Make The Most of Your Personal Power as a Leader

All really great leaders know the few leadership secrets I am going to share with you in this article. They know that there are a few crucial personality traits, which they can use to empower themselves as leaders. These personality traits or rather personality powers, will help them to increase their level of influence and as you know leadership is all about a leaders ability to influence their team to perform optimally.

I am sure you have sat in a room where someone has put their hand to their mouth and yawned. How long did it take before everyone in the room felt a virtually uncontrollable urge to yawn themselves or put differently, mirrored their behaviour? We have billions of mirror neurons in our brains, which drive us to mirror the behaviour of the people around us. These mirror neurons are crucial to our development and help us to learn and grow. Any great leader knows how to use this concept and knows that emotions are contagious, or rather that the people around them mirror the emotions they project to the world.

Your Emotions are Contagious

When any leader consistently projects an aura of enthusiasm to everyone around them, everyone in their team, feels more excited and driven to participate in supporting the team’s success. The more excited a leader is about accomplishing anything, the more excited and driven everyone in their team will be to help the leader succeed. Emotions are most certainly contagious and so, the more passion you have for your life and everything you do, the more charisma you will project and the more driven people in your team will be to co-operate with you as their leader. Every great leader, who has lived has been passionate and driven by a cause greater than them and as a result, has attracted the support and co-operation of a myriad of people, who supported them to achieve the outcome they wanted.

As people mirror the behaviour of the people around them it is crucial that anyone, who wants to become a great leader, must develop expertise and competence. Any leader knows that their team will very quickly lose trust and respect in them, if they are consistently incompetent and do not possess sufficient knowledge and expertise. The opposite is also true. The more knowledge and expertise any leader has in their respective field, the easier it will be for their team to trust and respect them, as their leader. When any leader is consistently competent and leads by example, their team members will exhibit the same level of competence and willingness to always deliver their best. When you are a competent leader and consistently perform at a high level, you will naturally attract a team, who will support you and help you to succeed.

The Power of Preparation

All great leaders also know the power of preparation. The more prepared you are to lead your team, prior to tackling any task, the more your team will respect and trust you as their leader. When preparing to tackle any new task or project, it is crucial that you research and have a deep understanding of what you want to achieve. You as the leader must have an overall vision or direction that you want your team to travel in. Everyone in your team must know their individual role in delivering on this vision.
As you however introduce any new task or activity, which will assist the team to achieve this vision, you must be absolutely clear in your mind about why you need to carry out that specific task or activity. This clarity must be clearly communicated to all team members. Each team member must be left with no doubt as to their individual role in carrying out the new task or activity. Clarity and an understanding of purpose, will act to inspire all team members and allow them to completely support you as their leader. The more prepared you are as a leader, where you have invested time to think through different scenarios, considered numerous possibilities and explored all the different ramifications. The more you will be able to positively influence and inform your team about the new project and their role in achieving the outcome you need.

As any great leader knows, you lead by example. Always strive to do things right the first time and everyone in your team will soon mirror this positive behaviour too. You and everyone in your team is a work in progress, show your commitment to keep growing and expanding and you will very quickly see all your team members show a willingness to keep growing themselves.
Action Idea: What can you do from today to make a real difference to you as a leader?

• Get excited and passionate about your teams goals and project this enthusiasm to everyone in your team. You will be amazed at how quickly the members of your team will start to exhibit the same level of enthusiasm and willingness to support you as their leader.
• Commit to constantly grow and expand in every area of your life and encourage every team member, with your example, to do the same. Your encouragement and example will most certainly, over time, encourage everyone in your team to grow, learn and expand themselves.
• Show your belief and commitment to every team member and ensure that they are completely clear about their individual role on delivering on the team’s vision.
• Always ensure that you are adequately prepared and strive to always be the example you want your team members to be.

When you commit to introduce these few new behaviours and you bring these few new action ideas into your leadership style, you will very quickly see a dramatic improvement in the performance of all your team members and ultimately the results you will achieve.

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