- Know Yourself – Your own mind should be your greatest study. Become a master of paying attention to how your mind reacts to people, situations, and challenges. Know it’s strengths, weaknesses and be aware of your personal blind spots. Those subtle yet obvious things that others’ notice and see about you but would never have a reason to share with you unless they were a good friend and you asked.
- Believe in yourself – It’s very cliche’ but your belief determines your potential and your potential gives rise to your actions and your actions will determine your result which of course reinforces your beliefs. This is classic Tony Robbins
- Lead by example – It’s often said that, “the example you set is the example you get.” And there is certainly some truth to this, however, in my experience as a CEO of a large sales force I found that people would perform to match at least 50% of the example that was set out before them. So in the case of people management, this explains why some of our greatest leaders went to extremes to make their points.
- Ask people to inspire personal growth & push their outer limits – Ask and you may receive. People love to have people believe more in them than they believe in themselves. This is your opportunity to help them achieve their greatest feats and all you needed to do was ask.
- Be real and accessible to your team – Authenticity is the name of the game if you want to stay in the game. Be yourself, be open just make sure you’re not too vulnerable otherwise you could easily expose yourself to a cunning shark. So using your strengths and hiding your weaknesses are a necessary skill set of all great leaders who stood the test of time. Nobody said this was easy.
- Show empathy not sympathy when dealing with your teams’ challenges and difficulties – When people lean on you to hear their business challenges and more than often their personal problems. Be kind and respectful and lend them a shoulder to cry on and then ask them what they plan on doing about their issue or current challenge? What steps are they taking to move forward? Help them create an action plan. This is being empathetic. If you sympathise with everyone that has a business issue or personal problem then you’ll end up having to solve everyone’s issues which will ultimately lead to an unempowering and unenlightened team.
- Create a learning and growth-centric culture and perhaps accredit your team members so they can use a solid coaching methodology. – If you create and nurture a coaching environment then your team will continue to learn, grow and solve their issues on their own. Now that’s empowering!
“Growth comes from challenging your own limits, which explains why great leaders love to push people beyond their own expectations”
- Fight for your team members when you have an opportunity and you will be repaid with a massive dose of extra mile mentality and loyalty which will weather all storms and conquer your marketplace.
Remember that people have emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual realms, learn how to appeal to all four of these aspects when communicating, teaching, leading and inspiring your team to new heights.
Dominic Kotarski is the author of international best-seller “The Making”. He writes, speaks, inspires, motivates and teaches on the most important aspects of your business including Sales, Coaching, Team-Building, People Management and Business Development. Get weekly access to his blog & training videos FREE by subscribing HERE! and when you sign up you will get Instant Access to his Sales Skills Training Video.