15 Practices of Outstanding Leaders at the Office and Outside
Being a leader is more than being someone’s boss. Managing a business and helping it thrive begins and ends with certain practices. Ready to lead your company to success? Here are 15 practices to help you do just that:
1. Schedule time for social media. While it’s important to have a presence on social media, it’s also crucial to take time off from status updates and liking other people’s posts. Too much time on social media translates into not enough time paying attention to other business matters. So allot yourself a finite amount of time to check in on your social media accounts in the evenings, and don’t deviate from your schedule.
2. Maintain friendships. Friendships are important in every aspect of life, but in business, they can mean new opportunities and connections that can change the trajectory of your business. Make friends across industries, and maintain those connections – you never know when they will be useful.
3. Be on time. Being punctual not only demonstrates that you respect the person you are meeting or the project you are working on, it sets the tone for your working relationship with the other person and the standard of expectation for their treatment of you, and vice versa.
4. Have a plan – a flexible plan. It’s important to have a plan, both short-term and long-term, based on the facts and goals of the day – but it’s also important to be able to adjust that plan as needed as circumstances change.
5. Offer solutions when identifying problems. Paying attention and recognizing issues as they arise is an important part of managing a business, but so too is offering solutions to those problems and helping others to implement those solutions as needed.
6. Never be too busy. If someone needs your attention, take the time. Leaders are never too busy to address issues or make decisions.
7. Be open-minded to new ideas and concepts. Having a student’s mindset is an important part of successful leadership. There are always new opportunities and ways of doing things, and any one of those opportunities or methods could help to improve your business.
8. Actively seek out new ideas. You won’t recognize new ideas if you aren’t seeking them out. Keep reading, keep your ears open, and keep learning.
9. Take responsibility for the consequences of your choices. Not every choice you make is going to result in a win, but if things go south based on your decisions, take responsibility for that – then make changes as needed.
10. Be slow in creating an opinion. Don’t leap to judgment. Give things time to shake out before you create an opinion or move forward in response to a change.
11. Recognize the value in luck. Everyone will weather problems and experience some successes. Though the number of each may be due in large part to business acumen and making shrewd choices, a little bit of luck usually plays a part as well.
12. Give people your full attention. In the age of smartphones and constant push notifications and updates, it doesn’t go unnoticed when someone gives you their full attention. Real leaders are fully present in every situation.
13. Exercise time management. Create a schedule and stick to it. This will help you to accomplish everything you need to do in a given day.
14. Offer assistance rather than criticism. If someone you work with is faltering, offer help rather than simply criticizing their performance or choices.
15. Don’t process business rejection on a personal level. It’s not personal, so don’t make the mistake of allowing emotion to get in the way of learning from a business rejection.