Some people are born to be leaders. Their energy and passion make them the sort of people that others can look up to and makes them great business leaders. For other people, it takes work. If you’re not content with being a good boss, take a look at some of the following ways you can learn to be a great boss and become someone for your employees to admire.
Make yourself visible
Hiding away in your office is not the way to win favor with your colleagues. Doing so would mean you lose that personal contact with your employees that can help to build trust and admiration in a boss. Yes, you could be busy, and that’s why you don’t show your face, but that’s not a good enough excuse for avoiding the office floor. Nobody’s saying that you have to go Undercover Boss to find out what’s going on in your business. However, being visible and approachable are good management qualities can help you to become a better boss. One way you can do this is to operate an ‘open-door’ policy, where employees can come and talk you about projects or concerns where needed.
Educate yourself on how to be a good manager
While good leadership comes easily to some people, to others, it needs to be learned. Undertake a management course, like becoming a Master of Human Resource Management, which can teach you some vital skills that will make you a more competent leader. Having some education behind you will make you a more credible boss, and might even teach you some things that can’t be learned on the job.
Think carefully before you push for change
If you’re a new boss, there will be a big temptation to want to change things straight away. By storming in and making loads of changes, you run the risk of rubbing your staff up the wrong way and getting off to a bad start. Rather than jumping in and changing everything straight away, have some open and honest conversations with your employees about any changes they would like to see, working with them to develop new ways of working going forward. Implementing change is something you can do over time when you’ve had a chance to really think about the changes will affect your employees.
Get to know your staff
If you want to become a better boss, start getting to know your employees better. There are some effective strategies out there for getting to know your employees without having to become over-familiar or become their best friend. It’s important that you maintain that sense of authority and respect, but don’t feel like you can’t develop more personal relationships with your colleagues. Organizing work lunches or social events is another great way to bring people together, helping you to relax a bit more and talk about things other than work issues.
Developing into a great leader can take time and work to make sure you hit the right mark. If you want to adopt highly effective business leadership, you’ll need to think about your own management style and how you can improve it.
