Being a manager in your company is comparable to the job of a captain of a ship: It is your job to get your company and your crew to the desired destination and keep you away from disasters like hitting an iceberg. Just as there are guidelines to help captains navigate their ships effectively, there are also simple practices that can help you, as a leader, to stay on the path to success.
Leadership 4.0 means involving your employees, their individual skills (competencies instead of performance), motivation and ideas. An open, transparent and innovative culture is the basis for high agility, fast market adaptation and the DNA within your organisation. These 7 steps will help you to with the implementation.
1. Clear goals
Goals give focus and a sense of purpose. Determination, in turn, leads to productivity. Clear goals with the right focus give meaning to the work of your team. This enables your team members to see the bigger picture and understand what motivates them to continue working for the organisation, even if they're stuck on a challenging or less exciting task.
2. Communication
If you don't communicate clearly and precisely about what your team should be doing, the chances are you will lose time and money to ineffective employees who aren't sure or don't know how to be useful.
- Regularly remind your team of your expectations in a simple and uncomplicated way.
- Make sure everyone knows exactly how he/she is contributing to the goal.
- Don't be afraid to give both written and verbal instructions to make sure there are no misunderstandings.
3. Change
Some people love it and others hate it. Whatever your personal preferences, as a manager, you have to be ready to adapt and change to the modern world if your company is to remain profitable. If you look at today's most successful companies, they have all adapted to globalisation and technological innovations. By taking up and implementing new ideas , you can also win new customers and present your company as fresh, modern and relevant.
4. An open work culture
If you inspire your team, you'll achieve amazing results, especially from employees who get bored when they aren't challenged. This is crucial because a lack of inspiration in one part of the team can spread like wildfire. All it takes is just one bored person to damage the morale of the entire team.
Therefore, an important part of your work is also to remove obstacles that could prevent your team from working successfully and efficiently.
5. Motivation
This is what drives your team to do their job with passion . It's the ingredient that makes dedicated employees who can handle the toughest of tasks. So, it's your job as a leader to motivate your team and appreciate the work they're doing. There are many opportunities:
- to involve employees in decisions
- Publicly acknowledge achievements
- Allow time to learn
- Especially wanting to think bigger
- Strengthen employees' self-confidence
- Air to breathe and the freedom to find your own way
but it is extremely important that every single team member understands why their work is important, so that they don't just work towards getting paid at the end of the month.
6. Respect
Nowadays, it is common for employees to jump from one job to the next and look for the best-paid position with the most reputable company. But that doesn't mean that you can't win the loyalty of a good employee. At the heart of a successful business is a sense of mutual respect between the team and its manager. To do this, you have to first show them your respect, which you can do by regularly asking for their opinion and not denying their concerns.
7. Prioritisation
Multitasking increases your chances of getting bogged down or spending too much time doing something that is ultimately unproductive. Every time your focus shifts to a new activity, it disrupts your workflow and you waste time because you have to focus your attention again on the more important work. So, be more efficient by prioritising your emails and setting specific times to visit your inbox.