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Want To Get The Best Out Of Your Teams? Learn This Quality

They say “you either have it, or you don’t.” But when it comes to charisma, you don’t have to have it — you can learn it.

Charismatic leaders are more influential, persuasive, and inspiring. People are magnetically drawn to them and more willing to perform above and beyond the call of duty to support them.

Successful leaders have the ability to get people around them to help them achieve their ultimate goal. A task that’s a lot easier said than done. Leaders are essential presences in humanity, they are the ones that have the courage and the ability to instill belief inside others to support what they are doing and help them get to where they want. It’s not what you do; it’s why you do it — that is what gets people behind you.

The world needs charismatic leaders because they fight for quality of life and a better world. Charismatic leaders have the courage of their convictions. They are willing to stand up to people who have a differing view of society or the organization.

So how can you bring the best out of your team? Become more charismatic.

But what does that mean? Ask yourself:

Am I a skilled communicator?

Am I verbally eloquent and can I communicate with followers on a deep, emotional level?

Am I able to articulate a compelling or captivating vision, and am I able to arouse strong emotions in others?

If you answered yes to 2 or more of the questions, then you probably have this quality. If you didn’t, here are some charisma styles to help you on your path to being a more charismatic leader:

1. Focus: This style is based on the perception of presence. Adopt this when you want people to feel like they’re the only ones in the room with you. Make people feel like they’re the most intelligent, impressive, and fascinating person you’ve ever met. Interesting stat to note, 46.9% of the mind is spent ‘wandering’ so be present, and smile.

2. Visionary: This style makes other people feel inspired. Vision is a critical component of Leadership Charisma – the quality we attribute to a leader when her/his people are so fully engaged that they enthusiastically contribute their best possible efforts to the the achievement of the organization’s goals.

3. Kindness: This kind of charisma comes from body language and is based mostly on warmth. However, if you don’t combine this with some authoritative skills, you’ll come off as overeager.

4. Authority: This is the most powerful charisma style, and those who acquire it are not likeable all the time. We evaluate this power through four indicators: body language, appearance, title, and reactions of others.

Charisma is really a process – an interaction between the qualities of the charismatic leader, the followers and their needs and identification with the leader, and the situation that calls out for a charismatic leader, such as a need for change or a crisis. But when it comes to the charismatic qualities of leaders, the emphasis is on how they communicate to followers and whether they are able to gain followers’ trust, and influence and persuade them to follow.

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How to Get Others to Follow Your Lead

We succeed in business and in life when we influence how others think, feel, and act: getting them to accept our point of view, follow our lead, join our cause, feel our excitement, or buy our products and services. The act of influencing is such a part of our daily lives that we often don’t even realize when we (or others) are doing it.

But to succeed, we need to know how influence works…and how to use it. Here are my 4 critical elements to get others to follow you;

“Influence is our ability to lift people up to our perspective”

Building Trust

Successful teamwork is built on a foundation of trust. Each member of the team must establish trust, cultivate trust through his or her actions and words, and work to maintain it. Each member also needs to be able to trust his team members to make a commitment to the team and its goals, work competently with those goals in mind, and communicate consistently about any issues that affect the team.

Getting others to buy-in and follow your lead requires trust on a multitude of levels.

How are you working to establish and nurture this trust? Getting to know your team and openly discuss trust issues is a great way to start the process.

Having a clear vision

People need to know where they are going or what the final destination is so create a compelling vision that will make others want to follow you. I interact with individuals from numerous different industries and i find it shocking that most of them don’t know what to do or where they are headed as a team. The vision is imperative and should be communicated effectively.You could stumble and stutter over your words, but if people saw you speaking to the things you truly believed, and felt that you truly understood them and respected their views, you are far more likely to make the vital connection that would attract them to your vision.

It is critical to be clear about your leadership vision and also what your expectations are from the rest of them. Get your team involved in the vision process as this automatically creates a level of accountability. The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

Positive Energy

You experience and create all kinds of different energies that affect how you feel and what you accomplish throughout your day. Some energies are powerful and easily recognizable, while others are more subtle and often only intuitively felt. I believe it is fair to say that everything is, in a sense, energy

Positive energy is contagious. When you constantly take in the positive energy from your surroundings, it will be visible in the outer world.

This may seem inconsequential but it’s actually critical. If you’re presenting your vision to others you have to be very careful about the energy you’re exuding. If you are speaking and leading from a place of fear it will be picked up subconsciously by your followers. You could stumble and stutter over your words, but if people saw you speaking to the things you truly believed, and felt that you truly understood them and respected their views, you were far more likely to make the vital connection that would attract them to your vision.

Communication

One of the most difficult things for leaders to do is to communicate consistently and effectively with all levels of the organization. This requires a sincere focus on communication strategy and execution to do this well. Leaders who skimp on this step pay the price!

Leaders must earn the license to lead. Not by expertise, authority, or title alone, but by influence

Important as influencing skills are, most people don’t know how to gauge their level of proficiency when it comes to influencing others. So to understand and build on a current level of influencing skills there are assessments that can be used to determine a starting point. The assessment asks questions on key components of influencing skills. The results help to provide insights into areas of strength and opportunities for growth that will help to hone this skill for overall effectiveness in changing minds, shaping opinions and moving others to act.

