What are you doing to be a better leader in your organization? Are you reaching out to the folks who report to you to understand how effective you are in your role? Are you regularly asking for feedback and inquiring as to how you can support them so that they can support the organization? And here is the key question – do you care? You should!
We can all improve how we work and perform our role in the organization – regardless of what that role is. However, too often leaders within the organization don’t always see the need to improve their skills. It may be for a variety of reasons – because they are in a senior leadership role they may believe they no longer need to improve and gain new skills or because they just don’t have the time.
As a leader in the organization – no matter how good you are – you can probably be better! As times change and the business changes, the way you lead will also have to change. The people we bring in to the organization may require different management strategies to be successful. As competition increases in a global environment, new products and services need to be released faster than before to stay ahead. And our clients want something different from us as their own businesses change with the times. All of this requires you, as the organizational leader, to change how you work and enhance your own skills and knowledge to be successful and provide the organization what it needs to succeed.
Take these simple steps to see how well you are performing the leadership role:
- Reach out to your direct reports and ask how you are doing – what do they need from you to be successful. What is working? What is not?
- Reach out to all employees and ask how you are doing – you might do this in a small group setting (attend department meetings) or via a survey
- Develop an action plan for areas where you need to improve (consider: workshops, executive forums, blogs, leadership groups such as Vistage, conferences, readings, etc.)
- Seek support to follow through on that plan
- Re-survey/re-connect with your direct reports and employees at some point to see how it’s going
Simple – isn’t it? Now…get started!
