Written by: Anila Bashllari, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
As a coach and mentor, I have regular meetings and discussions with CEOs and Team Leaders in different corporations, businesses, and institutions. One evident big identified gap is between the technical skills of team leaders and their interpersonal and leadership skills regardless of the huge amount of dollars being spent annually to develop them as leaders.
It shows up a lot of resistance to moving from the old model of leadership based on position and status toward a new one where most people's skill is required.
While working for more than 30 years with corporations, government institutions, and businesses, I have noticed year after year that they promote to leadership positions people based on technical skills and ambition rather than interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. No doubt because we are facing the biggest shortage of leaders nowadays.
If I go back to the first years of my career as a team leader, I can clearly see my failures and flaws, not because I was lacking technical skills and knowledge but people skills.
That’s why I love what I do now. Helping team leaders to grow personally and develop people skills as much as they have invested in technical skills. Leading a team or an organization requires to fine-tune people skills and understanding of the psychology that drives human behavior, choices, actions, and results.
Future leaders must understand that at the core of every organization are people as the most important asset. That’s why they need to focus on the basics of human behavior, the met or unmet needs of their people, what drives and makes people tick and what motivates and inspires them to unleash their talents and perform at a high level.
After years of debate on the difference between a manager and a leader, it is clear now the role of the leader focuses more on people skills than technical ones. A leader is looking for, provides, and creates all prerequisites for engagement, work enjoyment, and desired performance and focuses on these five main aspects.
1. A safe working environment
According to Dr. Evian Gordon, among the originators of the field of integrative neuroscience, one of the main functions of the human brain is to keep us safe. The moment we don’t feel safe, it is activated the fight-flight-freeze modality automatically, having limited access to logic, rationality even problem-solving issues while our productivity and performance suffer a lot.
Understanding this, leaders take care of their people when they just join the organization, during change and transition, merging, or expansion. They show people where the organization stands for, them in particular, the vision for the future and the direction needed to be taken. They do it through explicit empathy and a positive attitude, praise people for their work and contribution and create a culture of trust and courage.
2. Recognition and appreciation of their work and achievements
We use a lot of these two words exchangeable without paying enough attention to the distinction between them. And for leaders who want their teams to thrive and create a culture of high employee engagement, loyalty, and high retention rate and performance, it’s important to understand the distinction between recognition and appreciation. Most of the leaders offer recognition, neglecting appreciation or assuming its covers the same purpose. But these two concepts serve, in fact, different purposes.
Appreciation shows gratitude for the character, personality, and values of the person and builds the foundation for your team members to feel more valued as a person. This is a very important aspect of raising the level of employee engagement, building relationships and team cohesion, and motivating them to do their best.
While recognition is about showing gratitude for the actions taken and results achieved.
3. Active listening that increases trust and confidence
During my training with team leaders, especially when the topic is about compassionate communication, I often share this saying by Dalai Lama: “When you speak, you repeat what you know. When you listen, you learn something new”. It is a trick to get the audience's attention immediately but at the same time help them to have insights and AHA moments.
Healthy communication between leaders and their team establishes the foundation for trust and respect. When your team members feel they are heard, it opens the space for their engagement, sharing ideas, and providing honest feedback. Not to mention that it drives better results and raises efficiency, creativity, and innovation.
4. Alignment of personal and work values
As human beings, we value what is important to us. The same is true for any corporation, business, or organization and the best thing as a leader is to frequently share the values of the organization with your team members.
“Mention these values as frequently as possible, at any meeting, discussion, project, or any single moment that your employees need to be reminded,” says Bill George, the author of Discover Your True North – Becoming an Authentic Leader. Explain to them the importance of values and make sure they are fully understood and implemented on daily basis. Praise your employees for demonstrating those values in their daily actions and performance.
When your team members are aware of their own values, corporate values, and their alignment, it raises the level of engagement, satisfaction, and performance.
5. Compassionate communication
When asked what is the most important survival factor as human beings, most of the participants responded food, shelter, air, etc. And they were right. But to their surprise (and mine as well when I read about the study), another factor, as important as food and shelter, was social connection [1]. It seems strange to believe, but we are wired for relationships and live in a community in order to survive and fill completely.
Conclusion
According to the study of 60,000 leaders by a Neuroscientist of UCLA University, Lieberman, less than 5% excel at both achieving important results and building social relationships, creating a healthy environment for their team, and promoting a sense of belonging and connection among team members.
"Not many people effectively combine the two," Lieberman said.
The bad news is that less than 5% are able to combine both the two. The good news is that there is 95% of “virgin” space to learn, live by leadership principles, and lead through them.
Leadership is a skill that can be learned and is very rewarding for you personally and the organization you are working with.
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Anila Bashllari, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Anila Bashllari is an Executive and Business Coach on mindset enhancement, mental fitness and high performance. She coaches business leaders worldwide on Conscious Leader Framework, supporting them to live a holistic life, grows their business, become real manifestos of their dreams and vision, reconciles the conditioning patterns with true deep inside values through Inner and Outer Game. She has developed strategies how to enhance the mindset for creative thinking and achievement, feel resourceful, manage the inner energy to achieve a meaningful life and purposeful business and thrive during adversity times. Her mission is to create future leaders.
Reference:
[1] A study from Matthew Lieberman
