Nowadays, many people want to develop a leadership style that is easy and more focused — something that cuts through the noise of everyday life and is straightforward to practice. The answer? Minimalism.
Minimalism involves ridding yourself of the non-essentials to focus on what’s truly important. When applied to leadership, minimalist leaders provide value by giving space to their team to freely create and contribute, ultimately fostering a healthy organization and workforce. Although minimalism isn’t required to become a leader, we’ve listed six ways it can help you be a better leader for the benefit of your team and company as a whole.
6 Ways Minimalism Will Help Your Leadership Skills
1. You'll encourage your staff to grow
Minimalist leadership creates a space that encourages individuals to grow. This is a crucial benefit, as our guest writer Patrick Reeves explains, developing your employees’ talents is essential to building a high-performing team. In turn, employees will make better contributions to the company, and the business can reap the benefits that come along with having a more engaged staff. To do this, minimalist leaders must remove barriers that prevent people from working freely and eliminate political issues within the organization. An open environment brings out the best in people who are primarily focused on doing their work.
2. You’ll learn to recognize quality over quantity
A common misconception about minimalism is that as a leader, you’ll have to rid yourself of everything that isn’t completely necessary, but this is not the case. In her reflection on living a minimalist lifestyle, freelance writer Jackie L notes that the movement is actually all about aligning your time and possessions with your values. In other words, it means making time and allocating resources for what’s important to you as a business leader. To practice this, re-evaluate your values and what they actually mean in the context of work. Upon closer inspection, you may realize that certain policies or possessions that run contrary to these values are not needed at all, and you’ll be able to focus on what’s more important to you in the long run.
3. You’ll make prioritizing a habit
As minimalism encourages you to focus on what matters most, you’ll learn how to prioritize things much better. This means clearing out the metaphorical clutter and the proverbial dust to make the vision clearer for your team to follow. This way, you’ll be able to point your team in the right (and most important) direction, as the opposite can lead to a confused, uninspired, and distracted workforce.
4. You’ll have more patience
As you develop and help your employees grow, you’ll gain a crucial skill as a minimalist leader yourself in the form of patience. After all, a minimalist lifestyle requires patience. As you give others the time to discover, pursue, and achieve what they need the most, you’ll gradually learn to deal with stressful situations with a cool and level head.
5. You’ll create better relationships with your team
In an article on how minimalists manage their time, business development leader Jon Mertz explains that minimalist leaders take the time to go deep with certain relationships. They create deep relationships that activate the people around them which causes a positive ripple throughout the workforce. They focus on the higher purpose and keep people focused on what matters, all while lifting them up and allowing them to grow as individuals.
6. You (and your team) will work with what you’ve got
As with the lifestyle associated with minimalism, the leadership strategy it inspires isn’t so different — you and your team will learn to work with what you’ve got. This is great, as it encourages resourcefulness and greater ingenuity. Leaders who use the available tools to their full potential are likely to influence their team to do the same, cultivating an environment full of creative and imaginative employees.
In conclusion, minimalist leaders revamp their outlook to focus on what matters most, developing a variety of skills that allow them to let the people around them thrive. Start your minimalist leadership style today, and inspire the people around you to be the best they can be.
About the Author: Allison Crest is a digital marketer by profession based in the beautiful city of San Francisco. An aspiring writer with a passion for all things tech, Allison enjoys cooking and visiting the beach.