10 Lessons by A Leadership Coach

by Team xMonks

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One striking thing about leaders is that they navigate the corporate world and are continuously faced with uncertainty. You learn and move ahead, but in these testing times you hit unexpected obstacles and it becomes tough, then who can help a leader?

A Leadership coach can. They invite introspection and objectivity to the journey. They weave a path to assist you in your leadership journey. Here are some lessons that a leader should always remember.

Table of Contents

Leadership and managing people are different skills

Leadership and management are two distinct terms. In a true sense, Leadership is about motivating the members of a team to believe in your vision and values to achieve the company’s goal together. While Management is about dispensing the work and ensuring that the day-to-day operations run smoothly. A leader must be a great people manager in order to run a functional organisation. He must assign work to his team according to their strengths so as to maintain efficiency and provide growth opportunities.

Making hard choices is a part of leadership

It’s not going to be easy. There will be tough decisions that you will have to make but these decisions that you make in your early stages are going to help you in the longest race of the decision-making process. As a leader, you might have to make choices on how to deal with underperforming employees or the efficiency issues of the people. But you need to evolve under those complexities, whatever decisions you will make now will be a foundation for your long-term decision-making framework.

Always circle back to your values

Values are the core of one’s personality. Situations will always arise that would keep you in doubt. This should not take you offshore. The values that you create at the beginning will always be a road map to guide you in the path ahead. Circle back to those values and question yourself “How can the company’s values and vision guide me?” Always remember that overarching performance philosophy you developed early in your career. That will come in handy the next time you experience a difficult performance issue.

All roads should lead to your vision

A leader’s job is to set a vision, make sure that their team is on the same page, and create an environment for the employees to work. Your vision will directly impact your team as they need to work in unison like the well-oiled wheels of a car. So, your decisions and actions should align with your vision and mission because this will get your team to believe in you more.

Be authentic rather than being perfect

Everyone has witnessed the archetypical, charismatic leader speaking in front of a group, with the viewers hanging on every word. But leaders come with different personalities. Some are strong-headed, some are listeners, but the key is that no two leaders are the same. In fact, leadership is not the same for two people. It is about being authentic and being true to what you want as a leader, not being perfect.

You are only as good as your team

A good leader is defined by the team he has and the efforts he puts into his team. He acknowledges the efforts and the contributions of his team members. When a leader makes such efforts, then the employees feel valued as their planning, their decisions, and their actions are appreciated. This environment does not emerge from thin air. Leaders should begin the work by internal mastery and build an organisation by building the team. Always remember, the strength of the hand depends upon all the fingers, and remind your team that you are because of them.

Building relationships is important

A team is a complex matrix of entities. Thus, building relations becomes an important part of the leadership process. Know your blindspot, be self-aware, and know your impact on others. The key here is to understand that leadership is always about working as a team, and if there is a lack of relation/awareness then this will create a barrier of communication. Employees will never be able to express themselves and this will inhibit their growth.

Embrace Change and keep moving forward

Change is an inevitable part of Leadership that is bound to happen. Even a cell degenerates so that a new cell is formed. Same way difficult circumstances will arise but you need to keep moving forward so that the change brings growth.

Lead from within and be mindful of your energy

Leading from within means taking responsibility for who you are, knowing your values, and aligning them with your team. The greatest leader leads from within, with the people around, teaching something new at every step.

Everything you do is a part of your persona. A leader who is not in control of their own biases is less liked. Avoid the imposter syndrome and be mindful of your energy.

Find time for yourself to invest in your own revolution

Invest in yourself. Catch a breath, pause and monitor your feelings. When you invest time in yourself, you evolve. You learn from your past experiences and mistakes. You determine how high you can fly with the transformation or without, that will determine your growth. The more effort you put into developing self-awareness, wisdom, and knowledge, the more power you will have over your life.

While traveling on a commercial flight, the attendant instructs you to put on your mask before you assist others in unlikely situations. Same way in leadership and corporate walls, you should invest in yourself before others. Here is a lesson to take by heart is to value yourself first over others.

Building relationships leader's job leadership and management leadership coach Lessons by A Leadership Coach You are only as good as your team

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