When most of us hear the word leadership, we usually think of political officials, CEOs, military commanders, or even athletes. While it’s true that you need good leadership skills to excel at these occupations, leadership is a valuable skill that everyone from any vocation or background can use for their benefit and the benefit of others.

Effective leadership doesn’t come naturally for most of us. Luckily, there are several methods that you can use to build and refine your leadership skills.
 

Discover the leader in you! Try these techniques to boost your leadership skills:
1. Strive for excellence. Part of being a successful leader is your ability to set the bar for others. You can be a good role model by constantly seeking ways to improve yourself and aspire to excellence.
   • A hallmark of leadership is excellence. Work on honing your existing skills and developing new ones.
   • One of the greatest victories my coaching clients have is learning how to coach and teaching their team how to become successful one step at a time through consistent 1-1 meetings. Never under-estimate the power of a 1-1, these meetings are priceless and contribute to the overall excellence of the entire business.
   • Excellence is about discipline and consistency, easy to say hard to do. You have a much better chance if you plan for learning, align yourself with experts who have walked the journey you are on.
2. Focus on your vision and set goals. Consider what you want to accomplish in different areas of your life. Set goals that will help you to achieve your vision.
   • Set goals where you are able to consistently measure your performance and progress. This should become part of your routine. When you know exactly where you are and where you are going, by doing daily check ins, you will be able to adjust your course of action as needed. If you fail to do this daily, oftentimes it’s too late to adjust your course and you will find yourself under-performing.
   • Break up larger goals into smaller ones so that you can celebrate your successes and maintain your motivation. The best way to do this is to break it down to the smallest amount, it will be much more attainable that way. Start with the end in mind and world backwards to determine daily what it will take to get to your ultimate goal.
   • Learn to identify and use all of your resources in the pursuit of your goals. When making plans to reach your goal, always work with the resources you have in your current circumstances, rather than developing plans based on resources and circumstances that you wish were reality.
   • Be willing to refine your plans and ultimate goals based on your progress as well as your dreams.
   • You must track your goals daily: you have to track it to smack it!!
3. Develop your people skills. Leaders are known for their ability to inspire others to work towards a common goal. To be successful at inspiring others to work with you, it’s important to develop your people skills and emotional intelligence.
   • Learn how to listen. Doing so helps to establish a connection and build camaraderie and trust, so others are more likely to follow your lead and help you. This takes practice, to be in a focused listening state, notice as you go through your day how many times you are having a conversation in your head when, in reality, you are in a conversation with another person. We have all been there!
   • Help others to be their best. Part of being a good leader is motivating others towards positive change. That means focusing on what people are doing right and publicly praising them. Remember, what gets rewarded, gets repeated.
   • Seek input from others when discussing goals and plans to reach your objectives. Give others a stake in the results by seeking their thoughts. They’ll be more motivated to help you. Involve your team whenever possible, what people are part of developing they will have much more buy in to.
4. Be passionate and maintain a positive attitude. Most of us take cues from others in social situations, so you can teach others to have a positive attitude and to be passionate in their efforts by doing so yourself.
   • Maintaining an upbeat attitude and giving your best effort help to energize the entire team so everyone is able to accomplish more, regardless of the circumstances.
   • Try starting your day with gratitude, write 3 things you are grateful for and put it into a gratitude jar.
   • Set your intention for the day, plan on having an amazing day and pouring into your team.
   • Remember your, “Why”. Why are you doing what you are doing, stay the course and stay focused.

Taking the time to develop your leadership skills can radically increase the amount of success that you experience in all areas of your life. These tips can help you to hone your leadership skills so that you can achieve your goals and enjoy a more satisfying life. Best of all, implementing these things will bring more profit to your business.