How to Improve Leadership Skills in the Workplace: 11 Effective Ways

Workplace management is a complicated sphere with several intricate challenges at different levels. Corporate workplaces require skilled employees who are more than mere managers or overseers to ensure that other employees do their best.

Employees’ trust in a company’s leadership and vice versa is important for the smooth functioning of a company. Failing to achieve this mutual trust can reduce employee engagement. A Gallup survey shows that only 20% of employees trust in their company’s leadership. This lack of trust is often seen as a potential reason for sudden employee turnover spikes and potentially a leading indicator of another “Great Resignation” brewing.

In this article, we’ll learn how to improve leadership skills in the workplace and discover what it takes to become a great leader.

What are Leadership Skills?

A leader is someone who not only oversees the work done by others but also steps in and works at the ground level with other team or group members. When managing a group of employees, leaders must be aware of the team's individual strengths and weaknesses and plan how to harness them to collectively meet the team’s work goals.

Understanding and establishing smooth team dynamics is a key role of leaders. This expertise comes from fostering certain leadership skills, such as:

1. Being a great listener
2. Ability to communicate with all members
3. Patience in decision making
4. Taking calculated risks
5. Balancing workload
6. Positive attitude
7. Empathy
8. Being a skilled mentor
9. Open to feedback and change
10. Encouraging creativity and innovation

These key leadership skills help leaders across different levels, from immediate reporting managers to C-suite executives, understand and navigate workplace challenges and ensure smooth employee engagement.

Why are Leadership Skills Important in the Workplace?

A leader is also an employee, just like anyone working in the company. However, leadership skills help such employees guide their team and get the best out of them.

The following cases are some reasons why skilled leaders set their teams apart:

• Transparent Communication with Team: A good leader shows no bias towards any particular member. They practice uniform and transparent communication with everyone, ensuring no one feels left out or anxious. As a result, all members feel they are valued within the team.
• Encouraging Other Employees: Skilled leaders do not dictate what their team must do. Instead, they try to analyze where certain members may be lagging and suggest constructive ways to improve and bridge their skill gaps and work goals.
• Leading by Example: To achieve smooth team dynamics, leaders first follow the proposed team principles and then lead by example. When a fellow team member (leader) can do something better, other employees are motivated to adopt good habits.
• Improved Productivity: By skillfully analyzing the team’s strengths and areas of improvement, leaders can assign the right tasks to the right members, ensuring better results.
• Higher Employee Engagement: Skilled leaders can always keep their team’s spirits high thanks to their communication skills and positive attitude. Even during testing times, they always find ways to actively engage with their team, and no one feels anxious or uncertain about themselves.

What Makes a Good Leader?

A good leader has all the skills to lead their team towards the company’s progress. At the same time, a leader without the right attitude and skills can lower the team members' overall engagement levels and productivity.

A good leader must not merely be a person of words. Rather, a good leader must lead by example. Leaders must be efficient in role-playing and displaying desirable traits to all the team members.

Those with good leadership must follow a leadership style that best suits all the team members.

Above all, leaders should not assume or show that they possess powers over their team members. This skill is highly essential for leaders to blend well with the team and ensure maximum engagement. Similarly, employees in a team feel most comfortable engaging, communicating, and working with leaders who treat them fairly without any bias.

Good leaders take time to evolve, and experience makes them great leaders who become role models for others.

Types of Leadership Styles and Their Impact

There are several ways in which leaders can govern and influence their team members, which constitute a leader’s style. Each style has its set of pros and cons. A good leader adapts the best leadership style to suit the team members and the challenges they face.

1. Coach: Being motivational and providing constructive feedback.
2. Visionary: Being strictly focused on goals and progress tracking.
3. Democratic: Going by the majority decision and being open to feedback.
4. Autocratic: Focused only on results and meeting targets.
5. Bureaucratic: Diligently follows company policies and hierarchical leadership.
6. Transformational: Flexible to adapt to traditional setups and team requirements.
7. Transactional: Focused on team performance.

Each style can be helpful for teams in different situations. As leaders progress in their careers and climb the corporate ladder, they can change their leadership style to suit their organizational hierarchy.

11 Effective Ways to Improve Leadership Skills in the Workplace

Leaders are like any other human being. They are not born with special skills, but acquire them and constantly learn to become better leaders with hands-on experiences.

So, can anyone become a leader? Yes!

Anyone can become a leader by developing and improving core leadership skills. Handling sensitive human relations in a professional space requires patience and domain excellence. Let's learn how to improve our leadership skills to be great leaders at work.

1. Prioritize Clear and Effective Communication

Leaders are ideally the leading voices of the group of people whom they represent. It means that the leader must be able to communicate the feelings and opinions of all the group members on any platform.

For this reason, leaders must be active listeners who keenly understand what every member is trying to communicate. Leaders must also facilitate clear communication among their team members so that no one feels left out or anxious about their worth.

