3 Skills Leaders Need to Practice

As leaders, we wear a lot of hats so we sometimes focus too much on the daily grind rather than on the bigger picture. So here are some reminders you might want to contemplate amidst the chaos of your daily life as a busy leader and business owner.

1.Lean Into Discomfort.

We’re only human so it’s natural for many of us to shy away from doing things that make us uncomfortable. As leaders, though, it’s important for us to keep leaning into that discomfort so we constantly go from the comfort zone to the growth zone.

By doing this, we deal with challenges and problems, confront our head junk, acquire new skills, and develop the courage to live our dreams.

2.Get Clear On The Standards You Work By.

If your company is in a service-based industry, it’s vitally important to have quality customer service because this is the lifeblood of your business.

So, be very clear about the quality of standards that you expect from your people, from yourself and from people you work with like your suppliers.

What are your standards? What boundaries have you set? What’s okay and what’s not? How do you explain your standards to your teams so you are sure that everyone is on the same page? What are your expectations when it comes to quality output? How do you trace under par customer service and address it?

From a system’s perspective, what needs tweaking and where is the roadblock that’s impacting the quality of what you’re delivering to customers or clients?

These are only some of the questions you need to answer to get clear on the standards you want to work by.

3.Reflect and celebrate.

Do you have a “ta-da!” list, which is different to your to-do list? This goes back to my earlier statement about focusing on the minutiae and sometimes forgetting the bigger picture.

The “Ta-Da!” list contains the things you’ve accomplished. But when was the last time you took a moment to reflect on what’s gone right and what hasn’t?

When did you last celebrate what you’ve achieved?

Celebrating the stuff you’ve smashed out of the park is even more important this year. It’ll help you focus on what you’ve done well rather than on the awful stuff that’s happened on many businesses in 2020.

As 2020 winds down (or winds up, depending on which way you look at it #ChristmasIsLife), it’s the perfect time to sit back and review what you’ve done and what you plan to implement in the next year.

If you’re not sure where to start, you can join me for Crush It 2021 Planning session - an online intensive planning session to set you up to kick ass in 2021. You can find all the details here. Don’t forget to download your Year In Review workbook here.