Three Tips for Encouraging Leadership

Are you an encouraging or discouraging leader?

As a leader, it’s crucial for you to be more encouraging than discouraging. Not only will it impact your organization’s results, but it will also increase the morale and attitude of your group – and in the end, it will make your job as a leader easier.

Many leaders don’t realize that they criticize more than they should. This is because leaders are often looking for the exceptions – the things that are not going well.

Your team may have noticed that all you do is focus on what’s going poorly. What you don’t realize is that this negativity can affect their motivation, morale and attitude.

You might think you are just telling the truth and highlighting opportunities for improvement, but if your tone comes off as negative or critical, your team may become demotivated.

It’s not like the old expression that says, “the beatings will continue until morale improves.”

Here are three tips for being an encouraging leader:

First, remember that most problems and challenges are solvable.

Many of the issues that cause you to be critical are easily solved.

For example, a change in machinery or equipment might be required. Although you might have to put up with the problem until it gets fixed, the reality is that it is solvable.

It is your job as the leader to identify which problems need to be solved, and then bring in the resources to solve them.

The second thing you can do to become more encouraging is to build on the successes.

You might be noticing the distance between how your team is performing now, and where you think they could be if they improved. Slow growth might mean you don’t want to give them any credit for making even the smallest of improvements.

What you should be doing, however, is highlighting the gains that they’re making to reassure them that the changes in the commitments they’re making are yielding positive results. This will encourage and motivate them to continue stepping it up.

The final tip is to reassure your team members.

People often doubt themselves and are not confident in their ability to deliver on the work expectations you have set for them. It’s important to reassure them that they are doing well, that they are fitting in or that they have improved.

As you become more encouraging, you will notice that your group’s morale and attitude improve, and you will start to see those changes reflected in the results your team is capable of generating.