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How Leadership Skills Can Influence The Values of an Organization

As you may know, leaders have an outstanding impact on organizational culture. Many leaders don’t even realize how much of an influence they have. They are responsible for efficiently guiding organizational goals and achievement, while also ensuring that their team is utilizing their skills to produce the desired productivity level. Leadership should be happening at all levels, and it’s necessary to establish that management is well equipped with leadership skills. 

Effective leadership can influence your organization’s values by demonstrating an ideal attitude in the workplace, modeling behaviors, establishing vision among the employees, reinforcing accountability, the list goes on and on.  

Here’s how leadership skills can influence the value of your organization: 

Model Behaviors

Leaders have to be able to walk the talk and lead by example. Remember, your team is looking up to you to take the lead and display and communicate your expectations, and they especially look to you when there’s change.  The values that truly exist in an organization’s culture, are the ones that are being modeled by those within the organization.  

Establishing Purpose, Vision, and Goals Among The Employees

People like to know exactly what is expected from them. They like clarity, especially when it comes to their roles and expectations. So, it’s super important to communicate with your employees on what your organization’s purpose is, its brand and image guidelines, the direction of the company and even what specific level of productivity is required of them at your organization. Your leadership style and the way you communicate this to your employees can have a huge impact on the perspective of your organization’s values among your employees. 

Setting Expectations and Helping Your Employees Grow

Most people have goals to improve their professional skills and make a difference. In order to do this, leaders must provide them with the tools, resources, and opportunities that allow them to grow and build confidence in their ability to meet the expectation that is set out at your organization. A great way to establish this level of communication between you and your employees is to encourage and support them to set personal development goals each year within your organization. This will allow your employees to challenge themselves and become a better version of themselves with your help and it will positively impact your organization as well.

Reinforce a Culture of Accountability 

Accountability is one of the most important ways for leaders to influence culture. When leaders hold people accountable, it helps people understand and learn that they are accountable for the things they do. Without accountability measures in place, a leader will not be able to influence the team. Accountability also creates more choices for all those involved.  It provides clear direction which then allows for more autonomy, typically resulting in higher performance and greater engagement. 

Making accountability a part of your culture begins with having detailed job descriptions with clearly established measures, so people are clear on what success looks like. This will help them get a clear understanding of their expectations and their deliverables and they will know that their reviews are going to be based on those agreed criteria. It is very important to be transparent when building a culture of accountability.

Make It Personal For Your Team

So after modeling desired behaviors, establishing a clear purpose, and holding people accountable, you still have to make more emphasis on culture and performance if you want to make it personal. Establishing the desired culture, as well as navigating any kind of change will become more challenging unless you connect with them emotionally and rationally.

This simply means understanding what personally motivates them, making sure to give them the opportunity to develop new skills, and working to create a work environment that not only works for the organization but also works for them. 

Remember whenever you are making a change, even if it’s a small one, you are influencing and changing organizational culture. Always remember the influence you have as a leader and that culture is always fluid. 

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How to Improve Your Leadership Skills in the Workplace (When We’re All Working Remotely)

How to Improve Your Leadership Skills in the Workplace (When We're All Working Remotely) | Arc Integrated

Let’s face it, working remotely can be pretty great and it has its benefits. We can have a better work-life balance, healthier lifestyle, and we even get to save more money (no more transportation to the office, no office rental fees, etc)! 

But does something feel a little off? Perhaps you’re finding yourself to be less motivated every day. You may have a more laid-back attitude to everything to the point where it’s affecting your work ethic and you’re starting to struggle with managing tasks. You’re not alone. 

Recent conversations with our clients have revealed to me the negative aspect of working from home, especially as more people start to notice their at-home work life affecting their personal lives. In this blog post, I’ve outlined some tips to help you improve your leadership skills, for those who have been struggling with leading their teams remotely and for those who are just looking for some guidance on change management as they transition from managers to leaders.

