Becoming an effective leader
This guide is intended to provide an overview of what makes an effective leader of any organization or company. Furthermore, it is designed to show characteristics and behavioral patterns that a leader should have. This will allow you to evaluate for yourself whether the role of a leader suits you, or which skills you can adopt or break in order to get the best out of your team. It is especially interesting for a leader of a young company, as the right leadership contributes to more motivated and productive employees, financial growth, and stability of a company.
Leadership vs. Management
Leadership is not the equivalent of management. Particularly in startups, where things can easily go wrong, traditional management is often no longer sufficient for the company’s success; leadership is needed. While managers maintain the balance in the company and ensure order and stability, leaders create new approaches and explore options. Managers oversee day-to-day operations and the ongoing work process, while leaders gather and develop ideas and communicate a vision to the outside world. Leaders also initiate change, motivate and inspire employees, and develop long-term perspectives. In other words, the leader has an eye on the future and focuses on change and creation.
Jobs of any Leader
1. Make Decisions
As a leader, you have to make quick and efficient decisions every day, for which you often have little information. You have to stand up for these decisions and represent them to third parties. If the leader does not make decisions, the whole team cannot continue to work.
2. Be the Leader you would have needed earlier
High-performing and motivated people attract high-performing and motivated people. For this reason, it is an important task for managers to give their best. In addition, it is also important to get the best out of employees by creating an environment in which they can do their best work. This includes coaching, mentoring, and communication.
3. Doing things
If you can’t make decisions, you don’t motivate others; and if you don’t deliver results, you may not be cut out to be a leader. Getting things done is one of the most important priorities of a leader, as it can be used to measure how well his leadership is working in the company and team.
Most important Skills of any Leader
In addition to jobs that every leader should be able to accomplish, there are several traits that make an effective leader. Effective in this context is defined as employees feeling comfortable and working productively. This can be achieved through collaboration and effective communication between employees and leaders, and various skills that a leader should have internalized.
1. Create a Culture of Teamwork
- Include employees or members in the decision-making process
- Give direct feedback about the performance and also ask for feedback about your leadership (regular feedback sessions)
- Encourage everyone to take risks, and be supportive even when they fail
- Connect with your team members by focusing on getting to know their personalities, interests, strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, and preferences
- Cocreate your culture and put it into writing
- Clarify how you want to work together
- Build trust through social gatherings and 1:1 sessions
2. Engage in honest and open Communication
- Create an environment where openness and honesty are encouraged
- Ask people to share their views and talk about obstacles in their way
- Use helpful communication tools that help teams understand and communicate about work and workflows. Without consistent communication, employees are more unproductive and unmotivated, resulting in lost time and effort.
Note that there are software and tools that you can use to aid your team’s open communication and interaction. Learn about the tools by reading our other guides:
3. Encourage Personal and Professional Growth
- Invest financially and emotionally in the success and growth of your employees and members
- Employees and members grow by giving them challenging opportunities and guiding them as needed
4. Stop giving Orders
- Let your employees or members do things differently if they believe in their approach and let them learn from their mistakes
- Instead of ordering, start asking the right questions like ‘What do you think of this?’ or ‘Do you think these things will work?’
- People are more likely to accept an order if they have participated in the decision
5. Be open to new Ideas
- Good leaders have the emotional intelligence to understand and accept that change is inevitable
- Encourage your employees and members to bring new ideas and perspectives to the table. By doing so, you empower your team to become more innovative and invested in company growth
- The concept of design thinking is essential for thinking outside the box and giving free rein to your own creativity. The idea is that no idea is reprehensible, as it can lead to the desired goal in further steps.
Read this article to learn more about the importance of Design Thinking.
6. Set clear goals and expectations
- Set SMART short-term and long-term goals. They should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based
- Monitor and measure your goals
- Revise your goals regularly as necessary
- Set not only general goals for the company but also specific goals for the employees, so that they know exactly what they have to do
7. Understand your own motivation
- You need to have an overriding purpose for your business and be able to share it with others because your vision can be a key motivational tool and help your employees feel more involved
- Enthusiasm is contagious. That’s why you have to be motivated yourself in order to motivate your team
Choose the most effective Leadership Style for your Team
- You need to have an overriding purpose for your business and be able to share it with others. Your vision can be a key motivational tool and help your employees feel more involved.
- Enthusiasm is contagious. That’s why you have to be motivated yourself in order to motivate your team
It’s usually clear what kind of employees or members you need – but it’s not always clear what kind of leaders you need. A leadership style refers to the methods leaders use to connect with, motivate, and guide their employees. In this regard, it is much more difficult to lead a start-up company that is new to a market that is notorious for being highly competitive and oversaturated. Your company is young and fresh in a notorious market for its strong competition and oversaturation. But how should you run a startup?
The following 3 out of the 6 leadership styles according to Goleman are the ones that should best be applied in a startup. Try to identify which one will work best for your team!
1. Visionary
What does visionary leadership look like?
- A visionary leader thinks big
- Primarily concerned with the company’s mission, which can be used to unite and inspire employees
- Setting big goals
- Encourage the team to think freely about achieving goals → Design Thinking
When is the visionary leadership style effective?
- When a big change is coming and a clear vision is needed to move the company forward
- Works well for people who want to bring about change or you find yourself in a constantly changing work environment
2. Democratic
What does democratic leadership look like?
- Listen to the employees’ perspectives when making decisions
- Aim for reaching a compromise
- Collecting employee feedback
- The leader still holds the authority to make the final decision
When is the democratic leadership style effective?
- When the skills and experiences of the team members are diverse
3. Pacesetter
What does the pacesetter leadership style look like?
- Most focused on achieving goals
- Setting high standards
- Well for achieving goals fast and allowing the business to grow and develop in the desired direction
When is the pacesetter leadership style effective?
- Effective in teams that are already highly motivated and have clear measures for success and growth
- For a short-term period in temporary projects
