Nothing can shape up a department like an experienced leader. The right leader will not only inspire confidence in their team, but they will also get more out of those they lead towards success than a mediocre manager. Putting a real leader in charge of each department in your company will bring considerable improvements to how your company operates overall.
While this sounds promising, it leaves many business owners with the nagging question of how to identify individuals who can truly fill such large shoes in their company. Here are a few pointers to help you determine which individuals are high-quality, talented leaders and which ones are not.
Leaders Get Their Hands Dirty with Hard Work
While any manager can delegate tasks to others, a person fit to lead a department in your company should be willing to do as much hard work as they expect others to do. If a leader is not contributing their fair share of hard work to the end goal, then how can they expect others on their team to give their all? Hence, a real leader will set the bar and expect others to make an effort to keep up with the high standards and work ethic they put forth as an example to be followed.
Leaders Provide Genuine Direction
While everyone else is struggling to make sense of the best way to proceed in which to conquer a problem or task, a leader will come prepared to walk his team through the woods of uncertainty with a clear path to obtaining success. If the person in charge of your company’s departments does not have the ability to provide direction to their team members, how can they possibly imagine themselves to be a leader if they themselves are lost and do not understand which way to head? According to Mindtools, the ability to provide direction for others to follow is one of the defining marks of a true leader.
Leaders Know How to Motivate
Understanding what drives each individual member of a team is one of the great challenges of being an effective leader. This means a leader must size up his subordinates, gain a sense of what drives them to perform and then create conditions that will get their individual team members to push to achieve the performance level desired. A leader that has this type of experience will produce far more quality work from their department than those leaders who lack such insights.
Leaders Know When to Seek Outside Help
While some managers imagine everything must be done in-house, a real leader will take the time to determine what their team should be responsible for and what a third-party provider, such as one that offers managed services in Ottawa, could be used for in order to ensure a higher rate of operational efficiency. Remember, a real leader is not afraid to work smarter when it provides a genuine advantage over working harder.
While leaders can possess a wide range of useful qualities, real leaders always seem to stick out from the rest of the pack. They show lots of initiative and have a knack for actually finishing what they start. While high-quality, skilled leaders are a rare find, this does not mean it is impossible for a good leader to develop these types of skills if the potential is there.