Leaders are not always born. Sometimes they come about purely by accident.
This is common with advisors who don’t anticipate developing large teams until they actually have them, says April-Lynn Levitt, a Toronto-based business coach with The Personal Coach.
The good news is that leadership skills can be developed. This is important, as effective leaders can inspire happier team members who are secure in their own roles within a practice.
Levitt outlines three necessary leadership qualities to help your team feel invested in your practice:
1. Have a vision
There are two direct benefits to having a vision and communicating it to your team members. For one, your team knows the direction you want to go in and can work towards that. Secondly, they are more comfortable developing their careers within your business.
If you become easily frustrated and say how much you dislike your job or that you want to work in another firm, says Levitt, your team members will wonder how long they can depend on a job with your practice.
This will not motivate them to work harder for you but instead will encourage them to spend time looking for elsewhere for work.
Instead, make sure your vision for your practice is clear to your staff as well as individuals you are looking to hire.
You can make this apparent through regular team meetings and a mission statement.
2. Show enthusiasm
Showing energy and passion is one of the key things that distinguishes a leader from a manager, says Levitt.
“A manager is more task-oriented. A leader is more people-oriented,” she explains. “Leaders want to see their people succeed and they want their people to grow with the firm.”
If you’re looking for your team members to do the bare minimum and think of your practice as a place to spend 35 hours a week, then you can use your “boss” title to simply get tasks completed.
If, instead, you know your team is a necessary component to propelling your practice forward, then use your enthusiasm to convince them to go above and beyond their “to-do” list.
3. Lead by example
“Leadership is showing that there’s no such thing as, ‘it’s not my job,'” says Levitt.
When looking to encourage a team environment, being an active and equal member of the group is key. This involves not looking down on tasks usually handled by others.
For example, you hear your receptionist’s phone ringing off the hook. When you go to see why no one is picking it up, you realize the receptionist is busy looking for information for a client who is waiting in the office. Instead of standing there and wondering when the call will go to voicemail, go to the phone and answer it.
After all, you would probably expect other team members to do the same if they were walking by and you should not hold yourself to different standards.
This is the first in a two-part series on the value of leadership skills.