To learn more about our Influencing Skills Assessment Tool (ISAT) and how it can be used to develop this competency in your organization, contact us

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Has Leadership Been Redefined?

Leadership used to be about telling people what to do. We saw the manager as “hero.” Managers were needed to solve problems, needed for their technical expertise and their know-how. They were needed to keep the ship running in tiptop shape!

All our old leadership models came from the military, where people took their command from a few people at the top. These models don’t work in today’s world. As the industrial age models rust, the power has shifted from the people who sell, to the people who buy.

Today’s business leader needs to a master juggler, and a compassionate listener. She needs to be savvy and intuitive and sharp as a tack in business matters. Most of all today’s leader needs to be able to mobilize HUMAN energy, align it and direct it towards a single goal – creating more value for the customer. This, in turn creates a more profitable company. Companies that have high levels of customer happiness and employee happiness outperform those who don’t.

Creative thinker – Einstein said, “The world we have created is a product of our way of thinking” Nothing will change in the future without fundamentally new ways of thinking.

If we want to create a new world we have to first change our thinking and thinking patterns. 80% of the population thinks reactively. They take action to make something go away (usually a problem.) The other 20% are creative thinkers – they take action to make something come into being (the creation.)

Creative thinkers thrive on the question “What’s Possible?” Reactive thinkers ask, “What’s wrong?” or “Who’s to blame?” Reactive thinkers live in reaction and response to circumstances. Creative thinkers go beyond circumstances.

The next quality of tomorrow’s leader is “Change readiness.” The Change-ready individual embraces change. They understand the process of change and how it affects most people, and is skilled at enrolling people in it with a minimum amount of fear.

Most people do resist change – that’s because it forces us right out of our comfort zones. A leader knows how to move people out of their comfort zones with dignity and respect. He helps people share a “common understanding” of the past and why they need to change it and then provides them with a positive image of their future along with actions they can all agree will move them in the right direction.

A leader is a landscape architect. It’s her primary job to build a living environment– called culture. Culture is the soul of the enterprise. Today’s leader is a master “culture-crafter.” He or she sculpts and crafts an environment that stimulates, excites and invites people to be the best they can be.

The architect leader knows that the ability to create a nourishing and challenging environment for people to grow in is more important than any technical skill she can possess.

Continuous Improvement – The leader of tomorrow will regularly challenge old beliefs and be passionate about learning and about applying that learning in the real world. She will often ask my favorite question “Who is doing something differently then I am and what can I learn from them?”

The new leader is authentic. How and who you are is just as important as what you know! Hold yourself to the highest standards – don’t talk the talk unless you are prepared to walk the walk. Don’t expect of others what you don’t expect from your self. Be real, tell the truth. The leaders that are the most revered are those that let the light of who they are shine through in all they do. They are honest, forthright and clear.

Our new leader is a visionary. It’s clearly documented that visionary leaders are successful at mobilizing human potential. A vision provides focus. It’s a tool for aligning energy. Clear vision and purpose provide people with a framework from which to make decisions, it organizes action and effort.

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The Elite Performer

High performance employees see quality as a priority in the workplace. They focus on doing a good job to satisfy clients and customers. They concentrate on improving their skills and take the lead when it comes time to make decisions. These characteristics add to their skills and talent to provide innovation and new development within the company or organization. Do you have these individuals within your team?

Have a sense of “control”

Autonomy provides a key ingredient of top performers in the workplace. High performance employees manage their time, complete their workload and learn from their experience to plan ahead with a great deal of autonomy. Top performers report they have more flexibility than typical performers, according to research and surveys on employees conducted by Accenture, a global management consulting firm. Average performers have little or no autonomy, having their jobs closely monitored by supervisors. High performers rely on their strengths and insights to get the job done.

Input and Feedback

High performers seek input and feedback from their supervisors. They want more detailed information about their work, so they can stay on check with their job performance. High performance employees also keep track of the influence and knowledge within the organization. They will have frequent contact with supervisors and managers in other departments and subsequently use the input from the overall organization to develop new ideas. They know when to take the “lead, follow or get out of the way” approach constructively.

Proactive or Reactive

A self-directed approach allows high performers to know what they need to do to support their career development and to help the organization. The high performance employee remains motivated and self-initiating. High performers are more likely to perform research on their own or spend significantly more time in training programs than typical performers. They may look for new assignments or projects to take on and search for opportunities to try something different. They continue to learn new responsibilities to take the next step in their careers. They are eager to handle challenges that help them learn and grow.

Networking Skills

High performers have people-oriented and strong relationship-building skills. Good networking skills help high performers to reach out through the organization and at outside sources to gather information and contribute ample knowledge to the organization. Top performers have larger networks than the usual worker. They can quickly call on these contacts and sources, whether within the company or outside the organization, whenever the need arises. This ability to collaborate with others provides growth for the high performance employee and benefits the company or organization.

Adaptive

A top performer keeps cool under pressure. High performance employees remain emotionally stable and consistent in their style of working and leadership. They will compromise and be open minded when the time is right to change positions instead of being stubborn or resistant. This helps top performers learn quickly and become excellent problem solvers.

Elite Performers is a team of experts specializing in Consulting, Employee Engagement, Business and Life coaching for teams and individuals as well as Leadership training and development.

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