Evaluate Your Own Leadership

What does it take to be an effective leader? What leadership advice would you give someone? What have you learned from being in a leader?

These are the questions I which I had to answer during a recently interview for Landau Leadership, a company that focuses on leadership training for corporations.

Think about how would you answer these questions:

What are the three most important leadership skills that leaders should develop right now?

Listening, communication, and humility.

What's the best leadership advice you've ever gotten from a mentor?

The single best leadership advice which I have gotten involves the importance of being a good listener. Listening is critical because a leader can learn a lot about his or her business from employees, vendors, and customers. The sooner you get intelligence about your organization the better, and being attentive to others is the single best way to gather such information quickly.

Further, by letting others know that you will listen to their feedback, you encourage them to share other information with you. The converse is scary. That is, if you are known to be a bad listener, others will be reluctant to upload information.

To be a better listener, always repeat information imparted to you after the person is done speaking.  Don’t formulate your response while the person is still talking.  Rather, actually listen to the person and keep an open mind.

Only when the person is done and you have responded in a way for them to know you were listening carefully (asking a question involving the information imparted or repeating the speaker¹s point in your own words), should you provide a response.

Other tips are don¹t look at your watch, cell phone or other electronic device, make good eye contact, and lean slightly toward the speaker.

What have you learned about yourself when in leadership roles?

I have learned that being enthusiastic is contagious. People enjoy following someone who loves what they do, shows commitment to the organization and is not afraid to share his passion for the common goals of the organization on his or her sleeve.

Leadership is one of those skills which is multi-faceted and which one never perfects.  Keep studying it and practicing what you learn.  It will only serve to make you a better business leader.