From Manager to Leader: How to Develop the Skills Needed to Inspire and Motivate Your Team

Leadership is about unlocking the overall potential of existing employees and other staff to become better. Every member of the team will come up with a unique set of skills. As a leader, your role is to unravel the same and make sure that your employees leverage their skills to their maximum potential. Eventually, it is your responsibility to help team members achieve individual goals.

As a leader, you can make use of relevant strategies to boost the productivity of your team. You can also differentiate them on the basis of the type of task they are undertaking and their individual strengths & weaknesses. You should aim at employing basic motivational skills to improve team efficiency while handling day-to-day issues without breaking the overall spirit.

What are Essential Motivational Skills for Leaders?

Motivational skills for leaders are core characteristics that enable them to encourage as well as support the team members while improving performance and the respective work environment at the organization. Leaders are capable of leveraging motivational skills to promote commitment and confidence in the workplace. Motivational skills enable leaders to bring about positivity while setting well-defined goals for the respective team members.

Motivated leaders are effectively able to communicate specific project requirements and take relevant decisions for the entire team. Providing well-defined goals for the team members also helps in improving productivity toward achieving success.

Here are some essential motivational skills you should develop as a leader to bring about success in your team −

Communication Skills

Leaders can look forward to improving their communication skills to motivate their respective team members. Speaking clearly with ample confidence can help in instigating inspiration in others. Most leaders offer motivation by leveraging interesting storytelling skills and offering leading examples.

You can let your team know about personal achievements while motivating them to achieve important goals. Most employers go ahead with hiring leaders with relevant active listening and public speaking skills. Maintaining positive body language like standing straight and eye contact, can present your personality as a confident leader.

Mentorship Abilities

Professionals who are working in leadership positions will mostly need mentorship skills to train as well as assist the team members. They will go ahead with leading team members and mentoring them in handling tasks. Most employers hire candidates with relevant mentorship skills such that they are capable of supporting the growth of the respective teams.

Leaders having mentorship skills also assist in maintaining a constant learning environment in the respective workplace. Team members can also go ahead with learning from leaders and progressing their career paths.

Problem-solving Skills

Leaders might need problem-solving skills to resolve all types of issues and conflicts within the team. They continue interacting with team members and understanding their points of view. Problem-solving skills can enable them to bring over the right solutions while motivating others to maintain an affirmative environment in the workplace.

Leaders can also consider leveraging their problem-solving skills to make relevant decisions and come up with innovative solutions to meet team objectives. Leaders can come across effective ways to minimize risks associated with a project while implementing strategies.

Goal Setting

Leaders will mostly require a specific goal for the respective teams while motivating them to achieve the same. They might specify particular goals for every project and guide team members in completing the same within the stipulated deadline. Most leaders identify weaknesses in the respective team members while assisting them by specifying personal performance goals.

They track every project and boost team members by celebrating individual goals. You can consider using different tools and software solutions to track the overall progress of team members. As you reward team members after the successful completion of every goal, it will motivate them positively.

Empathy

Empathy assists leaders in understanding the situation as well as the feelings of team members. With empathy, you can look forward to creating stronger relationships with the team and motivating them to perform better. There are several ways to bring empathy to the work environment -like indulging in an informal conversation with the team members during office breaks.

Leaders can go ahead with promoting wellness activities to motivate the respective teams. Empathy can also be present in an approachable leader in the work environment.

Emotional Intelligence

Leaders that are emotionally intelligent are effectively able to manage their respective emotions. They will not get angry easily or have jealousy fits. They help in maintaining composure across all circumstances.

Effective leaders understand the personality of every team member while connecting with them at individual levels. They are comprehensively aware of their respective strengths, weaknesses, and trigger points.

When you build a stronger relationship with the team members, you can appear highly empathetic. Empathy implies that you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand how they feel. When you practice the same on the team members, it helps them in feeling valued. It makes your team trust you more while translating into better performance.

The ability to manage your emotions and that of the team members will go a long way in assisting you in influencing performance.

Diligence

Diligence is a necessary skill to achieve maximum success in any aspect of life. It is the ability to focus on the tasks available at hand to complete while being persistent and sticking to the plan.

Diligent people are not always distracted by the notion of short-term gratification. It is one skill that forms an integral part of successful leadership. As a team member, when you are committed to the entire goals of the team, you will indeed influence other team members to leverage the same attitude.

Conclusion

Motivational leadership is a valuable asset to any company looking forward to embracing new opportunities and handling both arising and existing challenges. However, motivational leadership is not necessarily an obvious occurrence of collaborative and strong leadership skills.