As leaders, we all do things we later grow to regret. Leadership coaching aims to help leaders develop habits and behaviors that leave little room for regret. Here’s a look at some leadership behaviors leaders will never regret. The more of these behaviors you adopt, the more successful your leadership will be.

Leaders are human. As such, they make mistakes and do things they regret. Leadership is a convoluted tightrope act of influence and inspiration. It’s easy to go wrong and develop regrets.

The difference between resilient, mature leaders and leaders with immature, fragile egos lies in how they react to what happens to them and their organizations. Leadership coaching focuses on helping leaders adopt mindsets, attitudes, and behaviors that lead to fewer regrets. Those truly successful may even avoid regrets altogether.

Regrets stem from how we react to life. 

Some decisions, strategic investments, and attitudes minimize the regrets we all inevitably encounter. There are some things we never regret doing as leaders. Here are some things that never lead to regret from the perspective of leadership coaching.

1. Pouring Passion into Your Endeavors

Passion makes us invincible as humans and leaders. Passion is invulnerable to defeat. When we have passion for something, we never accept defeat, despite the setbacks. As soon as the shock and disgust of failure dissipate, we start pondering ways to bounce back and learn from our failures.

Passionate leaders never rest on their laurels, nor do they hesitate to move out of their comfort zones in search of improvement and success. Passion leads to full engagement, and leadership engagement is often contagious.

2. Leading by Example

Passionate leaders don’t hesitate to spearhead the efforts of their organizations. They develop visions, draw up plans, and commit to action with courage. They show employees the way instead of preaching about it.

From the perspective of executive coaching, leading by example is one of the most desirable leadership behaviors. It builds trust, dispels doubts, and creates engagement. Coupled with leadership vulnerability, it can be an empowering factor for employees.

Though easy in theory, few leaders can be consistent about this behavior.

3. Being Accountable

Leaders must enforce accountability. At the same time, if they want to lead by example, they must be accountable to others. When leaders are accountable, they proactively meet others’ needs. Being accountable doesn’t translate to allowing others to control them. Leadership accountability sends the powerful message that leaders are invested in the success of team members as much as they are in their own success.

4. Making Expectations Clear

Great leaders are quick to develop visions and set objectives. At the same time, they ensure they translate their visions, making them clear to stakeholders. Business coaching professionals understand the value of communicating clear expectations to employees and peers. Such communication simplifies complex organizational endeavors like scaling.

Clear objectives enable performance. 

Employees need actionable objectives instead of vague ideas. They must understand what their leaders want and expect from them. Clear expectations improve the performance of teams, providing a benchmark against which leaders can measure the performance of their team members.

5. Empowering and Challenging People to Think

Executive coaching professionals understand leaders will never regret empowering reports and encouraging them to come up with creative solutions.

To help team members grow and develop, leaders challenge them in ways that allow them to put their strengths to use while working on their weaknesses. By triggering personal growth in employees, leaders look to address the succession needs of their organizations. To achieve that goal, they’ll keep employees on their toes, constantly pushing them to transcend their comfort zones. At the same time, they ensure employees have all the material and moral support they need to excel.

6. Displaying a Positive, Inspiring Attitude

Positivity and psychological safety are indispensable ingredients of a company culture that leads to performance. Intelligent leaders are strong-willed, but likable. They know how to motivate and inspire.

From the perspective of business coaching, intelligent leaders love being leaders and taking on responsibilities. They’re not reluctant to invest time and resources in their relationships. They act as teachers if situations requires them to do so, and they don’t loathe showing vulnerability.

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