The type of leadership style you have depends on your character to a certain degree. That’s why it’s important to develop personal values and beliefs that are going to be beneficial to your business.
Your personality should be a part of your leadership style, however there are certain underlying principles that can help each individual become an excellent leader.
1. Good communication
In any successful business communication is crucial. When there is a problem, an effective leader will be able to communicate to everyone involved in a way that allows that problem to be resolved as soon as possible. On that same note a leader must communicate in a way that helps the team understand how to resolve the problem without damaging the business or client relations.
2. An ability to provide the team with development opportunities
Leadership is also about creating an environment where individual talent is nurtured through training opportunities. Retaining the best talent should be the priority of every leader and training opportunities help the individual feel appreciated and engaged.
For example Pulse Marketing funds 48 hours of training per year and runs Pulse Ideas School – a weekly session where staff are challenged to crack briefs and present back to the team the following week.
3. Great mentorship
A good leader must be able to give as well as take. Mentoring should be part of leadership as it allows you to form a meaningful professional relationship with the mentee and help them develop professionally. On the other hand a leader also has to have sounding board for themselves, which can come in the form of mentoring from others.
4. A willingness to learn
A leader is no different from his/her team in needing to develop their professional skills. The best leaders are constantly learning about new developments in their industry, attending seminars and listening to inspirational speakers who can help give them a new perspective.
5. An ability to engage and motivate staff
It’s important to understand how to motivate staff in order to help them reach their potential and further the goals of the organisation. While people can be motivated by monetary rewards, this doesn’t lead to organic motivation because once the rewards stop coming, the individual is no longer motivated to perform.
Instead a leader should motive their staff with non-monetary rewards that make the individual want to do the best they can regardless of the circumstances. Pulse implements several initiatives to create organic and genuine engagement for staff.
Some initiatives include:
– Over and Above trophy: each month the team vote who has gone over and above in their eyes the previous month, and the winner is then announced at a team morning tea.
– Cultural Grants: this is a set amount of money that each person can spend on activities outside of work to get their creativity flowing. Some to date have included learning a language, going to the see a play, or getting a ballet subscription.
– Team activities: without fail, we take a Friday afternoon off each month and do a team activity together. This can range from seeing the Archibald’s, lawn bowls, visiting the MCA to fish + chips and outdoor sports at the beach.
While each leader will bring something unique to their organisation, these underlying principles will help provide a good foundation that will help them to gain the respect of their staff and run the business more efficiently.
