Leadership is the action of leading people in an organization towards achieving goals.

Leaders do this
by influencing employee behaviors in several ways. A leader sets a clear vision for the organization,
motivates employees, guides employees through the work process and builds morale.

Leadership in Organizations

Setting a clear vision means influencing employees to understand and accept the future state of the
organization. A unit of young soldiers may not believe in a particular mission ordered by their
commanding officer. A good leader will influence the soldiers to perform their duties by explaining
the vision and the importance of their role in the outcome. The soldiers will be more apt to follow.

Motivating employees means to find out enough about the needs and wants of employees, giving
them what they need and providing praise for a job well done. Being far from home is lonely for a
young soldier. A good leader knows this and will communicate with his unit to learn more about
their needs and wants. It may be as simple as giving the soldiers a sweet treat for their efforts.

When guiding employees, it is important to define their role in the work process and provide them
with tools needed to perform and participate in their efforts along the way. Some military
maneuvers are difficult. Often, orders are to perform tasks that involve intricate details, like
explaining how to dig a tunnel past enemy lines. A good leader will explain the tasks, provide the
digging tools, direct the work and be available to assist the soldiers if they run into a problem.

Establish Effective Organizational Structure and Communication Protocols

Set up a clearly defined organizational structure which includes an organizational chart outlining the
chain of command and protocols for effective communication. Members of the healthcare team
need to understand who they report to when they have questions or concerns. To facilitate
effective communication and efficiency, develop communication protocols. Many practices find it
helpful to use email, hospital newsletters, and memos to augment their one-on-one communication
and staff meeting interactions. The type of communication method utilized should be appropriate
for the content of the message. Memos are fine to convey announcements and information on
minor issues. Face-to-face meetings are necessary to discuss important issues or convey information
that is sensitive or may result in questions.

Be an Effective Role Model

Demonstrate the behavior desired from the rest of the healthcare team. Practice owners that
display outbursts of anger, make snap decisions with no regard to the potential outcome for the
staff, demonstrate uncaring attitudes, show favoritism for some employees, withhold information
from the staff, procrastinate on important decisions, tolerate lack of accountability, demonstrate
inconsistencies in client service or fail to listen to their employees will not be as respected by the
team and likely will not be as successful in achieving their business goals.

Inspire and Motivate

The definition of leadership is to “inspire, influence and guide others to participate in a common
effort.” Good leaders don’t just bark orders or hand out directives with no explanation. Instead
they use effective communication and motivation techniques to facilitate action by their teams.
Leaders that inspire and motivate their teams solicit input from employees, keep team members
informed, give timely and specific feedback regarding job performance, ensure training needs are
met and hold employees accountable.

Delegate and Empower

Good leaders surround themselves with the right people in the right jobs. This facilitates being able
to lead rather than manage. For practice owners, this starts by hiring an effective manager or
administrator. Depending on the size of the practice, an office manager, a practice manager or a
hospital administrator is the highest management position. Practice owners need to begin the
process of effective delegation and empowerment with this individual. All too often, veterinary
practices don’t have a practice manager with the necessary skills for their position or the practice
owner unwittingly sabotages this person’s success by overloading them with responsibility or
neglecting to empower them to achieve practice goals.

Effective Time Management

Part of being an effective leader includes effective time management. If you spend most of your
time fielding complaints and reacting to problems, this may be a sign that you are not delegating
effectively or empowering team members. Read some books or articles on time management and
create action steps to improve.
So should leaders let their constituents fall?

“As a business leader, I found that one of the scariest things to do was to give your people the
freedom to make mistakes. While mistakes allow individuals to learn and grow, they can also be very
costly to any company. Scared as I was, I knew that truly great leaders found ways to allow their
people to take these risks, and I genuinely wanted to be a great leader. I wanted to help my
employees to grow. So I set out to discover how to accomplish this without placing my company in
jeopardy. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more
important than fear.” - Meg Cabot I quickly discovered that the first step was to determine the areas
of the business where a mistake could take place without causing too much damage. I took careful
attention to make sure that any areas where we would damage our clients and the trust they had
placed in us were off limits for significant risk without serious executive involvement and oversight. I
identified other areas where I could feel more comfortable allowing people the freedom to
experiment on new and better ways of doing things. The second step was to communicate to the
employees that we were setting an official company policy: Making any mistake once was OK, so
long as it was an honest mistake made while attempting to do what they felt was the right thing.
Making any mistake once was OK, but repeating that same mistake a second time was NOT OK. The
hard, fast rule was that if you made any mistake for the first time the entire team would have your
back in fixing that mistake if anything went wrong. However, if you ever repeated the mistake a
second time, then you were 100 percent on your own to face the consequences. This rule applied
for every first-time occurrence of each new mistake you made. We all make mistakes. Every one of
us. If we aren’t making mistakes, then we likely aren’t trying enough new things outside our comfort
zone, and that itself is a mistake. That process is the best way to learn and grow as a person. As John
Wooden once said, “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything.” Mistakes are
the pathway to great ideas and innovation. Mistakes are the stepping stones to moving outside the
comfort zone to the growing zone where new discoveries are made and great lessons are learned.
Mistakes are not failures, they are simply the process of eliminating ways that won’t work in order to
come closer to the ways that will.”

Why Listening Is The Most Important Leadership Skill

Listening is a tough skill to learn. It requires us to be more present, attentive, engaged, open and
flexible. All for the benefit of building relationships with other people. This is what is known as active
listening.