• Leaders must connect with team members on a regular or daily basis to ensure there are no communication gaps.
• Start noting key points communicated by team members to ensure nothing gets missed.
• Attend training sessions to hone your soft skills for crisply communicating your thoughts within a short time.

2. Develop Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Quotient (EQ) or Emotional Intelligence (EI) refers to how someone can handle their emotions in different challenging situations. The inability to handle emotional outbursts during team disruptions can make it challenging for leaders to solve challenges amicably.

Leaders must remain calm and patient when anxiety and tension prevail among other team members. The leader’s attitude is crucial to changing the team's morale.

• Practice mindfulness and meditation to become aware of your challenges and situations.
• Start journaling to note down your responses to complex situations and estimate the scope for improvement.
• Take care of your physical and mental health so that none of your inherent health conditions prevent you from smoothly leading your team.

3. Master Decision Making and Problem Solving

Good leaders swiftly make the right decisions with the information they have. However, decision-making is a skill that comes with sufficient experience and domain expertise over time.

There can be several approaches to solving a problem within a team. A skilled leader can understand which pathway works best to approach a problem solution so that all members can participate and share their opinions and knowledge. After collecting sufficient data and information, the leader must quickly arrive at a decision without any suspicion or bias.

• Practice problem-solving with mock situations and real-life scenarios.
• Get help from higher leaders and peers on how they handle and arrive at solutions for difficult problems.
• Understand how your team members respond to your decisions. Refine your decision-making skills so that all team members are supportive of your final decisions.

4. Lead by Example

Right from the beginning of this article, we have emphasized how leaders are on par with other employees and team members. They do not have any special authority that gives them powers and superiority over the others.

However, leaders are always seen as ideal personalities who practice what they preach. Whatever changes they wish to see in the team, leaders must be the first to implement the changes and improvements suggested to the whole team.

For instance, if a team must report earlier at work to include specific team engagement activities, the leader must be the first person to arrive and start the initiative. Then, the leader can encourage other members to follow the lead and take up responsibilities healthily.

• Strike the right balance between the ideal leadership path and what suits your individuality.
• Aim for perfection, but do not let perfectionism ruin the team’s dynamics.
• Read stories of influential leaders and how they lived by their principles at work and outside.

5. Engage Actively With Your Team

A huge part of a leader’s tasks involves reading people and predicting their mindset. Getting to know each member helps leaders understand their involvement, or engagement, with their work.

Not all members can have the same thought process and working styles. However, leaders can help the team members unite over common goals and share experiences and specific expertise to ensure they all work towards their team’s targets.

• Engage in formal or informal conversations with team members individually and in groups. Provide the right feedback to help employees find their true purpose at work.
• Find what is lacking to bridge the gap between neutral and actively engaged team members.
• Ensure your team takes sufficient breaks to engage in conversations and activities beyond work.

6. Promote Collaboration and Inclusion Among Team Members

It is normal for teams to comprise members who may be complete opposites in their ideologies and working styles. Additionally, employees come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, making it difficult for a few to get along with others.

It takes a skilled leader to break the ice between employees with preconceived notions about each other. From creating opportunities for members to unite on common grounds, to promoting policies that are inclusive of all the members, leaders can drastically make diverse employees work in unity towards their team’s goals.

• Do not be biased towards a group or community of members who match your ideals and background.
• Encourage team members to discuss their work challenges with each other rather than acting as the single Point of Contact for all team issues.
• Identify skill experts within the team to spearhead different work tasks, promoting equal authority to all members.

7. Seek Skilled Mentors for Assistance

As discussed earlier, leadership is not something that one can learn and master in a short time. When you first become a leader, the weight of the responsibilities and meeting the team’s expectations can be tough to balance.

Start having conversations with other successful leaders within your organization or in your peer circle to understand how they started as leaders. Ask the right questions and analyze how they navigated challenging situations while maintaining a neutral position within the team.

• Choose the right mentors who can guide you through different stages of your leadership journey.
• Have conversations in which you do not judge your team members or treat your mentors as channels for venting your frustrations.
• Follow motivational leaders on social media channels to learn more about their experiences and leadership styles.

8. Reward and Celebrate with Your Employees

Leaders must inculcate a healthy culture where employees learn to recognize and appreciate one another for their contributions and help. As we learned earlier, leaders must lead by example and appreciate employees at the right time for any significant milestones in their work and personal lives.

Employees must also reciprocate the appreciation by honoring their peers and leaders for their unwavering support and timely help. Rewards and recognition are often seen as a way to celebrate together as a team and engage with each other qualitatively.

• Apart from the organization's recognition policies, embrace an informal rewards and appreciation culture within the team.
• Set reminders for important dates for each employee, such as birthdays, anniversaries, work milestones, and many more.
• Dedicate a special day every week or month where each member talks about others who made a difference in completing their work goals faster.

