Ensuring your business has strong leaders and the correct leadership skills is crucial to success. If you want to be good at what you do and be a great leader take action not a position.
You cannot impose leadership on your associates and employees and you cannot force them to follow your advice or instructions without first having earned their respect by showing them you are capable and worth their respect.
Especially when starting work in Asia, never forget that you might be the ‘knowledgeable professional’ that has been hired to come and take on a top level job in hotel management or resort management, but to associates you are a foreigner ignorant to the local Asian culture, customs and the ways things are done.
Employees pay more attention to the working environment, the way they are treated by their superiors, the opportunity to increase their knowledge, skills and chances for promotion more so than money, in many cases.
The recipe for a successful leader who instils loyalty in employees is a healthy dose of humbleness. Yes you lead, but you motivate, listen, respect, share credit given, and remain humble at all times.
Being humble
Great leaders avoid chaos and failure by being humble and are willing to take the blame for failure and give the credit for success to the team. It takes a great team to succeed and employees don’t want to work for bosses who think they are better than everyone else. Learn from your employees, listen to them and have a positive attitude. When wrong, openly admit it, just remember pride comes before the fall.
Team effort
A well-functioning team is always going to do better than a lone genius dictating orders in hotel, resort or restaurant management settings. The people working with you are your most important asset, be there to serve them by investing, appreciating and developing them. Get to know them, give them the space and environment to do great work together. Cultivate a passion for learning in yourself and motivate your team.
Build mutual respect
It’s never about barking orders out of a position of authority. If you can build that mutual respect, then you can lead from a place of influence, trust and loyalty.
Listen to employees
Leaders should listen to truly understand their employees then they should be willing to be molded by their feedback. The best leaders use whatever power they have, their time and energy to collaborate with others. Position yourself as a leader who is there to support the success of those around you. You’ll find that when they succeed, you succeed.
Be accessible and available
Understand the value of connection with others and spend time with the team on a regular basis. You need to be technically proficient to stay one step ahead of your team when it comes to technology, every action you take speaks of who you are as a leader, and every expressed value demonstrates your beliefs. Lead by example in everything you do at work.
Ensure accountability
Leaders must be able to address dysfunction in their team by shutting down problems with consistent policies and a strong stand expressed calmly and confidently. Make informed decisions quickly, accountability is essential to getting things done, the glue that ties commitment to results and to work, it has to be consistent at all levels, including your own.
Find wise mentors
To be a great leader, you need great mentors, wise people who have already gone down the journey in life. The more astute mentors you have, the better a leader you can become by avoiding the pitfalls and mistakes that others have made.
Pass your leadership on
True leaders are always nurturing and mentoring others on the team, which means letting them take the wheel sometimes giving them a chance to showcase their skills and talent. Successful delegation begins by matching people with tasks, if there are gaps in skill sets, a good leader will quickly be able to identify and manage the gaps.
At the end of the day, people want to be led by those they respect, who have a clear sense of direction for the business. Great leaders set out to make a difference, it is never about the role, position or title it’s always about making an impact.
