There are many kinds of leaders and leadership styles. Finding the style that suits you and your goals best is a great place to start, but you need to be able to adapt.

Not everyone will thrive in a hands-off approach. Not everyone deals well with strict rules. You need to be able to adapt to bring out the best in those working for you because only when they reach their full potential can your business thrive.

1. Build on Your Leadership Skills with Contemporary Theory

The best place to start improving your leadership skills is with a Deakin online Masters in Leadership degree.

This master is designed to help you:

  • Catch up on the latest contemporary theory
  • Build on your own strengths to help you master your individual leadership style.

It was created with leading contemporary leadership theory and workplace-based research, meaning this degree is the perfect starting point to improve your leadership skills in a tangible way you can show to your employers.

2. Encourage Creativity Amongst Your Employees

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

Albert Einstein

While you are learning the latest leading theories in leadership and workplace management it is time to help kickstart your employees’ talents.

This can be done by:

  1. Investing in the right management software tools available for your industry. Reducing boring, mind-numbing admin tasks will automatically free up time for your employees to start thinking creatively again.
  2. Start building a culture of idea exchanges. You can start small by running mini-workshops where employees need to work together to come up with a strategy for a problem. This problem can be fictional to start or an issue you are currently facing in your business.
  3. Require every employee to put forward an idea and suggestion. It doesn’t matter if it is a bad one. A bad idea can inspire a great one in the next breath. Just remember to make it a safe space to share any kind of idea or else your employees will clam up.

3. Lead by Example

Taking the initiative to build on your leadership skills with a degree is already showing your employees that even at the top you are always striving to be better. Continue with this in everything you do and lead by example.

A true leader always leads by example, by demonstrating to others how the work is done.

Nihar Satpathy

If you want your employees to be passionate, show your passion. If you want them to stay up to date with the latest industry news, then you need to do so as well.

This doesn’t mean you should add unnecessary work but share the work.

If your team needs to be caught up on new policies coming out in a month, split the workup and have each employee create cheat notes for the rest of your team.

Be part of this when splitting up the work and do it first so that the rest of your team can follow your example.

Leading by example can be explicit or emotive. Either:

  • Show your employees exactly the standard you are looking for
  • Embody the energy you want everyone to duplicate

4. Be Passionate About the Job and Your Employees

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.

Anthony J. D’Angelo

Passion is contagious, which is why you need to put your passion on the center stage. If you don’t care about the job then your employees won’t, no matter how much they love the industry.

There are so many ways that you can show a passion for your job.

  1. Stay up to date on news
  2. Stay up to date on contemporary theory and research
  3. Attend events, conferences, and workshops
  4. Be physically passionate at the moment
  5. Bring up the mood during a big project by rewarding progress
  6. Let others be comfortable with sharing their passion.

Passion is tangible and can be shown in a variety of ways. From simply always being willing to talk about the subject, to going through the effort of staying up to date always.

5. Recognition and Reward

A simple thank you and compliment go a long way. In fact, more than half of the employees this year will be looking for a new job because they don’t currently feel appreciated or that they have a future.

Find unique ways to recognize and reward the efforts of your employees to encourage continuous hard work.