Effective leadership ensures your team comes to work ready and willing to do the work with zest. On the other hand, poor leadership can lead to low morale, increased employee turnover, and reduced productivity. Developing leadership skills is crucial for both personal and team success.
If you’re looking to improve your leadership skills, it’s essential to create an action plan.
Watch the video below to learn how to develop leadership skills at work and help both your team and your clients:
How to Develop Leadership Skills in 7 Steps
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you create an effective action plan:
1. Define your values.
There is always some amount of judgment to what you hold dear, worthy, or useful in your life. Therefore, don’t be afraid to assess what are your values. What do you deem deserving of your time? What do you hold in high regard? Is it free time? Is it monetary worth? Is it solving a burning issue for someone else? Your values define your principles and your standards of behavior.
Tying up your business strategy with your values guarantees that you will be motivated to pursue your goals with passion and determination.
2. Find a purpose.
The simplest way to define purpose is as the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
Purpose is very personal. So what makes sense to you as a purpose may not make sense to someone else.
It is much easier to define clear goals when you know what’s your purpose. When there is a deeper purpose for doing the things you are doing, you can work on your objectives with intention and resolve.
3. Identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Before you can develop your leadership skills, you need to understand your current strengths and weaknesses. Two common methods for discovering your strengths and weaknesses are personality tests and seeking feedback from people you can trust. For example, you can ask for feedback from your team or to gain insights into your leadership style.
However, the best way for finding out your special powers and expand on your existing leadership skills is to try out new things. This method is not only good for people without experience in a leadership role but also for established entrepreneurs who struggle with task delegation and need to know how to entrust their weaknesses to a person with the right talent and skills.
4. Set specific goals.
Identifying your strengths and weaknesses helps you set specific goals for yourself. For example, you may want to learn how to say no or manage your time more effectively. Written goals capture your focus, hold your vision and purpose, and help you maximize the time and effort spent on achieving them.
5. Develop a plan.
Determine the steps you need to take to achieve your goals. This could involve enrolling in a leadership course, building deep focus, or practicing your skills in real-life situations to build resilience against objections and rejection. For example, if you are unused to cold-calling clients, experiment with developing this skill by having a cold-calling session with people you can trust.
6. Keep an eye on progress.
Regularly assess your progress towards your goals and adjust your plan accordingly. Without tracking progress, you can’t differentiate fact from fiction and see whether your action steps take you to your goals.
7. Accept failure.
First, admit the failure. This may be the hardest step for many. It is easier to accept failure when you don’t tie it to your self-worth, confidence, or identity. Avoid asking for other people’s approval when you fail. Find a way to channel the negative emotions around the failure and see whether you had any irrational beliefs about the goal you were trying to achieve. Finally, take responsibility for what went wrong.
Lead by example: As a leader, you need to model the behavior you want to see in others. This means demonstrating honesty, integrity, and professionalism in everything you do.
If you are ready to create your action plan and build a self-managing business with effective leadership skills, here is a self-managing business roadmap you can access below:
build a self managing business