9. Accept Responsibility for the Team’s Failures

A challenging aspect of being a leader involves facing failures due to the team. Any delays in targets or poor performance by the team members directly shift the focus to the leader. It is always the immediate leader who gets questioned when the team does not meet expectations.

A good leader must not shy away from admitting a failure. Analyze and explain the reasons for the failure while also deciding on alternatives to prevent such failures in the future. Similarly, try to understand the members or situations within the team that caused the failure.

• Figure out how the team can step up and work on a war footing during any careless mistakes or negligence of one or more members, without criticizing and blaming one another.
• Work towards a culture where the whole team understands each other's strengths and weaknesses and how they can harness their strengths.

10. Assess Your Leadership Style

A leader’s role is unique, as there are no written rules or pathways to solve challenges relating to team dynamics. This is because each team is unique and has diverse members, and only experience can teach how to lead a team successfully.

Depending on most of their team members and their ability to respond to your expectations and feedback, you can follow any of the leadership styles we discussed earlier in this article.

• Understand the style or tone that best suits you and reaches the most within your team.
• Try to create a unique style that blends authoritative and submissive ideals.
• Adapt to different styles depending on the heat of the situation, while also making your team understand the reason for the change.

11. Seek Regular Feedback to Improve

Leaders must be consistent and unbiased in providing feedback to their team members. At the same time, they must be open to receiving feedback from their superiors and team members to analyze how they are handling their roles.

Adapting and responding to constructive feedback shows that a leader is reliable and trustworthy. Leaders create new opportunities within the team, and working towards improving themselves is the best opportunity to show the team that they can do the same.

• Connect with your managers and HR professionals to understand how your team is performing under your leadership.
• Enroll in professional leadership courses or listen to podcasts to assess how to improve your leadership ideologies.
• Communicate with your team members on how you can be a better peer or anchor for their development.

How R180 Helps Companies Strengthen Leadership Skills

The role of a leader cannot be taught or preached anywhere since the challenges each one faces vary significantly depending on the team. Leaders must also understand the factors that motivate and demotivate each member of the team, which can add to the weight of their role.

Here is where R180 tries to ease a leader’s efforts in understanding the team and establishing smooth team dynamics. Half of the challenges the leader faces are related to making unbiased and incorrect decisions.

Thanks to our data-driven models and AI-powered insights, leaders can rely on our platform to make decisions and avoid unintended mistakes. Similarly, our team-building workshops and team cross-analysis programs help leaders understand their teams' strengths and weaknesses and how to harness them for the best.

We have dedicated leadership development and coaching programs to help new leaders manage their additional roles and responsibilities and succeed in their career goals.

Building Strong Leaders for a Productive Workspace

Stepping into a leadership role for the first time can be a huge leap for anyone. Leaders must face additional critical responsibilities of handling a team while fulfilling their work tasks.

There is always room for improvement. We found some effective ways to improve leadership skills in the workplace by reflecting on and adapting to challenges.

Experience is the best teacher for learning how to become an effective leader. To understand and learn from successful leaders in their workplaces and similar corporate roles, one can listen to the experiences and stories of several others.

If you are looking for personal handholding in your leadership journey or wish to analyze your team more effectively, contact us today.

FAQs

How do I improve my leadership skills?

If you are stepping into a leadership role for the first time or wish to be a better leader for your team, you can take up special online courses on people reading, decision making, and leadership styles. You may also use AI tools and analytics to assess your decision-making skills in real-time scenarios.

What are the 3 C's of leadership?

Leaders must possess these 3 C’s to succeed in their leadership goals:

• Confidence: Ability to understand and navigate situations skillfully, during successes and failures.
• Communication: Ability to effectively project thoughts and ideas to every member of the team.
• Competence: Being a domain expert who is always updated with the latest skills and information relating to their field of work.

What are the 5 P's of effective leadership?

The 5 P’s of leadership are the following crucial attributes that distinguish a good leader:

1. Purpose: Being aware of the end goals that the team must be led towards.
2. Passion: Enthusiasm towards motivating the team while being an example.
3. People: Putting considerable effort into bringing diverse team members together.
4. Performance: Focusing on delivering the best by harnessing collective strengths.
5. Persistence: Ensuring the team stays united during hard times and recovery from failures.

What are the 7 C's of leadership success?

The 7 C’s of leadership help leaders stay consistent in their roles and get better at managing their teams. They are:

1. Clarity: Being clear about the team’s vision, mission, and expectations.
2. Courage: Being ready to take risks and accepting failures.
3. Commitment: Being focused on delivering targets with no compromise in quality.
4. Compassion: Being empathetic about team members and their feelings.
5. Communication: Practice transparent communication with all team members and leaders.
6. Coaching: Ensures knowledge sharing and transfer among team members for smooth team dynamics.
7. Consistent: Being a constant source of motivation and leading by example.