Are you looking to elevate your leadership skills? The top tips smart leaders are using include: building self-awareness, building great teams, and building self-care skills.
Let’s dive in to get the ball rolling.
Build Your Self-Awareness
Business leaders know that great leadership requires self-awareness. Self-awareness is not something that you’ll develop in an instant. That’s both good and bad news. The good news is that you can start today, build your skills, and grow your mindfulness. The bad news is that you will realize that it’s much like running a marathon.
Self-awareness requires ongoing commitment, dedication, practice, patience, and perseverance. Fortunately, each of these skills can be learned. Most business leaders realize that these are the kinds of skills that they didn’t learn in business school. You most likely did not receive training in mindfulness, emotional intelligence, interpersonal communication, and body awareness.
Don’t give yourself a hard time. Your senior executives didn’t get training in these vital skills either. That’s why many leaders opt for getting coaching for themselves as well as for the entire executive team. It’s easier to build new skills and implement new practices when you’re not doing it alone. In the last year, we’ve learned that we can do more and do it better by working together.
Build Your Best Team
In working with employees over the last year, many leaders have realized that employees are seeking new opportunities. It’s been called the great attrition, with an estimated 41% of employees considering leaving their positions. You may have been fortunate and only had a taste of this trend.
Or you may be dealing with a radically reduced core staff, and grappling with how to make wise personnel decisions. As you build your new team, it’s very helpful to simplify your background check process. You can use employee background check services to get accurate checks and make fast, smart hiring decisions.
These times call for being able to make rapid decisions that you can confidently rely on. If you’re facing a big and variable need in hiring the right people, look for a service that does not require a signup fee, contractual time commitment, or exclusivity agreement. This will give you the maximum freedom and allow you to make wise decisions with peace of mind.
Build Your Self Care Skills
While you’re boosting self-awareness and simplifying hiring your team, move forward in strengthening your self-care skills. Self-care is not something that is just reserved for spas, health clubs, and luxury hotels. It has become a core skill for both leaders and employees. It’s a way to make sure that you are managing daily stress, cultivating calm, and prioritizing well-being.
In many ways, how you take care of yourself will influence how people feel when working with you. You may recall from many airplane trips, the advice on airline safety. “Fasten your seat belt first before taking care of your child.” This is not to say or imply that your employees are your children.
But it is good advice to take care of your state of health, both mentally and physically. That way, you can be fully able to be there for your employees, clients, and co-workers when they need you. What kinds of things can you do for self-care?
- Hit the Books
Arm yourself with knowledge about self-care. Learn everything you can about the importance of staying physically active, eating a balanced diet, getting quality sleep, and connecting with loved ones.
- Get Personal Coaching
As a business leader, you have a lot on your plate. You may not have time to take training, find the best research, and make lifestyle changes without the support of a coach. Many coaches can help you develop your self-care skills.
Check out the options available to you through your organization, or online. Many coaches and therapists are offering Zoom meetings that can fit into your busy schedule, making it easier than ever to schedule an appointment with them.
- Make a Date
Just like other important items on your calendar, make a date for developing your self-care skills. Put this priority item on your schedule—and keep your appointment.
- Take Small Steps
Research on habit change confirms that people who are most successful in making positive changes do one thing: they take small steps. Sometimes even the tiniest step will set you in the right direction of self-care.
For example: start your day with something you love. Stretch. Take a walk. Get out in nature. Sit in quiet meditation. Whatever you choose, start the day with something that gives you a sense of calm.
