Xenonex’s New Year Resolutions to Improve Leadership
The Xenonex team wish you all a very Happy New Year. We’ve been sharing our personal new year's resolutions here at Xenonex HQ, from committing to that weekly exercise class to cutting back on sugary foods, and also threw in a few challenges for ourselves too. So far we are doing ok!
We have also been looking at resolutions to improve our efficiency and performance at work. From a professional perspective we need to ensure the resolutions we make are achievable and sustainable. Our experience has shown that making some simple, often small, changes in the way we work can set up better leadership behaviours and habits which affect your employees and their productivity.
I came across this practical list of resolutions for leaders that I thought was a good starting point for consideration as we settle back into work this year.
Involve others in goal setting and planning. Involve all your team in the goals and planning for the business. Drive employee engagement by ensuring they are involved in the creation of agreed outcomes, this can be key to greater staff involvement, commitment and success.
Keep goals in front of yourself and everyone one else. Once goals are created, everyone needs to be reminded of them regularly. As a leader, you must help people keep their goal in mind and remind them of what success looks like -- which means employee motivation is key. There are many ways to do this (from using bulletin boards to regular conversations in team meetings) so find which work best for you and your team and implement them.
Communicate more and in more ways. As a leader, you must communicate key messages frequently and ensure that the message is received. Doing so often requires communicating more frequently and in different ways, so your message is heard by all your team and results in action.
Talk less, talk later and listen more. When you want a team’s input and ideas, you must ask questions and then shut up! Let the group share their ideas as a means of team building. Be patient and give them time. If they don’t think of a key idea or piece of information, you can share it later in the conversation with greater effect. This approach also helps you to listen better.
Focus feedback on the future. You want people to improve. In almost every case, people want to improve and do great work. Yet most workplace feedback is focused on something that can’t be changed -- the past. If you want to be a more effective coach to your team and help them make improvements in their skills and results, give them feedback and advice about what they can do next time.
Be a model. Your team is watching and emulating you. Are your attitude, work habits, and customer focus what you want them to exhibit? If not, you may need to look carefully at your own approach and recognise what changes you can make.
Have you set yourself any professional resolutions? Or did you manage to stick to some last year and are now seeing the benefits?
Let us know what you did that got great results or what you are hoping to achieve in 2015.
Xenonex delivers innovative and bespoke client-centered solutions in Executive Coaching, Leadership Development and training across the UK. We work at Executive, Senior and Middle Management levels to maximise and transform the way people work.
To find out more contact Jo Watson, Business Development Manager on 01423 876371, email jo.watson@xenonex.co.uk