Greg Sarangoulis on Leadership

For leadership-oriented personalities, the workplace presents unlimited opportunity to make a meaningful impact. The old saying goes, “heavy lies the crown,” but once you find yourself in a position of authority, the responsibility does not need to be a burden. Rather, it is a chance to much more directly improve aspects of office life, like culture, operational efficiency, or organization. However, to accomplish all that, there are certain concepts it is necessary to wholly embrace. The tips listed here reflect a strong foundation regarding the mindsets of effective leaders. Apply these notions to your management style for both a smoother transition into an authority role, as well as a more effective and positive experience therein.

Stay Humble

Enthusiasm is absolutely necessary to be an excellent leader. You set the tone. As a result, you should also be setting the bar when it comes to the level of energy and commitment you demand from your team. That being said, it is not uncommon for new leaders to charge headfirst into a situation with the best of intentions only to realize later that they were unprepared, uninformed, and/or unaware of some critical component to success. Whether you are entering a new role or an entirely new organization, the fact remains that your first order of business should be to equip yourself with as much information and insight as possible from trustworthy source. These can include peers, mentors, or members of your team who may be more familiar with the details of the project at hand. Never presume that your title guarantees that you will always know best. Work hard to put yourself in a position where your directives are most likely to be best, because you have taken the time to do your homework.

Don’t Just Hear – Listen

True leadership requires much more than just the ability to bark orders. To remain as effective as possible over an extended period of time, it is important to maintain a constant dialogue with your subordinates. How you think things should look “in the trenches” might be very far from what the reality of the situation is. The only way to know that is to respect your team members enough to sincerely listen to their concerns and feedback on a regular basis, and make it clear that their input is highly valued. An open line of communication dramatically increases your ability to remain agile and respond to problems the moment they arise – since you will be more quickly aware of them. Additionally, for your team to fully understand how deeply you appreciate their input also improves morale and company culture. Instead of dubiously effective direction coming from some unseen place above them in the organization, they know that these orders have been crafted based at least in part on their contribution. As a result, everyone feels like a more involved team player.

Innovate, Don’t Stagnate

There are some aspects of leadership that are harder to teach than others. The ability to do things like innovate, think outside of the box, and catch opportunities that others miss is one of them. Some individuals are more naturally adept at seeing the potential in certain unchartered territory and, as a result, can lead a team to new places and distances with confidence. However, even if that is not necessarily an inherent skill of yours, it is one that improves as your expertise in any given area grows. So, devote yourself to becoming even more of an expert in whatever your field may be. The more you are able the understand and see, the more likely you are to spot opportunities for innovation and improvement.

Lead By Example

The leader sets the tone in every conceivable way. Your team will be looking for you to help determine what the appropriate way to do everything should be. As a result, one of the duties that comes with a management position, is to illustrate every positive behavior you demand from your staff. If being prompt is important to you, then you must always be on time (if not early). If you demand professionalism, then you must be the perfect example of what that looks like in your office. If you need the team to stay late, you must be very clearly willing to do so yourself. If you do not exemplify the sort of habits and characteristics that you demand, then you run the risk of earning the label of a hypocrite. That is not something anyone will respect, and leaders depend on the respect of their team to be effective. If people do not respect you, then you ability to successfully lead them diminishes dramatically. So, earn their respect. Be the paragon of excellence to which the people following you can aspire.

Invest in Your Team

Numerous studies indicate that the best and most productive workplaces are those in which the employees are working for more than a paycheck. You need your team to invest in the mission of your organization wholeheartedly. The best way to make that happen is to repay them that courtesy and invest in them. Team members who feel valued will be inspired to add value back to the group. Take the time to figure out exactly what is important to each person under your guidance, and then make a clear effort to help them achieve whatever goals they might have for themselves. If you know someone is looking to advance, offer your time to mentor them. On the contrary, if someone is looking to explore new roles within the company, do what you can to position them to accomplish that by setting up meetings or adjusting your assignments to reflect their interests. Be vocal about your investment in your team’s professional development, and then follow through with tangible actions. When your team feel confident that you want what is best for them, it will motivate them to much more intensely want to work for what is best for you and the organization at large.

Greg Sarangoulis on Innovation

One of the most widely acclaimed but notoriously nebulous features of effective leadership is the ability to innovate. It’s certainly not difficult to speak about it in the abstract, and the word has become iconic as a workplace buzzword. However, innovation is so much more than just a catchphrase. To successfully weave an innovative mindset into your day-to-day workflow can yield substantial and meaningful benefits. There are a few best practices to get you started on the right track.

Flip the Word “Can’t” to “Can, If”

Even the best and most detailed plans will eventually hit an unexpected obstacle or roadblock. When that happens enough times, there will naturally a reflexive desire to throw in the towel and walk away. However, the greatest tool in your arsenal to work around such moments is the proper perspective. Rather than view a situation and concede that you “can’t because…” it is much more fruitful to create a framework around which you embrace that you “can, if…” Identify where you have the opportunity to affect change and start there. Keeping an action-oriented and positive attitude will help prevent the challenges from weighing you down, in favor of empowering you to keep making strides in the right direction.

Ask the Unanswerable Questions

Although it may seem somewhat counterintuitive, impossible questions actually have the power to inspire unmatched creativity. This can make them uniquely useful in the context of innovation by pushing determined leaders into problem-solving mode. When you forego the all-too-common desire to get the “right” answer (because there simply is not one) and instead emphasize thinking outside the box to find any possible solution, you may well be surprised what you can create.

Push Yourself with Deadlines

Constraints are not always a bad thing. In fact, they are incredibly useful as tools to ground the otherwise lofty and abstract process of being creative. Too much time spent leisurely considering an issue can easily become a suck on resources. Instead, deliberately limit some aspect of the solution-creating process. This can be a time, budget, or resource constraint. This takes the work out of the abstract and creates a limited, real space in which it must be accomplished. Suddenly, you are likely to find that your mind is working as efficiently as possible to overcome the challenge at hand.

Innovation Matters

These three simple tips can begin a much longer process of transforming your ability to execute in whatever your place of work might be. True leaders are able to do more than just set an example or give orders – they see what everyone else misses and find opportunity to create new, original success where others stay on the beaten path. Follow these steps to get into the right mindset.