How to Be an Effective Leader and Why it Matters

The phrases “good” and “bad” managers are subjective and tossed around often without clarity. This is why we are breaking down what qualities we believe effective managers should have.

Whether you’re looking to improve your communication skills or people management skills, read more below.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to essential skills for establishing and maintaining strong relationships and is a crucial part of leadership development.

As Daniel Goleman, a leader in the study of emotional intelligence writes:

“If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.”

• Those in leadership roles must think, behave, and speak with emotional intelligence; it’s the glue that holds team members together.

• Leadership also influences workplace culture.

• EI is also a foundational leadership skill in building relationships, which is why it can impact both employee experience and customer experience.

Thankfully, this type of intelligence can strengthen with practice and dedication. Here are 5 essential EI skills you can improve now.

Self-awareness

Definition: the ability to tune in to your feelings, thoughts, and actions. Being self-aware also means being able to recognize how other people see you. People who are self-aware recognize their strengths and their challenges.

• This is vital for personal success but even more important for leaders.

• Be mindful of your own motivations, strengths, weaknesses, and character.

Self-regulation

Definition: Self-regulation is defined as the mental processes we use to control our mind’s functions, states, and inner processes. Or, self-regulation may be defined as control over oneself. It may involve control over our thoughts, emotions, impulses, appetites, or task performance.

• As a manager, you work with many people and need to control your emotions instead of letting them control you.

• In order to effectively collaborate with and manage others, we first need to manage ourselves.

Empathy

Definition: Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person's shoes to understand their point of view and emotions. Essentially, it is putting yourself in someone else's position and feeling what they must be feeling.

• Empathy has always been a critical skill for leaders, but it is taking on a new level of meaning and priority. Far from a soft approach, it can drive significant business results.

• New research demonstrates empathy as a valuable component of employee retention strategies.

Catalyst conducted a study of 889 people and discovered these benefits of empathy:

• Empathy boosts employee engagement and innovation

• Manager empathy affects employee inclusion

• Manager empathy drives feelings of being respected and valued

• Empathetic leaders can help decrease burnout

• Senior leader empathy predicts lower intent to leave

Tip: Practice empathy by actively listening and asking open-ended questions to better understand your employees.

Motivation

Definition: Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation involves the biological, emotional, social, and cognitive forces that activate behavior.

• To be an efficient leader one must be self-motivated.

• One cannot effectively motivate others if they themselves are not motivated.

• This is crucial for setting an example and creating energized and resilient teams.

• Motivating your teams is essential to customer experience strategy.

Social skills

Definition: Social skills are the skills we use to communicate and interact with each other, both verbally and non-verbally, through gestures, body language, and our personal appearance.

• Social skills help with relationship building.

• Promotes effective team communication.

• Aids leaders in reducing conflict and improving team communication and employee performance.

Mentorship

Although being a manager and mentor is not the same, great managers understand the importance of mentorship. When leaders model effective leadership and work to develop these skills in others, they create more good leaders. Everything a leader does to work on themselves will benefit those they serve and the overall employee journey. If you aren’t focused on employee development, you’re missing an important aspect of leadership.

Here are two crucial components of mentorship:

Building rapport

Definition: Rapport is a close and harmonious relationship in which people understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.

You cannot talk meaningfully about career development without discussing the source of motivations, family, and life’s highs and lows. Building a foundation for a relationship is critical to having productive conversations and personalized mentorship. By understanding the entire context of an individual mentors can decide the best approach how to guide employees.

• Engaging in one-on-ones provides room for authentic connection and serves as an informal pulse survey. Use these to get to know one another and establish mutual trust and respect.

Tip: Remote work means these opportunities need to be created. Put a structure in place to regularly meet with your individual contributors. This will keep you aligned with their progress and needs - also it makes them feel supported.

Clarity on purpose

Definition: Purpose is the reason something exists, an intended end; aim; or goal.

Individuals need to be tied to their purpose to know why they are doing something and what objective they are working towards.

Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, says, “Nothing motivates a great employee more than a mission that's so important that it supersedes everyone's personal ambition.”

A lack of purpose is a lack of direction and can decrease motivation. Having a clear purpose is vital to effective performance management and makes creating benchmarks and celebrating wins possible.

• Managers can keep team members tired to their purpose with regular check-ins to monitor progress and share status updates.

• Provide clear action items.

• If your teams are working from home, these interactions cannot be left to chance and must be facilitated.

• Purpose leads to fulfillment which creates satisfied employees.

Bottom line

Leadership is a key skill for individual and organizational success. The impact that business leaders have on work culture correlates to customer satisfaction in the long term. Whether it is People Operations training programs or leveraging technology, people skills drive organizations and need to be developed.

Learn how ConnectUs improves employee experience by equipping leaders with the tools to manage relationships with ease.