Active Listening

Active listening is a way of listening and responding to another person that builds a mutual
understanding. It requires you to focus on the other person with all your senses. When someone
else is talking, take the time to really hear them, rather than focus on what you want to say next in
response. Listening first to understand another person’s point of view before jumping in, will help
you build a relationship with them. If you don’t agree with what they are saying, you can still build
on what they have said in your response to show that you respect them and have heard them out.
Active listening is a skill that can only be learned and refined through social interaction. Ultimately, it
will improve all your relationships.
Engagement

Listening shows engagement. It shows that you care. That you are open to new ideas, constructive
criticism, and to building relationships. It can help build your empathy skills. As a leader, empathy
and listening go hand in hand. You can show this level of engagement by giving the person who is
speaking your undivided attention; listen to their words and reflect on them. Sometimes you don’t
even need to provide your opinion; just listening can be enough. Showing this level of engagement
not only helps you grow as a leader but builds trust as well.

As a leader, being open to criticism, new ideas and approaches demonstrate that you are flexible.
Flexibility is an important skill to have as a leader, and one of the best ways to learn flexibility is
through listening with an open mind. Successful leaders are flexible, allowing change when it is
necessary. They have an open mind, they like hearing others ideas and criticisms. Most of all, they
love discussion. Next time you meet with your team, start a discussion about the project and with an
open mind listen to what everyone has to say.

How do you monitor the performance of individual team members? In what specific ways do you
motivate your team?

The key to getting followers in every case is to “trust your subordinates.” Many studies have
concluded that it is the mutual bond of trust and respect that acts as the catalyst that creates high
performance. Not only must you trust others, but even more important, they must trust you.

What’s at the core of any professional relationship? One word: trust. It’s absolutely necessary in
order to establish not only your reputation, but also a strong network of people who will help you
throughout your career.

It goes without saying: No one person is responsible for the success of a company; it’s a team effort.
“There is a tightly woven chain of events that needs to happen in any organization in order to
achieve results,” says Kathy Robinson, founder of Career Advisors Network, a national association of
independent career professionals. “People are relying on each other in a workplace.”

But that reliance can’t exist without trust. “It’s a reflection of your character,” says Jennifer McClure,
president of Unbridled Talent LLC, a leadership advisory firm. “Co-workers will go above and beyond
for people they trust.” That, in turn, helps produce above-and-beyond results.

Follow these tips to build trust with your peers, subordinates, and superiors.

Give co-workers praise when it’s due

One way to cultivate authentic relationships with your peers is to praise their work. “When you give
credit to others, you’re seen as gracious,” says Los Angeles–based executive coach Libby Gill.
However, “it has to be authentic and well timed,” says Gill. A team meeting, for example, is a natural
setting to celebrate a co-worker’s big career achievement or say thank you for someone’s help with
a project.
Avoid office gossip

We know this is easier said than done, but the plaint truth is office gossip can be toxic. Furthermore,
“gossiping doesn’t even build trust with the people you’re gossiping with because they’re going to
fear you’ll do the same thing to them,” says Gill. A better coping mechanism? When you’re
frustrated with a co-worker, vent to someone outside the company.

If you have an issue with a co-worker, try to resolve the problem with the person in private before
bringing it to your boss, Robinson advises.

Share information

Being perceived as a team player by your co-workers builds trust, but you have to take steps to
shape your image.

Let’s say you attended an industry conference. Rather than hogging all you learned so that only you
can benefit, sharing what you learned with your peers can help establish credibility as a team player.

But it’s important to have the right intentions. “If your goal is to help your colleagues and peers
develop and succeed, you’ll build trust,” McClure says. If you’re just sharing because you want
something in return, odds are your peers are going to pick up on that and trust you less.

Trust others

This sounds like a no-brainer, but if you view others as trustworthy, chances are they’ll reciprocate.
Give your co-workers all the help they need from you, then trust them to execute.

This goes doubly if you’re someone’s manager. Many supervisors unintentionally micromanage their
employees, and that can be a huge blow to building trust.

To avoid over-meddling, Gill recommends setting check-in meetings—say, once a week or once a
month—so that you can effectively oversee your direct reports without hovering over their shoulder.

In any organisation, there will be days where employees or even managers are not feeling
motivated, however these 12 easy steps will avoid fostering a dispirited team.

If you want to know how to motivate your employees and get positive employee engagement, you
have to make them feel passionate to go to work every day and wanting to spend time with you and
their colleagues.

how you motivate them?

Motivating your employees does not have to be a challenge anymore. Here are 12 fantastic ways
you can use to motivate your employees:

Create a friendly work environment

Your employees spend a large amount of time of their lives working in the office. So try to make the
office look as friendly and appealing as possible.

When you create a pleasant atmosphere where it is welcoming and comfortable, your employees
will be more than eager to go to work every day.

Acknowledge employees’ achievement

Everyone wants to be recognised for something they have done; regardless if it was for a work or
personal achievement. The acknowledgement of a job well done coming from upper management
will mean more to an employee than you think. Always remember to give credit when credit is due.

Rewarding employees

There will be times when it takes more than just a pat on the back. Try giving simple incentives when
rewarding engaged employees.

It does not have to be monetary rewards all the time; simple things like a week of having a personal
parking spot at the office would be sufficient. Rewarding employees could also be a part of the
company benefits.

Leadership based on result

Smallwood, in their book Results-Based Leadership published by the Harvard Business School Press,
that leadership is all about achieving results! So what’s new? Leadership has always been about
achieving results. Good leaders have always been focussed on changing things for the better; and
they have always been concerned with the future rather than the past. The Results Based Leadership
process is based on an understanding that authentic, sustainable change and the development of
new skills doesn’t happen overnight. Rather than using a single event, Results Based Leadership uses
an interactive, structured process that will initiate changes in behavior to ensure improvements in
key areas of your business. This work impacts the bottom line next month, next year and beyond.
Results Based Leadership uses a variety of creative learning techniques to make the process
personally meaningful to leaders involved in the learning, helping them to deliver the right results
for the organization and affect real change: