Main leadership skills for top managers. Continuation

In the previous part of this article, we spoke about only a portion of leadership skills any good top manager should possess. This part is going to discuss character traits such as a good sense of humour, curiosity, and the ability to negotiate and delegate authority. Let’s begin.

The ability to negotiate

At first, it seems that there's nothing difficult about negotiating and holding business talks. People meet, chat, drink coffee, show off, and sign stacks of papers. This is how a typical negotiation is seen by an average jealous employee. Few people know that conducting negotiations is one of the key leadership skills. The most important issues are discussed, multi-million Rand deals are signed, and critical decisions are made during these talks and business meetings. That’s why one should never underestimate the value of proper negotiation skills. By the way, there's an abundance of books on the subject, with yearly and monthly meetings and training sessions dedicated to this important skill. Don't hesitate to attend these meetings and read a couple of books on the topic. Then, even the most demanding and hectic negotiation will go as smoothly as butter.

Curiosity

Curiosity is another important leadership trait of a professional boss. If you want your company to grow, you must be curious in a positive sense. We’re not saying you should be interested in the personal lives of your employees, be curious about who is dating whom and where they spent their vacation. We're talking about another type of curiosity, an inquisitive nature. It's important that when you become a director, you don't lose your spark and curiosity, be invested in learning about new technology in your industry, visit conferences, exchange experiences with colleagues and march onward.

The ability to delegate authority

When working in a run-of-the-mill position, you become accustomed to doing all assignments yourself. If you want to become the head of a company and learn how to manage personnel effectively, you must learn how to delegate authority. Not only will it save you time but will also allow you to adjust the company workflow properly as all employees will have something to do, and they will feel appreciated and needed. Many people fear distributing tasks among employees or giving important assignments to one of them. Understand that if you do this correctly, a department or a business you run will work as a singular mechanism.

The ability to set goals and achieve them

Any experienced director knows that one must properly formulate assignments and see them through. If you aimlessly run a business and chaotically make illogical decisions, nothing good will come out of it. A director with great leadership skills has to be balanced, calm, and able to clearly set their own and the company’s goals. Then employees will view him as a leader and also strive to achieve the common goal. Objectives must be understandable, clear and properly formulated. For example, the goal of becoming the best in our industry sounds vague. It's also unclear why people should strive to achieve it. If you set a goal for your employees that sounds something like 'In the coming year, our income should double that of the previous year' they will understand what they have to do and will strive towards the desired outcome. Still, when you set a financial goal before your employees, don't forget to reward them once it's achieved.

A good sense of humour

A sense of humour is another valuable leadership trait that characterizes a successful boss. However, this trait has one peculiarity – you can’t learn it. You are either born with a good sense of humour or you're not. On a more serious note, we would like to point out that finding a company director with a good sense of humour is rare. You are very lucky if aside from all the aforementioned qualities, you are also able to make intelligent jokes and appreciate jokes told by others. We must admit that a sense of humour helps us in the most complicated and seemingly unsolvable situations, which you will inevitably encounter despite the position you hold.

A positive outlook on life

Living in the modern world makes it hard to maintain a positive outlook on life and the world in general. If you wish to become a truly successful company director, you absolutely must look at things in the most positive way possible. You have to understand that you're the head of a company and your mood, opinion or view on life influences the mood of all of your employees. Each time you come to work, imagine that you're the captain of a huge ship. If you emanate negativity, you'll become tense and irritated, your ship will sink or all sailors and chief engineers will run away while you're left alone in the rumbling business sea. If you don't want this to happen, try finding happiness in the little things and seeing the best in the world and your work.

Inspiration skills

We’ve kept the main leadership skill, without which there's no point in agreeing to work at a top position, for last. If you're uninspired by the work you’ve dedicated your daily life to, you won’t be able to inspire employees towards new victories. Any first-class director must know how to inspire people, give them hope, motivate and uncover their potential. This skill can be easily mastered if you're truly in love with your work or are passionate about your business. If you're uninspired yourself, it's hard to foster the opposite feeling in someone else. That's why we advise finding work you love or one that irritates you the least and brings a good income.

Should you master all of these skills, the road to a promotion will be an easy one. Strive, learn, dare and always better yourself!