Did you know that having a strong leader is super important to a lot of people? It definitely is to me. While I don’t have the figures for NZ I did read an article that said that 50% of people in the US alone left their last role to escape poor management. Imagine half your team leaving their job just because they thought you did a bad job supporting them? That’s just scary, and it’s also very obvious that we need to have leaders, or managers if you will, who are strong, reliable and engaging. Business success relies on it. If you have a strong leader then I genuinely believe that great results will come from it. You will have enthusiastic staff who will go out and do all the things they should be doing to create business and therefore wealth, office morale will be improved and with that staff retention will also be better. Another figure I read, and I’m not sure if it is US based or around the globe but it states that a massive 91% of staff feel more motivated to do, and be, better when they have great leadership support.
So what do I think makes a great leader: Clarity, planning and knowledge just to start with. You have to be able to give realistic expectations to your team. As a leader your job is to make your team’s business run as smoothly as it can, not set them up to fail. Set clear objectives and that means working out what each individual team member is capable of (based on how long they’ve been doing the job, if they have support staff, how their work & home life is set up, what previous successes they have had…the list goes on). Make sure each person has their own business plan, specific purely to them, and make sure that you hold them accountable. People will always be more engaged when they understand what they are working towards and what the benefits to them will be. Make sure that you know your team inside out. Know what they are capable of, what they are prepared to do, or not, and what sort of structure is needed to get them where they want to be. Another little fun percentage I heard – employees who believer their manager can name their strengths are 71% more likely to be engaged at work. So I’m going to say straight up that I can name the strengths of each and every member of my team – and I’ll name some that they may not even have been aware of.