees create short- and long-term career plans.
Prepare today for any transitions, changes or career crises that might occur in the future.
Discuss an employee’s question, concerns or doubts about the future of his or her career.
Make sure the job aligns with overall career strategies.
Life Balance
Balance
Balance professional and personal life.
Allow time for family and friends and things you enjoy outside work.
Create more calmness in your day.
Bring spiritual values into your work life.
Work reasonable hours that honor you and your personal life.
Manage your travel schedule.
Create time/space for things that matter most.
Aside from money, identify what fulfills you at work.
Develop a holistic view of all areas in your life.
Learn Why Joel Garfinkle is a Sought-After Professional, Motivational and Keynote Speaker. Visit: www.JoelinspirationalSpeaker.com
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