The Five Elements of Effective Leadership

We have all heard it before, “to be a successful leader you must be a people person”, but as we all know, those aren’t always the ones that get promoted into management. 

In the Marketing industry, people come and go frequently. And oftentimes, the high performers get promoted into Management before acquiring the proper skillset. But what exactly makes a leader an effective one? 

Well, people skills are an obvious must, which I’m sure we all could’ve guessed. But what we all often forget is that to be a people person, you must first learn how to interact with and understand different personalities. An effective leader is someone that understands the psychology of business and people and can relate to both. 

Below you will find a list of the top 5 ways to become a better leader and all-around better person to other people. What we call, a “People Person” and an effective leader.

1.    Have a Growth Mindset

I’m sure my team is sick of hearing this phrase and is rolling their eyes as they read this, but I cannot mention enough how critical a Growth Mindset is to become successful not just within the marketing industry, but in any industry. We live in a technological society that changes with the blink of an eye, and yet there are still people in business that fear change. These are the same people that shut down and don’t know how to properly cope with change, no matter how it’s presented to them. 

The truth is, a complacent and fearful organization is more toxic and harmful to a business’s potential than external threats. Fear and complacency promote anti-change. And anti-change is the kind of internal toxicity that can cause a business to tank faster than bad publicity.

What causes people to fear change? The fear of failure. 

Instead of an organization centered around fear of failure, establish an understanding that failure is necessary for progress. Keeping up with the times and being a student to the ever-changing world around us is how we turn our fears into a weapon against the competition and come out at the top. Learn to embrace change and the uncomfortable and understand that mistakes happen. This growth mindset promotes innovation and is what will set you apart from your competition.

2.    Be Emotionally Intelligent

Emotional Intelligence, put simply, is to understand how your actions or behaviors directly affect others. But, to take it a step further, it also involves being able to predict how people will react to your behaviors before a situation occurs and being able to be able to avoid the undesired outcome. 

Emotional intelligence is an important concept in all aspects of life, not just in business. 

To do so, one must practice self-awareness and control, social awareness, and understand relationship management. Be cognizant of your downfalls and other's feelings. Practice thinking deeply about the feelings of others and your own and you will instantly start coming up with emotionally intelligent solutions. 

I recently wrote an article that dives into the concept of “emotional intelligence” and describes ways to improve it. If you’re a little lost on this concept and want to learn more. Check out the article here.

3.    Practice Empathy

Similar to emotional intelligence, but slightly different. To practice empathy, one must be able to understand relationship management and the psychology of others. To be an effective leader one must be able to empathize with the members of their team, and by “empathize”, I don’t just mean to just apologize. Instead, offer advice or tell them a story about when you were in a similar situation and how you overcame it. 

Be personal.

We often forget that in order to be a people person, you need to genuinely care about the well-being of those people. If you put effort into building and developing those relationships, your efforts won’t go unnoticed and will show in their performance and involvement at work. 

Showing a genuine effort will foster genuine work relationships.

4.    Communicate Effectively

The first step in effective communication is to listen. Listen intently before speaking. And if you’re confused, ask questions to clarify. Another way to communicate effectively is to be completely transparent and establish trust. These are the basics we learn in communication courses in High School, but these are also commonly forgotten practices. 

The easiest way to interrupt communication is with emotion or frustration and stress. Start a conversation by actively listening and understanding. Empathize with them (this shows that you were not only listening but also care) and provide a solution. And like we all learn in customer service, apologize for someone’s frustrations. 

A Manager's main job is to think critically, and problem solve. If you can nail this, you will be a more effective leader. 

5.    Remain Curious

I talk about innovation often, mainly because it is impossible to avoid in society and business today. Innovation is the secret to success. But how do we innovate? 

Like we learn in business, the best business concepts or products are the ones that solve everyday problems. To find those things, we must remain curious and question current practices.

Coming up with more effective and efficient business solutions is what is going to keep your business afloat. Work smarter not harder. Don’t cut corners or take the easy way out to make things more efficient, be resourceful. 

If you foster creativity in the workplace, your employees should be questioning your operational structure and current processes. But, by questioning things that seem to be working, we open up areas of opportunity that we didn’t know existed.