How to Sharpen Your Leadership Skills - and Free Resources!

Do you ever catch yourself thinking that there could be a better way to cut that pineapple, or peel that mango, or squeeze those limes?

When I’m in the kitchen, I want to create the most nutritious and delicious meals, and I really want to enjoy doing it.

Your tools can make a huge difference.  

It’s not that I’m constantly buying new kitchen gadgets, but I’m always open to looking. I remember taking a cooking class a few years back and learning how to properly use knives. Wow, I’d had some decent knives in my kitchen, but I wasn’t using them to my advantage - or theirs. I bought a knife sharpener that day and that’s probably one of my favorite kitchen tools ever!

Think of leadership like managing your kitchen.

You want to produce the best results with the least effort, and enjoy yourself while you’re at it. Just like cooking, using the right tools helps leaders be more effective. This means as leaders, we need to continuously look for ways to improve our leadership skills. We may just need a refresher from time to time (like sharpening those knives). Or we may need to replace something we’re doing with an entirely new method. Perhaps you’ve never had the opportunity to take a class on leadership. Just think, you may find that one tool that will make your life so much easier!

Here are a few tried and true tips and resources to help sharpen your leadership skills:

1. Take your leadership profession seriously. Your role is to inspire others to create magnificent results. Get very clear on your purpose and your intent. www.LeadingWithGRIT.com/GRITassessmentis a good place to start - and it’s free!

2. Get to know your people. A valuable tool we use in training sessions is DiSC. Visit the dedicated DiSC page and watch our short video on why you need DiSC in your workplace. It’s fun and very easy for people to remember. It helps people understand, appreciate and communicate better with each other. (And the video is less than 3 minutes long!!)

3. READ!! Continuously read great leadership books. Subscribe to a weekly blog. Get a daily message sent to your inbox or phone. With all the distractions we face in our lives, we need help staying focused and aligned to what’s important. Take advantage of our free workplace tips - you can sign up here. And I recapped some of my favorite inspirational people in this blog post: How Bad Do You Want to Live a Happy Life?

4. Get professional leadership training at least once a year. Participate in a Leadership 360 to find out how others perceive your leadership abilities. Consider leadership coaching if there are any areas you feel you may need a little more help with. As with the tools in your kitchen, make sure you do the research to find your best options. For example, you want more than lecture and storytelling. Make sure you get hands-on practice opportunities.

Any chef will tell you that a cook is only as good as the resources available to him to create a great meal. For us leaders, this means the team that surrounds us and the tools we use to help our teams thrive.

We never have enough tools, and new ones are constantly being released. Use the tips I’ve outlined in this blog post to help you focus on the ones I think you’ll find most useful. And if you have other tips that are not on this list, I’d love to hear about them! Leave a comment here or shoot me an email at laurie@unlimitedcoaching.com!

Cheers, Laurie