Effective Leaders Improve these Mental Mistakes

Being a great leader is hard. Often the greatest challenge of running an effective business is leadership. Great leaders are almost always the answer, too. It’s a catch-22, while poor leadership can break a company, a good leadership team can make it incredibly successful.

Here is the bullet point list of things to be on the lookout for in your own mental state as a leader:

• Turf Wars created by choosing me over we. Align your intention with your actions, and you’ll build trust with your team. Often we lose sight of the team success for the sake of building our own names.
• Giving in to short term gratification in working with your team. Remember that what gets measured gets improved. If you take the time to increase the effectiveness of your team through training, you’ll see greater payout in the future. Think of it as a long-term investment.
• Letting social judgement drive your decisions. Here’s the thing: leaders are here to do just that – lead. That means, you’re not always going to be the good guy. Implement a decision making process that mitigates personal interpretation, in other words, removing the “me” and focusing on the “we.”
• Too much governance. Not enough guidance. Here’s a solution to directing others on what to do: provide just enough guidance to get them going in the right direction. Provide clarity on the direction the team should be going – the end goal. Create measurable goals that challenge but do not overwhelm. And finally, make sure your team is competent enough to accomplish the goal. (See point 2 above)
• How you show up. This one is tough sometimes. Leading a team or business can be difficult. Showing up with a poor attitude is contagious to your team. So remember, stay positive. People are looking up to you!
• Lack of clarity. Share your vision with your team. Implement some SMART goals, and let your team help you reach them.

Remember, leaders should build others up, not just look for ways to build themselves up. When you build others up, you build up trust, you build up an effective team, and you grow the effectiveness of your business.

This was our commentary on a post from Forbes. Original Post.