Leadership for Everyone

In order to be a good leader certain skills need to be observed, practiced, and placed into everyday interactions. These leadership skills are: listen to learn, empathize with emotions, attend to aspirations, diagnose and detail, engage for good ends, respond with respectfullness, and speak with specificity. If these characteristics of leadership can be attained then a good leader is ready to effectively give constructive feedback.

By using active listening skills, everyday leaders should be able to listen to learn in daily interactions in order to get the most out of their opportunity to lead. To be a good listener one must be able to not only hear what is being said but understand without jumping to conclusions, avoid being distracted, become aware of the emotional and intelectual capacity of the other person(s), and be willing to compromise or work towards a common goal in an arduous situation. Becoming overemotional, faking true concern, and only looking for a place to interject your opinion into conversation are not respectful skills to exercise in a postion of leadership.

Empathizing with emotions begins with the right listening skills. If the ability to listen properly is installed into everyday work then empathy is quick to follow. The capability to empathize requires being able to understand without judgement, considering the other persons feelings and emotions in alignment with your own, creating acceptance and a bridge to honesty within the workplace. Also, by offering empathy instead of sympathy there is no misconception of weakness not understanding so the element of respect is still there which helps the everyday leader to recieve content to help better understand the aspirations of the other epmloyees.

Aquiring a productive work environment requires aspirations. People have a natural tendency for growth so limiting this decreases creativity so a sense of security needs to be established for an increase in productivity and aspirations. In order to achieve this there are obstacles that need to be overcome such as a disorganized work team and misunderstanding. Once these obstacles are removed everyday leaders can focus their attention on each individual because each persons needs and motivations may differ. Success is focusing on the common goal in order to move forward.

Performance improvements come after aspirations which can be achieved by diagnosing and detailing. The gap between exisitng and ideal performance needs to be recognized and a criteria for accoplishments needs to be set. By applying these details to everyday work everyday leaders can lead their team to a more successful workday which brings the goal one step closer.

Everyday leaders need to maintain and create a balance of virtue such as integrity, productivity, and responsibility. These virtues need to coincide with the overall good of the company with the right

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