6 Effective Tips To Deal With Leadership Stress

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6 Effective Tips To Deal With Leadership Stress

True leaders know how powerful a certain level of stress can be to keep you focused, to make you competitive, and to encourage action.  Anytime you have to give a big presentation or talk to an important client, if you are not at least a little nervous, you won’t give it your best.

Nevertheless, stress can also be lethal, especially in today’s vile economic reality, where every professional is menaced by endless hours, layoffs, and anxiety about what may come next.

The best and most experienced leaders acknowledge that dealing with leadership stress has to do with 6 essential factors, and these are the way out, now more than ever:

1.Keeping perspective
It is crucial to acknowledge that no matter how bad the circumstances, or how big your challenge is, there are others in a worse situation who are probably dealing with it much better than you are.

Thousands of managers have to talk to their staff about costs reductions, possible dismissals, and new ways to make profit; it is a stressful speech, and many need to calm down afterwards, at least James Mitchum had to.  

James is an executive director at a major communications’ firm, and after delivering the dreaded speech he decided to go out for lunch at a nearby restaurant to unwind.  While he was there, he noticed the cashier was on a wheelchair, and he also saw a blind customer trying to order a meal.  Immediately he realized his problem would disappear, theirs wouldn’t.  Nevertheless, they looked happy, optimistic, and energized. Basically, their attitude was far more inspiring and helpful than his at that moment and he was grateful for the lesson.

2.    Staying fit
Exercise is crucial for a leader’s success.  Several studies have proven that leaders who exercise are more effective and deal much better with stress.

Exercise helps keep emotions under control, and it relaxes and energizes you.  We know it is not easy to fit an exercise schedule when you are a busy executive, however, you must find the way. Everyone around you and you yourself will be thankful.

3.Opening up
Stress manifests when you hold on to too much inside, and leaders often feel they have to manage certain things by themselves… Don’t!  Open up, it will make you appear vulnerable in a good way and authentic, and that’s what draws people to a leader.  

Releasing the load will make you feel liberated, and the more your staff knows about a serious situation, the more in control they will feel.    

4.    Accepting feedback and criticism
The better you acknowledge your strengths and your weaknesses, the easier it will be to remain calm.  The more you welcome ideas and opportunities, the more powerful you will feel. However, this means you have to ask people to be honest with you, and you have to be ready to accept what they say even if you don’t like it.  Allowing for this will make you smarter, and will diminish everyone’s stress because they know they can speak and you will listen.

5.    Reorganizing your life
Get organized and define your priorities, both professionally and personally.  It is very common to add stress to your life by getting ready for a meeting in the last minute or by not sharing crucial information in a timely manner, and this happens when you are too worried about competition and secondary assignments.

Most people live their lives in a very busy but undisciplined way.  In many cases, we only care about doing things non-stop, without ever considering stopping certain things.  Successful leaders make it a habit to select one unproductive thing that wastes their time daily and stop doing it right away.  They do the same the next day, and in the process, liberate themselves from stress.

6.    Recharging batteries
Take time to slow down. Working long hours without stop won’t make you more productive, much to the contrary, it will jeopardize your performance.

When you take time to recharge, you are able to do more in less time.  Professional athletes know it very well: overdo it and you will get burned out.  

Spend time with your family and friends, read good books, go out and have fun, or take a trip.  Your company won’t disappear because you take some days off, and you will boost your capacity to solve difficult situations.

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Leadership Qualities – the Defining Qualities of Effective Leadership

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Leadership Qualities – the Defining Qualities of Effective Leadership

Leadership qualities are qualities that characterize effective leadership. What are these qualities?

Let me lay it out clearly.

For starters, effective leaders are . . .

1. Humble

2. Decisive

3. Selfless and self sacrificing

4. Empathetic

5. Disciplined

6. Good communicators (they communicate the agenda clearly and effectively)

7. Fair and unprejudiced

Effective leaders . . .

