5 Ways to Grow as A Leader This Summer
Summer is a great time to develop leadership skills, which are often overlooked during the busy year. With the break from the everyday demands of the school year, it’s a good time to invest in discovering new ideas, fine-tuning organizational skills, and preparing for the year ahead.
Leadership is a journey; here are five practices to help you grow this summer.
1. Identify Your Purpose. Take a few moments and write down your “whys.” These could include why you do what you do or more practical reasons, such as paying the bills, serving and impacting children, or carrying on a professional legacy. Next, identify which ones give you energy. These will represent your purpose and motivation. Leaders who understand their higher calling are empowered, driven, and unshakeable. The point is to connect your “whys” with practices that help you grow.
2. Learn to Listen. Becoming an active listener takes time and practice. Many leaders focus on improving their information delivery rather than their ability to receive it. However, listening is a large part of effective communication, and learning to receive messages offers clarity, improves connection, reduces misunderstandings, and increases efficiency.
To improve your listening skills, learn to ask clarifying questions, focus on what others are saying, not your response, and pay attention to body language, voice tone, eye movement, and gestures that emphasize important points.
3. Practice Delegation. Control plays a large part in being a leader, but even the best leaders can’t do everything by themselves, and if they try, eventually, they burn out. Much like active listening, delegation takes time and effort. But once you begin to rely on the strengths of others, you feel empowered and satisfied when helping them progress.
To effectively begin delegating, ensure your team is clear on the big picture (grasps the vision) and has opportunities to provide feedback. Next, confirm your team members are clear on their roles & responsibilities and what they will be expected to deliver. Fight the temptation to correct errors, take over tasks, or insert yourself into the conversation. Trust your team to deliver, encourage, and coach through the process.
4. Ramp Up Your Coaching Skills. According to Culture Amp, “coaching” and “managing” are often used interchangeably but are very different concepts. Managing is more authoritative and exists to drive toward a specific outcome. Coaching is about partnership and collaboration, which focuses on helping people develop new skills and take their performance to the next level.
To practice (pun intended) your coaching skills, you will want to focus on being an active listener (information above), asking good questions, guiding for growth rather than just striving for the result, and encouraging others to continue learning or developing their skill sets. All these actions will inspire others to engage at a different level and take pride in their work.
5. Have Fun. It sounds easy, and who doesn’t know how to have fun? But the truth is that it’s the first thing leaders tend to put aside. So, try to get out of the office, enjoy the warmer weather, and do something you enjoy. No one is meant to go non-stop. If stepping away is challenging, block out time to rest and recharge. People will thank you for it.
Click here to learn more about the benefits of using secure children’s, youth check-in, and volunteer scheduling to help manage your events, keep families smiling, and improve safety. You can also subscribe to the KidCheck blog or connect with us on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Sources:
https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/coaching-vs-managing
