Leadership is a complex phenomenon that has been studied by scholars for many years and still is a relevant topic for research. Leadership can’t exist without communication, and to manage people effectively and be followed, you shouldn’t stop doing your best at developing your leadership skills. Go on reading to learn about the best leadership tips and insights of this summer.

Leading Remotely Requires New Communication Strategies

In his article, Adam Roseman suggests using a system of managing remote teams. It has been implemented in practice and shown great results. Start every working day with 15-minutes individual meetings. Organizing meetings in small groups by leaders is a common practice that has been used in companies for years. But the author is sure that holding individual interviews with each team member is much more effective as a leader can hear everyone and everyone is sure they’re heard. And besides, people usually talk less when they know someone is listening. 

Another point is the “Traffic Lights” Emotions system. It implies that every employee should describe their state/mood/condition with the words “green” meaning they’re fine, “yellow” meaning they’re not ok and something disturbs them, and “red” which means they’re in a critical condition. With the help of this system, you as a leader can learn more about your employees, their troubles and ideas, and help them overcome the crisis while working from home.  

3 Critical Steps for Leaders to Build Successful Data-Driven Companies

In this article, Marcel Schwantes dwells upon the need for and ways of transforming companies into data-driven organizations as well as the role of leaders in this complex process. He suggests leaders following three critical steps to succeed in this data race:

  • Trust your team and let them do their best. The author offers to create training and adoption programs for frontline employees whose aim is to teach them to make independent decisions. Establishing a more democratic model of decision-making in companies is a must today.
  • Make your employees manage their insights. For a company to be successful and up-to-date, its workers should not only be skillful and competent but also innovative and know how to manage their insights. They shouldn’t be afraid of implementing them into practice. One of the ways to make people work with their insights effectively is to provide training programs.
  • Train the trainer. Managers should support frontline workers and play a certain role in their professional lives. But in reality, most managers aren’t ready and can’t provide any assistance, which is why training, in this case, is also a must.

You’ve Worked Hard to Earn Your Team’s Trust. What Happens If Layoffs Are Necessary?

Kent Grayson and Sanjay Khosla touch upon trustworthy relationships between leaders and employees and the duty of leaders to communicate bad news to them, such as layoffs. At a glance, trustworthiness and rapport seem to be ruined as soon as a manager tells an employee about the layoff. On the other hand, benevolence and trust make a great ground for the relationships. So, if you have been sincere and kind to your teams for a long time, they will more likely understand that you have no choice and their dismissal is a forced measure. 

How to Show Employees That Your Company Values Diversity and Inclusion

Susan M. Heathfield, the author of the paper, suggests the following tips for managers to demonstrate to employees that their company appreciates diversity and inclusion:

  • Ask your employees for sincere feedback about the role of diversity and inclusion and their state in the company. 
  • Provide training for your senior staff employees. Managers and leadership teams in general are the people who establish an environment in the company. So it is important to make them understand why diversity and inclusion are significant and how they can work with it to make everyone feel comfortable at the workplace. Besides, they should learn how to foster them in every department, so training programs are a good solution.
  • Create a ‘diversity and inclusion leadership team’. Its members would get employees’ feedback, analyze it, track progress, and implement innovations to make a company truly value diversity and inclusion.
  • Organize team-building meetings and events. During these meetings, you can ask employees to develop a set of rules that will help their team to act in different situations that may arise at work. During discussions, people will appreciate that they can express their thoughts freely and they are listened to and supported.
  • Reconsider your hiring policy. Make sure your job postings have no gender-specific words and are suitable for both male and female candidates. When holding interviews, try to make them systematic to compare candidates without bias and ask the same questions to analyze their answers objectively.

The Ultimate Guide to Micromanagers: Signs, Causes, Solutions

In their paper, Ben Wigert and Ryan Pendell have highlighted the features and causes of micromanagement and provided a description of micromanagers’ behavior. “Today’s micromanager is likely someone who wants it done exactly their way but provides little context, support, help or advice”. They suggest following some recommendations to get rid of this management type:

  • Create a friendly environment where everyone knows their value and isn’t afraid of communicating ideas and making decisions. 
  • Know your team’s strengths and weaknesses but pay as much attention to their strengths as possible. 
  • Make communication the main tool of your management.
  • Focus on the development and provide your teams with all opportunities for it.
  • Shift your recognize and reward approaches to team collaboration and cross-team partnerships.

Next-Level Leadership: The New Skills & Mindsets Needed To Lead Others Into The Future

The author of the paper, H. V. McArthur, writes about this year’s challenge for leaders that has appeared as a result of recent unpredicted and unexpected events and the uncertainty regarding the future. It’s about adopting new approaches to managing. She distinguished the following skills that every leader should work on today:

  • Imagination in terms of planning the future.
  • Readiness for dynamic change and openness to it. 
  • The ability to learn lessons from failures.
  • Budgeting for value as a way to contribute to the future.
  • Making decisions in a real-time environment.
  • Dealing with ambiguity. 

Regarding the new mindsets, the author is sure modern leaders have to focus on the following ones in the nearest future:

  • Modesty,
  • Self-respect,
  • Susceptibility,
  • Courage.

7 Strategies for Promoting Collaboration in a Crisis

Heidi K. Gardner and Ivan Matviak investigated the impact of a crisis on employees and leaders and the ways how to improve collaboration in these difficult times to improve effectiveness at work. As a result of the research, they have developed the following tips on how to promote collaboration in a crisis:

  • Make your team feel free to express their thoughts and ask questions because it will encourage group discussions and may help address challenges.
  • Take care of the environment and collaboration patterns inside your company.
  • Be closer to frontline workers not only to get on track but also be in the know about their concerns and weaknesses to distinguish potential risks and be able to manage them on time.
  • Remind your people of their common goal and the importance of the contribution they make to the process. 
  • Dwell on your usual behavior in a stressful environment and make sure your people do the same. It will help you find communication problems if there are any and improve collaboration.
  • Focus on your team’s strengths and let them know you appreciate their efforts. 
  • Try to avoid individual praise when all team members are here. An even better decision is to let the whole team know about their contribution and their role in the company’s or even a single employee’s success.   

 

What are your tips for being a successful and effective leader?