Above average employees typically have potential job opportunities coming their way often. In order to help keep the best of the best on your team, you must be an above average leader.
Who really wants to be average anyway? Not me. I recognize that we can’t be great at everything, but there’s absolutely no reason to believe each of us can’t be great at something. We should never be satisfied when we find ourselves or our departments being described as average. We should all strive to be excellent in something.
- Above average leaders ask better questions.
- Above average leaders allow employees the time and opportunity to vent.
- Above average leaders remain poised and emotionally controlled.
3 Ways To Be An Above Average Leader
As leaders our constant, unfailing purpose should be to relentlessly strive to develop a level of recognizable service in all that we do for our employees.
Here are three ideas that leaders should do, but many choose not to. Become an above average leader with these commonsense tips:
1. Above average leaders ask better questions.
The best conversationalists are articulate, engaging and generally fun to be around. They got that way, in part, by developing the fine art of asking good questions. Above average leaders are good at asking questions, too. They formulate and then ask questions designed to reveal what the employee is thinking, how the employee is feeling and what the employee wants to happen next. They ask questions in a conversational, not interrogational tone that makes responding to the questions more enjoyable.
2. Above average leaders allow employees the time and opportunity to vent.
The activity of venting is the emotional equivalent of a relief valve letting steam out of a pressurized vessel. If there is no means of relief, the pressure will continue to build until the vessel can no longer withstand the strain it is under. Something will eventually give way. If we don’t allow our employees the opportunity to vent to us periodically, they might just go to other coworkers or other companies for the purpose of finding the relief they seek. As unpleasant as it is on occasion, this may prove to be a valuable investment of the above average leader’s time.
3. Above average leaders remain poised and emotionally controlled.
Years ago there was deodorant commercial whose tag line was “never let ’em see you sweat.” As an above average leader, the same is true. When employees all around you are confused, irritated or downright angry, the situation will never be improved by you losing your composure. Employees can and will say and do things that are inappropriate, uncalled for, and totally out of line. As leaders, we don’t have that same freedom. Grace, self-control, and professionalism under pressure are the attributes used to describe the best of the best leaders. I hope these attributes describe you.
Above average leaders listen, think, and use common sense.
Listening, thinking, and using common sense in communicating with employees is something that literally anyone interested in becoming an above average leader can do. The question is, will you choose to?
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Need Help Getting Your Leaders & Teams to Deliver Better Results? Let’s Talk About It.
Phil Van Hooser, Keynote Speaker on Leadership & Professional Development
