Successful leaders are typically defined by their analytical and technical skills as well as the ability to motivate and delegate a team. While this is an accurate basic picture of a leader, there are several more specific skills that need to be fine-tuned in order to fully thrive in a leadership role. Without these skills, you risk losing the impact you have on your employees, therefore affecting collaboration and productivity.
What may you be lacking?
Here are three roadblocks that may be standing in your path to successful leadership, and how to overcome them:
- Lack of Self Awareness
Even though you are proficient in your field, you will run into an issue if you aren’t aware of your limitations. Maybe you are a lawyer, and you are amazing in that role because you are impeccably-detailed, and can cite case law. Or maybe you manage a plant, and excel because you have worked in manufacturing for several years, and know every aspect. How will you know if you keep reaching into the toolbox and pulling out the wrong tool, or overusing the only tool you’ve got? There is no one solution that works in every scenario, so you need to have alternative approaches with proven success. This involves measuring effectiveness with different groups of people, and properly assessing your own capabilities.
Overcome it – Learn your strengths and limitations by completing a 360 Leadership Assessment. Every area of difficulty is potential room for improvement, so it’s beneficial to get as broad of an assessment as possible.
- Lack of Emotional Intelligence
Two-thirds of any job relies on emotional intelligence, especially in a higher level position. As your career progresses, you are not only managing others, but you are managing those who manage others. It requires a more advanced level of emotional understanding. Many people have trouble distinguishing between the emotions they are feeling themselves, never mind discerning what someone else is feeling and how it will affect the situation at hand. Without being able to do this however, you lose the opportunity to take action based on these observations.
Overcome it – Expose yourself to the concept of emotional intelligence. Once you have a handle on how to think critically about emotional intelligence, download our blank template here and begin logging your encounters and observations to perfect your skills.
- Lack of Interest in Growth or Learning
Don’t fall for the trap of staying with the current status quo. Always strive for growth with your skills, education and business. If you’re not staying ahead of your competition, you will end up behind! It’s a mistake to believe that you have already learned everything of value.
Overcome it – Be curious. Stay open to learning, and continuously interact with others that you may learn from. Reading books and attending classes are great ways to broaden your skill set.
Take the time to develop your skills in these three areas, and you will find that you become a more impactful leader. In addition to the ideas for overcoming the roadblocks above, coaching classes can provide a human element in jogging your leadership success.