There’s undeniable satisfaction in being able to toss out a rag-tag pair of socks you haven’t worn in years or those suit jackets that have seen better days. But the value of spring cleaning isn’t just getting rid of old things — it’s about making space for what’s really important.
That’s also true for leadership. Spring is the perfect time to consider what dusty old practices just don’t fit anymore. Here are ideas to welcome new techniques, tactics and ways of engaging your team from livingasaleader.com.
Scrub out the negativity
After the difficulty of the past two years, leaders may be persistently negative without even realizing it. Consider the example of one leader who treated their employees terribly but who also had a sign hanging in their office that read, “Honesty, Respect, Integrity … Always.” Until this sign was brought to their attention, they had not consciously thought about their treatment of people. Like most people, leaders can be keenly aware of when they are being mistreated but are blind to their mistreatment of others. Pay attention to areas where you can clean up your act.
Freshen up your praise
Select someone on your team or someone with whom you work closely who is overdue for some positive feedback from you. To ensure that the conversation goes beyond thought to action, make a plan for how you will deliver the feedback. Determine if it will be via email, phone, or handwritten note; whether it will be privately or publicly; or if you’ll jump into it “on the fly” or in a scheduled conversation. Think ahead about the specific examples you’ll cite to praise their effective behavior or performance, then use all of this to brighten someone’s day.
Touch up your skills
Your technical expertise can be the very thing that helps you coach, guide and grow the members of your team. At the same time, to be effective as leaders, we need to learn and develop our own additional skills and behaviors in order to get the results we desire from them.
What leadership skills do you need to add to your repertoire? Take inventory of key actions, like whether or not you ask questions to involve others in problem-solving and decision-making, or listen to people when they speak in order to not just hear but understand.
Of course, cleaning and tidying are jobs that are never done, and the same goes for leadership practices. But now that spring is here, it’s a good idea to take a deep dive into where you can scrub up and throw out practices that no longer work and instead bring forth what needs to see the light of day!