I’ll share how I’ve developed some key leadership and management skills and how you can do the same.
The first is to understand the difference between leadership and management. Leadership is where you’re leading by example. I believe the number one cornerstone of leadership is taking 100% ownership and responsibility for oneself. When you are focusing on showing up as your absolute positive best, you become a beacon of light and an example for others. Management is about delegating and following up, giving directions and so on. There are a lot more skills concerning leadership and management which I can talk about for hours. I have a boot camp you can attend to learn all these traits, however, let’s define how you need to show up as a leader and/or manager.
How do we do that? First, you need to learn the different behavioral patterns of people. I use an assessment called the DISC. D is dominant, I is influencing, S is steady, and C is compliant. Each different behavior possesses a different type of communication. I’s are friendly, they’re joyful, and they like to have fun. They’re fast-paced people, so they’re not very good at tasks or taking direction sometimes. It’s best to ask them to repeat what you said or there’s a possibility that they may immediately forget. Ds are fast-paced, task-oriented, boom, boom, boom, is how they move, talk, and listen. You have to get to the point. Don’t sit there and talk about the weather, they don’t care. Ss are slow, steady, and reserved. They’re people persons, they’re not outgoing. You can’t take them too far outside their comfort zone. You slow down when you’re speaking to them. And Cs are all about compliance, task-oriented, they’re not people persons, they are guarded and reserved. Think of a CPA, dot the I’s and cross the T’s. You have to understand these behavioral patterns and how to make the shifts in yourself to communicate to them properly.
This will give you gained awareness of how you and they may show up. You can then begin to migrate your communication style with different people to get the best out of them. What happens then, when you master the different behavioral styles, how to communicate quickly and correctly, you should begin to ask very good questions. Slowing down as a leader or a manager and asking good questions forces people to think and use their brain more deeply, which will help them arrive at the answer. By asking versus telling, you’re putting the weight on them and forcing them to think and grow versus you doing all the work.
Master the art of feedback, as people are answering those questions. Master the art of feedback. Complimenting, stroking when they are giving you good feedback and challenging them more to go deeper when they haven’t arrived at the answer yet. Let them know when they’re doing well. Let them know when they need to improve, learn the art of having those simple conversations correctly.
What this does, it rewards you with a new sense of accountability, responsibility and a feeling of pride that you’re leading people the right way by slowing down, understanding their behaviors, understanding the type of feedback you’ll get from them, understanding how to ask engaging questions, while giving them proper feedback, when to stroke them, and when to challenge them in the conversation to help them grow.
These are some of the key leadership management traits. Work on them, develop them, and you’ll witness how everyone else around you starts to show up.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com