At The Reisner Group, we not only find the best opportunities for our candidates, but we also help coach them to success, whether that means coaching them on resume updates or coaching them on interviewing skills. As experts in coaching and recruitment, we have decided to start a new series on our blog that will share our soft skills coaching advice with everyone, not just our candidates. We're calling this series "The Gold Standards."
For our first post in the series, we want to talk about leadership. Even if you aren’t in a leadership position at the moment, you can still demonstrate leadership that can make a positive impact on your workplace. With these tips, not only will you hone your leadership skills, you will also see tangible benefits in your career as your manager recognizes your advanced skillset!
Identify problems and offer solutions. Developing a good eye for potential problems is a great way to set yourself apart from your colleagues. Being able to predict future challenges is a sign of a strong leader, and by offering solutions ahead of time, you can not only impress your manager, but also help build your team’s resilience and effectiveness. You can practice this by starting to pick up on trends in your workplace, for example notice when the team feels most strained throughout the day. Once you notice a trend, try to come up with 1-2 possible solutions. In our previous example, you might suggest to your manager that the afternoon shift would benefit from adding a couple additional associates in order to lighten the load on the team and offer better customer service during that busy time. It’s okay if your solutions aren’t implemented immediately by your manager; the fact that you’re pointing them out will speak volumes.
Highlight the great work of your teammates. Strong leaders don’t work alone, and they certainly don’t take all of the credit when the team accomplishes a goal. Giving praise to teammates who are working hard or who made a positive impact in some way is a wonderful way to position yourself as someone who understands the value of teamwork and can build team morale. Your manager will be pleased to see you highlighting your colleagues’ contributions to the team, and you can even help your manager by supporting them with identifying their star players. You can practice this by starting small - give praise to your teammates one-on-one at first as you notice their efforts. This will help you get more comfortable with the feeling of giving praise, and build stronger rapport with your colleagues. As you get comfortable with one-on-one praise, you can try speaking up in team meetings to highlight your awesome teammates; you could even suggest doing a weekly shout-out in your team meetings! Either way, your manager will take note of your ability to stay positive and motivate others.
Take initiative and innovate. It’s easy to get into a routine at work and complete your tasks almost on autopilot. However, leadership requires you to continuously find new ways to accomplish your goals and improve your efficiency, so avoid those ruts! This may be the most challenging tip we have, but it’s also the most important because being able to step up when needed and constantly add value to your workplace through innovation are crucial skills for true leadership. Taking initiative to start a new project that will greatly improve your team’s workflow, or innovating a new way to market open positions to potential candidates are just a couple of ways you can practice this skill. You may be nervous to make your suggestions to your manager at first, and that’s okay - it may be helpful to pitch your idea to a colleague first to see how they receive it, and this might also build buy-in that can help you when finally going to your manager with your idea. With initiative, you’ll want to be sure to offer your help as often as possible, volunteer for new tasks or projects right away, and even go out of your way to complete a task without asking first. By doing these things, you’ll be sure to prove your leadership skills to your manager in no time.
Try practicing one of these tips this week, and let us know in the comments which one you chose! If you’re interested in finding a new place to grow your leadership skills, contact us at staff@thereisnergroup.com to learn more about the job opportunities we have available.