Who do you want to be? What kind of person do you want to become? I’m not talking about your physical goals here of slimming down, having whiter teeth or firmer abs. I’m talking about what sort of person you want to be and what qualities you want to have. If we have a growth mindset and focus on our own self-development, surely, we want to actively make changes to be the best version of ourselves we can be; at home with our families, out and about in the world and of course in the workplace.
As Ernest Hemingway said “there is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility is being superior to your former self”. Here are 5 ways you can begin to be the best version of yourself in your leadership role and encourage your staff and colleagues to be the best version of themselves.
1. Be calm under pressure
We have all been in stressful situations where we should have acted and reacted differently. If you are in a leadership position you need to have the ability to maintain composure, think clearly, calmly gather information and make the right decisions. Rough patches are inevitable in the workplace and being faced with an upset or angry staff member can be challenging for managers, but these are the most important times to step-up and be the best version of yourself.
It’s important to stay calm, remain tactful and supportive and navigate both or all of you through the stressful situation.Think about the last time you were not so calm and graceful in a stressful situation in the workplace and think about how you would have managed things differently. Next time a similar situation pops up, take a deep breath and make a big effort to remain calm, supportive, compassionate and confident. Reassure your employees and help them overcome their own feelings of self-doubt and anxiety if necessary. Staying calm and confident and presenting the best version of yourself when others around you are falling to pieces is vital in building trust and respect during challenging times.
2. Keep your focus on communication when under pressure
This one goes hand in hand with the first point. Being calm and being able to think on your feet is important when challenges present themselves. Performing well under pressure builds trust amongst your team and confidence in your ability to lead and support them. Being able to think on your feet and communicate well throughout stressful situations will build your credibility, professionalism, reliability and strengthen your relationships. Awareness of your communication hang-ups and how you react in various types of conversations and communications can help you develop strategies for improvement. These are a few things to bear in mind when it comes to communication in challenging situations;
- Stay open-minded, practice active listening
- Remove or control your emotions
- Don’t avoid tricky conversations
- Be aware of your body language
3. Do everything with Integrity
Integrity inspires commitment, loyalty, and respect. Integrity is probably the most valued trait in a leader. All staff want to work for a leader with integrity as it is associated with fairness and kindness. Operating your day to day management practices with integrity, simply requires you to be honest, treat people well and be fair in your acknowledgements of people’s efforts, regardless of their position in the organisation. Consider doing your own integrity health check on yourself.
Think of someone in your workplace or anyone in a leadership position that you admire. Try to determine the qualities you most admire about them and think about how you measure up to displaying these qualities yourself. This could be a useful way to aspire to enhancing those qualities in yourself and operating with more integrity. You could ask your team for feedback on these qualities in yourself to help you navigate your way through and strive to make visible improvements to how you lead. It’s also a great way to show your team that you are committed to evolving yourself and accepting your vulnerabilities along the way, it will encourage them to do the same.
4. Inspire communication and collaboration
Communication is always the most essential ingredient to successful leadership. Access your current communication and ask yourself are you really connecting with your team and what can you do to make your communication channels better. Ask for feedback, be quick to give positive feedback, encourage informal communication, find common ground with your team and work as hard as you can to make your relationships even stronger. Encourage an environment where collaboration can thrive and there are opportunities for relationship building and team work so everyone stays connected.
5. Stay focussed on the big picture
There are always going to be challenges, set-backs and stressful times in the workplace. Successful leaders must learn to deal with these and maintain the ability to be objective when the little issues arise, to step back and look at the big picture. If you make the effort to operate ‘above the line’ in every situation, every conversation, every challenge, you are more likely to continue being the best version of yourself. The minute you start responding to situations from ‘below the line’, don’t be hard on yourself, just make the conscious effort to rise again and operate from above the line, keep your eye on the horizon.
Striving to make improvements to the way you operate in the workplace is so important. There are plenty of ways you can strive to be the best version of yourself and inspire others to do the same. “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
Are you the being the best version of yourself in the workplace? Could you and your leadership team do with one of my tailored workshops? I’d love to share my experience and fool-proof leadership techniques with you. Don’t hesitate. Get in touch today.