The manager, or CEO (CEO) plays a significant role in a company, not only in managing daily operations, but also in creating the culture, vision, and reputation of the organization. As a guarantor of performance, he must behave in an exemplary manner with company employees. In this article, we will develop the essential qualities of a good leader, then we will give you tips for maintaining your image and for developing ethical and authentic leadership.
What are the essential qualities of a good leader?
Leaders need to be able to adapt to a constantly changing environment. This requires a certain number of qualities and skills. Among them, we can mention in particular the ability to Communicate well, the fact of being honest in all circumstances, or even of having good emotional intelligence.
Be able to communicate effectively and transparently
Transparent communication is essential to create a relationship of trust between the manager and his team. A leader must therefore openly share information that can be useful, whether positive or negative. This promotes problem solving and strengthens cohesion between the various members of the organization.
To communicate effectively, it is essential to listen actively to your collaborators and to adapt your communication style and distribution channels according to the audience. Soliciting feedback from colleagues at work allows you to better identify the points that need to be improved in your communication.
Demonstrate integrity
To gain the trust of your employees, managing with integrity is essential. The values of honesty, justice and ethics are often essential in the eyes of employees.
Integrity can be expressed in many forms in business: it ranges from the transparent management of conflicts of interest to the promotion of a culture of diversity and inclusion. It also includes treating all employees equally and respectfully.
Have emotional intelligence
Often overlooked by leaders, emotional intelligence is nevertheless essential for all leaders. It refers to the ability to understand and manage one's own emotions, but also those of others. It logically makes it possible to better anticipate everyone's reactions, to manage conflicts in a more peaceful way and to make the work environment more serene.
Emotional intelligence includes empathy, or the ability to understand the emotions, perspectives, and needs of others. Practical exercises and specific training courses make it possible to develop this.
We have just mentioned 3 major qualities essential to business leaders, but we can also mention the ability to make informed decisions, the management of time and priorities, the ability to develop talent, the ability to develop talent, innovation management, etc.
How to take care of your image as a manager?
The image of a company is closely linked to that of its manager (s). It is therefore essential to take care of them.
Align with the values of your company
Aligning the personal values of the manager with those of the company creates a solid foundation for coherent and authentic leadership. This reinforces the credibility of the manager.
For employees, this can have an impact on The feeling of belonging : if they perceive that leaders fully share their beliefs, it can strengthen their motivation.
Demonstrate authenticity
Authenticity is the key to a positive and sustainable leadership image. This means staying true to yourself, even in difficult situations. An authentic manager inspires trust more easily, especially when he sets an example by himself applying all the rules in force for the company's employees.
Practical tips for developing ethical and authentic leadership
To become a true ethical and authentic leader, two elements seem essential: continuous training and good management of the mistakes made.
Continuously training
Continuing education is essential for both personal and professional development. Leaders must therefore be ready to invest time in their own growth, through specific training programs, mentoring or even reading.
The fact of engaging in training, questioning one's achievements and wanting to improve oneself inspires confidence among teams and all company stakeholders. This shows that the manager is ready to invest personally in order to improve his skills.
Managing the mistakes made
Like everyone else, leaders can make mistakes. Recognizing them with maturity and humility is an essential quality in order to become an ethical and authentic leader.
To maintain trust in your teams, it is therefore essential to communicate both on the mistakes made, but also on the necessary corrections. Transparent communication is required in order to be able to explain the causes of the error and the subsequent actions taken to prevent it from happening again.
Constructive error management strengthens a manager's reputation while inspiring a culture of responsibility within the team.
Business leaders must combine many qualities and skills to behave responsibly at work. Communication, integrity, emotional intelligence, authenticity, or error management are good examples of qualities to be developed continuously over the course of a career. Finally, constant questioning is essential in order to be able to improve themselves on a daily basis, so managers have every interest in asking their employees to give them constructive feedback on how they manage, in order to have concrete areas for improvement to work on.
Our guide to leadership development for business leaders.
You will find the different steps to put in place in order to be able to improve and develop your leadership skills!
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