Leadership Success Tips for Women

Being a leader is difficult. Top leaders manage to ensure operations are completed thoroughly while guided by strategic vision. How can you strike the balance between being the enforcer and the source of your team's inspiration?

Be Clear on Your Actions

Why does everything you’re doing for your business matter? Chances are, you’re a passionate leader, as many are. know your “why” when it comes to all of your business activities. This will help you stay focused on the outcome rather than each minuscule task.

Increase your productivity by narrowing your focus. Create a “one-touch” habit where you complete any activity you begin after it has been touched once. Instead of checking your email and saying you’ll get back to it later, go ahead and respond then. This way, you don’t have to revisit the same task multiple times in order to complete it. This is a good way to fully dedicate yourself to the task you want to complete.

Strengthen Your Team

Share your knowledge, share responsibility. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Consult with other female business owners. Get your team members to collaborate and discuss issues candidly. A lack of collaboration cloud mean feelings of exclusion for your team members. Exclusion leads to a lack of interest, plus an antagonistic attitude towards the business.

Encouraging engagement fosters an environment of mutual respect and trust. Be a leader that is approachable and embolden your team members to talk to you. Fear of asking questions is still a form of fear that won't benefit your organization or your workers. Avoid fostering an environment of fear, even if you have remote workers.

You can eliminate broken or blocked communication by making yourself available for communication and questions. Let your team know what to expect. You can eliminate a lot of confusion by not exuding unpredictable behavior. When a leader has unpredictable characteristics, the team may interpret this as being unstable.

Use Inspiration Rather than Force

Work alongside your team and not just over them. This means getting in the trenches and completing activities that you normally wouldn’t. Help your team with a sales call, spend time in customer support, or create content for your website. Directly helping will give you a new level of insight on what your team deals with. This will also show you how to lead your team better.

Show how you handle your mistakes

Acknowledge your mistakes if and when you make them. Show your team how to deal with obstacles by your own example. If your team member makes a mistake, help them build their skills or create new ones. Your team should want to work with you because you inspire them rather than by force. Articulate your mission clearly so your team can believe in that mission.

Learning Should Be a Habit

Never stop learning. Each and every day, you should strive to know more relevant information about your business and industry. You should certainly make a point to learn regularly if you expect your team to continue their education.

Personality Matters, but Isn’t Everything

Ideas become stunted by a lack of execution with overly charismatic leaders. Having this trait is advantageous for business but you can have too much of a good thing. A Belgium study analyzed the performance and personality of 600 leaders.

The study showed that the overly charismatic boss is just as bad as the boss who lacks any charm. The research concluded that high levels of charisma can limit the effectiveness of your leadership. It also showed that as the perception of charisma increased, the perception of effectiveness declined.