The Best Leaders Empower Others
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The Best Leaders Empower Others

BySonya Shelton

We become more powerful when we empower others. Great leaders unleash the leader within each person, liberating them to use their own power. Everyone wants to feel like they are contributing to the vision. This is why leader empowerment is important. You can empower others by acknowledging their strengths and potential contributions. First, identify their…

Effective Leaders Foster Open Communication
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Effective Leaders Foster Open Communication

BySonya Shelton

As a leader, you want your team to follow you. To follow you, they need to trust you. To trust you, they need to believe what you say, and they want to know you care. It’s even better when you trust them too. Part of developing that trust, respect, and rapport you need to lead is open communication. It doesn’t just…

How Executive Leaders Make Tough Decisions
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How Executive Leaders Make Tough Decisions

BySonya Shelton

Making clear decisions is a critical factor to effective leadership. However, many executives suffer from decidophobia, the fear of making tough decisions. Decisions take courage, and courage means taking intelligent risks to move the organization in the direction of the vision. It’s important to gather data and perspectives, and you can use several decision-making models to help you do it well. However,…

5 Ways to Encourage New Ideas In Your Business
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5 Ways to Encourage New Ideas In Your Business

BySonya Shelton

  Leaders create positive change. You don’t always have to be the creator or innovator, but it’s important to recognize and support good ideas. It doesn’t matter whether you came up with them or not. The difference between your success and failure could be just one idea. Here are some ways to encourage new ideas in your workplace: Talk with…

Executive Leaders Model Growth and Potential
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Executive Leaders Model Growth and Potential

BySonya Shelton

The speed of your success is dependent on both your own growth as well as the growth of those on your team. They will never grow further or faster than you do. Most people think success comes from luck and appears in an instant, like winning the lottery. They see the results from their perspective from that moment in time. But…

5 Tips to Effectively Reward Performance
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5 Tips to Effectively Reward Performance

BySonya Shelton

Celebrate the behaviors you want to see more often. When you discourage mediocrity and reward performance, you create a high-performing culture. Strong performers need to be recognized as such, and they need to be developed even further. Here are 5 tips to consider when rewarding great performance. 1.When most managers think of rewarding employees, they think about raises, bonuses, and perks. And…

Are You Giving Effective Feedback?
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Are You Giving Effective Feedback?

BySonya Shelton

Because managers and executives struggle with the process, feedback has developed a negative reputation. Feedback doesn’t equal criticism. Feedback is providing someone with observations that influence their performance. Since influence is your number-one job as a leader, it stands to reason that giving feedback is an important part of your role. People want to know how they’re doing, and they want to hear…

Set Clear Expectations for Best Results
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Set Clear Expectations for Best Results

BySonya Shelton

While clear communication is important in everything you do as a leader, one aspect that deserves special attention is setting expectations. It’s an area many executives take for granted when they assume people understand what’s expected or when they think they don’t need to explicitly communicate expectations. Your role as a leader is to set…