4 Leadership activities that generate maximum results

There are four leadership activities that generate maximum results. Often leaders will postpone these activities because of other priorities and yet if they were to focus on these four items as high priority they would find themselves feeling less stressed, have happier team members and enjoy greater success.

 

At this point you are probably jumping ahead in your mind to what you think the four activities are. Maybe you think its planning, prioritizing, time management, delegation and these are all important leadership activities. Believe it or not there are activities that are not typically at the forefront of most leaders’ minds because these activities do not often yield immediate results.

We invite you to consider the following activities which are not only an investment in your future but also activities that will generate maximum results.

 

#1- Daily and consistent focus on people development.

 

When leaders have people development at the forefront of their mind they tend to look at their team members with positive expectation. The leader who focuses daily on people development has a love for helping people succeed, grow and learn. Their focus on people development creates a team that is inspired by a leader who is focused on their well being.

Result- a loyal and committed team

 

#2- Regular and consistent feedback to their teams, colleagues and boss.

 

Research from a multitude of sources shows that employee motivation skyrockets when employees are consistently provided with developmental feedback. The key here is feedback not criticism and there is a difference. Effective feedback brings us back to activity #1 - people development.

 

A leader who provides feedback with a focus on helping others to improve in their abilities has a loyal team and a team willing to learn and grow. Stephen Covey stated it thus: “Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.”

Result- a team of people who are willing to take initiative.

  

#3- Reward creative ideas and innovation.

 

A leader who recognizes and rewards ideas and innovation increases the creativity among the team. In fact a great leader doesn't sweat the small mistakes that are made in search of innovation. A great leader sees all efforts towards creativity as learning opportunities. Research from the US Conference Board states that employees across the generations want the freedom to be creative in their work and to feel a sense of creative contribution.

Result- increased competitiveness within the industry and increased customer satisfaction.

 

#4- Asking themselves 'higher mind' questions on a regular basis.

What is a higher mind question? Questions like: "How can I motivate this employee to increase their output?" or "What can I do to inspire the team to higher performance with this project?" Fantastic leaders spend time on high level ‘higher mind’ questions and do not waste time on lower mind questions such as, "Why does he/she always do this? " or "Why me?"

You get the difference? Leaders who ask themselves higher mind questions have more energy and innovative ideas.

Result- increased job satisfaction, increased creativity and increased energy

  

We invite you to ask yourself where you spend most of your time. We know that many leaders spend time on other daily tasks or on putting out fires. Often these items are of low importance but are based on habit which keeps them in their comfort zone. Can you imagine what your day/week/month would look like if you were to shift your focus to the four activities above for a larger portion of your time? What other benefits would be gained? What prevents you from focusing on these four activities?