Teams, as we know, have the potential to contribute significantly to organisational performance. On the other hand they often fail to deliver to optimal performance levels.

While there may be whole host of barriers to success, I have found that some of the real barriers include the following:

• A Lack Of Listening

  So often people say that the problem is a lack of communication. Yes, communication matters but what I have found is the real barrier is the inability to listen to each other. When we stop listening, we close our mind to insights and ideas that could make a big difference.

• The Know It All

  You might have met this person: the individual who has the answer to every possible challenge that the team could have or face. The trouble is, they tend to steam roll through their ideas and end up alienating people.

• Pessimism

  Achieving anything of significance is tough and let’s not pretend otherwise. At the same time, if you are overly pessimistic you never do anything because you worry as to if you are doing the right thing.

• Promising A Lot, Delivering Little

  The people who used to frustrate me were the people who promised to do a lot of things but just let the team down time and time again. If you are the leader, you need to hold these individuals to account.

• A Lack Of Trust

  Trust takes time to build and can be destroyed in minutes. Delivering what you say and going out of your way to help others builds and maintains trust.

I would love to hear your experiences of what gets in the way of team success and, if you have a moment, I invite you to leave a comment.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. He invites you to take advantage of his free audio e-course Leadership Success at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk

Leading is not easy. I am sure we all agree with that. It is often one of those things that look straightforward if you are on the outside looking in.

For me, success as a leader depends on many factors. In this blog post I have decided to pull out my top qualities or skills under the letter ‘C’.

Commitment

• Leading and being a successful leader is a marathon, not a sprint. Yes, there will be times when it seems effortless. At the same time, there will be plenty of obstacles along the way. Commitment levels need to be very high.

Communication

• Some leaders are great at speaking. Others are great at writing cases for funding or business plans. Some are good listeners. The best have all three of these communication skills.

Courage

• It is easy for others to criticise and in truth, no matter what you do, there will always be the critics. Sometimes, as a leader you need to make the big calls. Having the courage to make and follow through these calls will set you apart.

Confidence

• Self-confidence, or lack of it, can make a huge difference to your success. Being self confident is not about being arrogant, it is for me about believing in yourself, your capabilities and what you have to offer.

Caring

• Some of the best leaders I have worked for had that unique blend. They were able to get great results and still show great interest in others. Taking an interest in others and their success is a great motivator and a great leadership quality in my view.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

• PAYING attention to the views of customers or service users.
• PUTTING the organisation’s success ahead of your own agenda.
• Being PERSISTENT in achieving the outcomes you want.
• PROVIDING opportunities to others for self development and growth.
• Listening to the views of other PARTIES.

What else would you add?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

• Spotting OPPORTUNITIES to grow and developing the organisation.
• Being OPTIMISTIC about the future.
• OPENLY communicating within the organisation.
• OVERCOMING setbacks and OBSTACLES.
• Focussing on OUTCOMES.

What else would you add?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

No matter what role we have there are likely to be some things that we do well and others that we are much less effective at doing.  Everyone in a team or organisation brings different skills, qualities and attributes and it is this blend that contributes to delivering successful results.

So what is it that you bring in terms of strengths to the organisation?  Maybe you are someone who is:

• Highly creative and can generate ideas
• Good at dealing with the detail
• Getting things completed
• Planning and organising

To help you to assess where you excel and where you perhaps need to develop yourself, I have developed a simple Leadership Assessment.  You can get your free assessment by clicking on the  following link leadership-skills-assessment

So where are your strengths as a leader and how are you going to use them to achieve greater success?

Leaders need to have a range of skills.  I have identified 6 that I regard as essential to leadership success:

1. Change Management
2. Team Buidling
3. Innovation
4. Relationship Building
5. Global Awareness
6. Decisiveness

 

What would you add to list? Leave a comment and let me know