Even those of us with head starts in leadership, the born leaders, must train ourselves to attain long-term leadership success. To train yourself to be a top leader, focus on leading by example, keeping your word, and being proactive about feedback. You can only grow your business by growing your team and yourself. Let leadership coaching help you.

Some of us are born leaders; many of us learn as we go. Leadership is an art no one can master without training, leadership coaching, mentoring, or other forms of intentional leadership development. Talent counts, but it’s not enough.

We can all train ourselves to be better leaders. When we sharpen our leadership skills, we work on improving our lives. Leadership skills are life skills we all need to succeed. We may not all lead organizations with tons of employees, but we all lead ourselves and our families.

We can all coach ourselves to leadership success. 

What can you do to train yourself to be a better leader, and how can leadership coaching help?

Wanting to improve as a leader is the first step of the leadership coaching process. This is the point where leaders understand that becoming better is not about what they know, but about what they do.

Consistency and Reliability

Leadership is a game predicated upon trust. Leaders must build trust to lead. Without this currency, the transaction of leadership cannot happen. How do you build trust?

Keeping your word without exception is the foundation of trust and credibility. You need consistency in this respect as you must always stick to your word, regardless of how challenging it may be. Backtracking only once on a promise can ruin years’ worth of carefully crafted trust and credibility.

Consistency and reliability lead to discipline and integrity, two more cornerstones of successful leadership.

Dressing the Part

As a leader, you must walk the walk. It’s easier to do this when you dress the part.

How you dress affects how you feel. As a leader, you don’t necessarily want to impress people with your fashion sense; you want to influence them instead. Ensure your appearance is consistent with this goal.

Your appearance is your personal and professional brand. Adapt your appearance to your aspirations and instill a similar mentality throughout your organization. Being clean-cut, fresh, and professional-looking has never done anyone a disservice in leadership.

Leading by Example

Executive coaching stresses the importance of leading by example. If you want your organization to adopt change, champion and model it. Become the change you want to effect and allow others to sample its benefits directly.

Model the behaviors you want to see in others in your organization. Treat your team as you want them to treat your customers. Show them how to do it.

Understand that your primary objective is to support your team. That is the essence of servant leadership. You don’t bend to the whims of your team members, but you provide every bit of support your team needs to get the job done in alignment with the values of your organization.

The correct leadership attitude toward your team is “how can I help?”

Being Proactive about Feedback

Feedback is the lifeblood of intelligent leadership. Executive coaching embodies the essence of passing feedback back and forth. It doesn’t work if the parties involved withhold feedback.

Feedback is the lifeblood of leadership. 

Leaders should not wait for employees and managers to provide feedback; they should ask for it. Likewise, they shouldn’t wait until someone solicits their feedback. They should readily provide it in a constructive manner.

By actively soliciting feedback, leaders can head off many potential pitfalls. They can discover problems and address them without leaving them to simmer and silently sabotage their leadership. They can get constructive feedback without the danger of seeing it as unwarranted criticism.

Act on the feedback you receive. This will tell your reports that their opinions matter and their words carry weight in their organizations.

Focusing on Personal Growth

Business coaching professionals understand that the expansion of enterprise hinges on two variables: the growth of your team and your personal growth. Focusing on your team and the support it needs is one way to forward your cause. Don’t forget to train yourself to be a better leader as well.

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