8. Maximize the potential of their people by empowering them

9. Surround themselves with people smarter than they are

10. Do not care who takes the credit

11. Admit that they are infallible and admit mistakes when they make them

12. Have a burning desire to make a difference . . . a positive difference

This list is by no means exhaustive. In fact, I can go on and on.

But no matter how long the list of leadership qualities is, I can tell you honestly that without three of these leadership qualities you will inevitably fail as a leader.

What are these four uncompromising qualities of effective leadership?

1. Surround yourself with people smarter than you

2. Acknowledge mistakes when you make them. Take corrective actions, learn from them, and move on

3. Maximize the potential of your people and

4. Be selfless. Serve your people and your organization. Abhor personal gain.

The desire for personal gain will colour your judgment and will ultimately lead you to the path of failure.

To illustrate, consider what happened recently in the company where I work.

As I write this, I work for a global beverage company with roots in the UK. I am in one of the offices in West Africa. My company’s cocoa based beverage drink has about 50% share of the country’s total cocoa based beverage market. Clearly, it was a big operation.

Some two years back, my company’s CEO and the finance director were fired. Why?

Over statement of company accounts.

The company wasn’t doing well. Instead of telling his bosses so, the CEO . . . with the collaboration of the finance director . . . tempered with the accounts to make the company look good and thus, retain his position as CEO. This situation went on for about three successive years before external auditors contracted by the parent company in the Uk detected the fraud.

That incident resulted in a loss to the company of over 6 million U.S. dollars. And shareholders have been told they should not expect dividends for the next two years.

The CEO was a young talented fellow who had been CEO of the company for over 10 years. He was well respected in the community, even winning the position of “The Most Respected CEO” in my country twice.

So, what went wrong? What took him down?

1. The desire for greater prominence, greater fame, and personal gain.

2. Arrogance. He refused to admit he was wrong and wind down production to match demand and market opportunities (He had a vision to make the company a billion dollar company by year 2010. He called this . . . project marathon).

When the market wasn’t growing as fast as production was growing, he refused to slow down production. The factories kept on producing at break-neck speed and the company kept on acquiring more warehouses to store what was produced that the market could not accommodate)

3. He surrounded himself with ‘yes men’ – directors who were at his mercy . . . directors who stood by and watched while the life investment of shareholders went down the drain

Make no mistake about it.

No matter how good you currently are, no matter how intelligent you may be, no matter how many awards you have won, you will fail eventually if you are not a selfless leader.

Remember all the leadership qualities discussed above. But whatever you do, do not forget the four most important leadership qualities.

You can be a great leader. Effective leadership is within your reach. It starts by understanding leadership qualities you need essential for effective leadership.

The good news is . . . these attributes can be learned. And . . . this is your big chance.

About The Author

Samson Itoje is a leadership expert in Lagos Nigeria Africa. He provides free advice at http://www.radical-leadership-management.com

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A Look at Some of the Most Effective Leadership Styles

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A Look at Some of the Most Effective Leadership Styles

Leadership style differs from person to person according to the tasks, team and individual capabilities. However the following tips will help to achieve effective leadership styles;
* Whenever possible, delegate the work to the employee as a whole. But be sure that the employee understands the whole process. You can also connect them in a group if possible.
*  Ensure that the employees understand what you exactly want them to do. You can ask questions and watch their work time to time in order to confirm that they understand the work fully.
* If you have any clear idea about successful outcome, share it with employees. You make the employees to do right things to accomplish tasks successfully.
* Identify the key points when you want feed back about progress.
* Decide in advance in what way you want to reward the employees after he achieves the task.

Effective leadership styles take time and energy but they provide more benefits. Leadership style model helps to achieve effective leadership styles. It includes how to involve employees in decision making and discussions with their supervisors time to time. The leadership style will have great impact on others. Therefore courses and programs are offered for leaders to set a good role model for their team members.

