5 Leadership Tips I Wish I Knew Before I Became a Leader
I remember vividly the first time I was promoted to Team Leader. I was young and ambitious and completely unprepared to lead the 10 people that I would be responsible for.
For months I fumbled my way around my new role and the increase in responsibilities. The saving grace was the amazing coaching training I received and my natural ability to empathise, deeply listen, and my genuine passion for people.
“Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.”
-Unknown
In a recent podcast conversation, I was asked about the advice I’d give to new Leaders. Here are my top tips:
Build your self-esteem. It’s so easy to lead from an ego-centric place if your self-esteem is low. With low self-esteem, you are more likely to hold onto power, micro-manage, and not admit to mistakes. Conversely, with rock-solid self-esteem, you are far more likely to relinquish control, delegate, empower, and inspire others.
Develop your intuition. The benefits of a switched-on intuition are immeasurable. Here’s just a few; an increase in compassion and empathy, the ability to self-regulate and influence thoughts, emotions, and actions, heightened self-awareness, an increase in trust which in turn builds your self-esteem, inner peace, and calm, humility, and grace.
Know thyself. Discover what brings you joy, what you’re good at, and what challenges you. The more you know about yourself the more authentic you can be as a leader.
Explore your values. Take the time to find out what your values are and commit to being congruent with your thoughts, words, and deeds in alignment with those values. Make it a habit to check in on those values, they often change as we evolve and grow.
Find a mentor. Whether it’s someone you work with, someone outside of your organisation, or a professional, having a mentor that can guide you, inspire you, cheer you on, and give you the space to explore your leadership is invaluable.