Being an effective leader requires a bit of research. You need to know your team, understand the competition, and be able to relate to your existing and future customers. Often times, leaders do not take a break to evaluate the full scope of their working environment. This could mean taking an inventory of the organization's current workforce needs or reflecting on their ability to successfully lead the company or department.
Even the most experienced managers and senior leaders can improve their effectiveness as a leader. With this in mind, consider introducing these five types of audits to improve your leadership abilities.
To accomplish this, ask yourself this series of questions below and document your answers. By doing so, you'll be able to easily identify areas of weakness that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. Additional training and development should be administered in these identified areas.
You will need to identify the goals, experiences, strengths, and limitations of your direct staff. You can accomplish this by conducting the following three steps:
It's important to observe how your team works together, not only for future hiring purposes, but to make recommendations to improve productivity and/or to inspire collaboration. With this in mind, ask yourself the following:
In order to have an effective and productive relationship with a manger, it is imperative that open communication exists between the manager and their employee(s). Ask yourself the following questions to measure whether you practice what you wish to preach.
Talk to your customers, internally and externally, and discuss their impressions. The amount of trust they hold in you, could serve as a good measure for your leadership abilities.
Managers need to be viewed as leaders. They must be able to build relationships, attack and solve problems, anticipate challenges, and be able to identify talent. Conducting audits will aid in obtaining essential information about your workplace, the people in your organization, your customers, and your roles and expectations.
About the Author: This blog was written by Leslie Tell. Leslie is the Vice President, Enterprise Solutions for Yoh, A Day & Zimmermann Company. She provides strategic national workforce solutions for MSP, VMS, RPO and direct hires. Previously she was Yoh’s National Accounts Director. Leslie has been with Yoh for the past 6 years.