Whether you’re training up-and-coming leaders in your organization or conducting student leadership training, you’ll need some content to base your training around. Here are a few lessons to base your leadership training around.
Table of Contents
Set the Tone
One of the best lessons you can teach leaders to work through is learning how to set the tone for their team or organization. In order to keep a positive, cohesive work atmosphere, leaders must have a can-do, team-oriented and positive attitude themselves. By setting an example, others will know which characteristics to emulate. Positivity is contagious.
Respect Team Members
Although all leaders should expect team members to respect them, the best leaders know that respect gets respect. Good leaders should follow the Golden Rule: treat others as they wish to be treated. Even though it might seem cliché, this is a major key to developing effective teams. One primary way that leaders can communicate respect is by praising in public and correcting in private. Leaders can also respect their team members by seeking (and acting on) feedback on their leadership style.
Communicate Expectations
Just like communication is invaluable in relationships, great leaders know how to maintain clear communication of needs, expectations and goals of those they lead. Employees or team members should never have to guess at what is expected of them: they should know exactly what they should be doing (and how to do it) in order to be an effective team player.
Hold Everyone Accountable
Good leaders know the secret of maintaining high-quality work: they hold everyone accountable, themselves included. Setting expectations is the first step, following through with those expectations is the second. When leaders communicate clear expectations and follow up with logical consequences (positive or negative), team members can become confident in their roles.
Make Room for Fun
Nobody likes a workplace that’s stuffy and serious all the time. Excellent leaders make space for appropriate fun and memorable activities with their team. Perhaps this might translate to something really special, like a company gala or dinner, or maybe it’s as simple as meeting for drinks after work once in a while. Leaders who provide opportunities for their team members to connect and enjoy one another’s company generally have happier workers when Monday morning rolls around again.
When training new leaders, it’s important to share lessons like these with them. By communicating strategies for effective leadership, you can be sure to develop a whole host of effective leaders in your organization.