Tips to Improve Your Leadership Skills 

Practice Discipline 

A good leader needs discipline, and in order to be an effective leader, it’s mandatory to practice discipline in both your professional and personal life. Leaders are often judged by their capacity to lead by the amount of discipline they display.

A good way to start practicing discipline at work is by meeting your deadlines and being punctual. Yes, even in a remote environment, it’s just as important to your productivity to be prepared and to show up on time for virtual meetings and gatherings. 

 “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments” – Jim Rohn

If you are naturally disorganized, start working on that. Begin to implement good habits like waking up early and getting daily exercise to get your body producing mitochondria. Exercising is the best form of discipline; you begin to have more control of your body and your life. So set up that alarm clock and get your body moving!

Practice Patience

Patience is such an essential skill to practice; leading effectively – especially during a crisis- takes an immense amount of patience. If you aren’t able to compose yourself during frustrating moments, you certainly won’t be able to lead others to be calm. It’s easy to become impatient with others but being a good leader requires you to support others in times of stress.

“Our patience will achieve more than our force” – Edmund Burke

Build your patience by starting to consciously recognize and predict when it will be tested. For example, if you know an obstacle is coming, you can be more mindful about increasing your efforts to stay calm. Try to recall moments where you felt a lot of pressure or had a very tight deadline and you were able to be successful. By recalling past moments and assessing strengths and wins, you will be able to leverage solutions and confidence for handling each situation better.

Improve Communication

Without frequent communication, working remotely can cause you to feel disconnected. Communication is more than just a video call or sending a quick message or an email. It’s a crucial skill for you to have, whether you’re working onsite or remotely. Strong communication skills are not only valued in the workplace but also valued in your personal life. 

You need to master the skills of effectively communicating with your team and establish tools, channels, and best practices for yourself and your team members to communicate with one another. Another equally important skill is the ability to identify causes of communication breakdowns and ways to address them. This is a great way to practice conscious leadership.

One other key question to ask in every communication exchange is this: Am I moving the conversation forward or am I stalling it?  Stay tuned for another post on the risks of stalling communication. 

Develop Situational Awareness

A leader is someone who can see the bigger picture and can predict problems before they occur. This is a skill highly valued when handling big projects with strict deadlines. The ability to forecast and offer suggestions to avoid potential issues is crucial for a leader.

To begin developing your own situational awareness as a leader, start by being mindful of your surroundings and people. It’s important to observe and notice the behavior in others; by doing so, you will increase your emotional intelligence and have a better understanding of people, and know how you can support them and respond to situations more effectively.

Inspire Others

Leaders are meant to motivate and inspire the people they work with and set examples for others to follow. Your characteristics and behavior will inspire more than you will ever know.

Be there for your team when they need you. Offer them support and encouragement and share small victories; it is something people will appreciate.  

It also doesn’t hurt to practice vulnerability and show them the ways you’re working to improve yourself. People are often inspired by the people they work with. Focus on an area where you feel needs improvement and begin working on yourself; emotional intelligence is always on.

Empathy

People often think empathy is a soft skill that can get in the way of making tough decisions or leading a team, but that can’t be farther from the truth. The ability to understand and share emotions with others is an extremely valuable skill to have.

Given the pandemic state, people are under extreme stress and anxiety, so approaching your team from a place of understanding can reduce tension and increase communication and productivity. It shows that you as a leader can understand and connect with your team and can build trust and gain respect.

Emotionally intelligent people know how to empathize with others as they understand that it is a trait that shows emotional strength, not weakness.

Leadership is not something that only happens in an office; leadership is about the culture and environment and the space that you create, not just for yourself but also for your team. Good leadership skills are essential to advancing in your career, but they also take time; the skills you are learning will not come to you easily, so remember to be patient. If you get stuck, I’ve listed some resources below to help you. Consider the option of a professional coach or mentor that can help guide you and offer support. 

You can also learn about strategies you can implement to create long-term professional and personal change from my book CHANGES. Grab the FREE Changes Playbook here.

As usual, schedule a time to connect if you have any questions.

Be well,

Michael

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