Effective leadership style courses are suitable for middle level managers who want to enhance the team spirit and effectiveness among team members. They will learn to identify preferred management styles. The course will also help the manager to choose the appropriate leadership styles that will help in facing any situations. This will also increase the ability to motivate others.

Benefits of effective leadership styles; any organization’s success depends upon the leadership style. The well chosen leadership style will bring proper accomplishment of goals and objectives. It helps to understand human behavior in wider perspective. It also helps in developing positive self awareness.

Though there are number of leadership styles, the three main effective leadership styles are discussed below:
1. Authoritarian leadership; an authoritarian leader will clearly define what are the organizational needs and what should be done and how it should be done. He will make decisions independently. Rarely does he allow others to help in decision making. Therefore the decision making in this type is less creative than other styles. Abused leader can be viewed in this style. However this style is applicable where little group decision is required.’

2. Participative leadership; this is the most important and effective leadership style. This is also known as democratic leadership. Here the leader offers guidance to his team members and he motivates his group members. The leader encourages group discussion and allows team members in decision making. As the group members will feel happy to participate, they will provide higher potentiality.

3. Delegative; Delegative leaders offer no guidance to the group members and allow them to take decision on their own. This style will be suitable when the group members are highly qualified and efficient. However this style lacks motivation. The group member may lack commitment in the later stage.

Developing More Effective Leadership

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Developing More Effective Leadership

Everyone wants a quick fix. Just tell me the secret of developing more effective leadership. Quick, sweet, and get it done today. I can and I can’t!

I Can: Acquire new insights into becoming more effective as a leader. Apply them to your work and life. Practice until mastered. Continue the process indefinitely.

Developing more effective leadership is a hugely broad subject and so is the I Can answer. That answer is probably not a good one although the process steps are valid.

I Can’t: Because developing more effective leadership is so general, it is necessary to break it down into its basic components and work with those. Those components include the acquisition of knowledge, developing new insights, changing how you think and what you do, and practicing until mastery is achieved.

Acquisition of Knowledge: The conscious and deliberate quest of knowledge about all aspects of leadership is essential. Knowledge is the great separator between the mediocre and the exceptional.

I’ll mention a few of the hundreds of areas where in-depth knowledge is important: speaking, listening, dialoguing, exercising, eating, dressing, supervising, motivating, writing, reading, working, technical area of expertise, psychology, selling, negotiating, and the list continues.

How do you get this knowledge – reading books and magazines, listening to educational CDs, watching educational Videos or TV, asking questions, interviewing experts at lunch, observing people and reflecting on your experiences.

Developing Insights: In the acquisition of knowledge, you will find certain pieces of information that will catch your attention and develop an ah-ha experience. You come to realize that what struck you could be valuable information for you in particular.

Don’t neglect these insights but record them in an Insight Log. If you don’t, what will happen? You will forget each insight and they all becomes worthless.

Changing How You Think: Application of your insights to your work and life is the action that begins to develop more effective leadership. Applying what you learn and your insights to how you think is critical to making the changes you seek. Only if you change your thinking and beliefs will your behaviors change. Changing your behaviors is essential to developing more effective leadership.

Changing What You Do: As your thinking and beliefs change, so will what you do. You will find yourself engaged in new more effective actions at work and in your life. Your new actions and behaviors will be directly linked to getting new results and will be recognized as exercising more effective leadership. Insight without application is only entertainment! You want more than entertainment, don’t you?

Practice until Mastered: Practicing the thoughts, actions, and behaviors that bring you more effective results will lead to developing more effective leadership skills, competencies, and attitudes.

This process is actually easy. It is a daily endeavor and includes baby steps. Today, acquire knowledge until you develop one clear insight into how you could improve your work and life. Apply that insight to your thinking and actions today and for at least 21 days (track performing your daily application).

Watch as you develop another effective skill to add to your collections of leadership skills. Observe and celebrate the new results that you will receive from developing more effective leadership skills.

Continue this process until you die. I guarantee that you will have an unbelievable rewarding life from the results you will generate with this daily practice.