The Future of Leadership: 6 Cutting-Edge Behaviors to Adopt To Become a Great Leader

The first time my boss introduced me as the next team leader, I felt the pressure.

My team knew I was a great developer. But they never thought I could become their leader. So nobody believed in me.

I wanted that position. I worked so hard for it, and I got it. But I didn’t know what I was doing. So, I ended up copying my predecessor.

I became a copycat, but that wasn’t my style. It didn’t reflect my personality. And people were not respecting my decisions.

• Build your way of thinking. Don’t try to mimic those before you; you will look fake and unoriginal.
• Introduce new ways of thinking, inside jokes, and social games in the team.
• Find one thing you love about being a team leader and become the best.

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I am a decent developer, but I will never be the best. There are people in my team who were at my level years ago. And I can’t compete with them.

However, in the beginning, I wanted to do everything by myself.

I took the most difficult parts of the job because I didn’t trust my teammates. But they noticed, and they didn’t enjoy it.

Also, when you try to do everything yourself, three things will happen:

• You will have too many tasks and burn out.
• You will become the main issue of your team’s efficiency.
• And nobody will trust and respect your words because you never showed them how.

• As a leader, you have many tasks. And you won’t have much time to focus on the regular job as the others do. So, trust people and use their skills to reach the goal.
• Give people the chance to showcase their skills and responsibility. Guide them and provide a strong vision. But then leave them to do their job.
• Ask for feedback and give people the chance to tell you how to manage them at best. Your team will speak with you, but you have to listen.

There are two types of leaders:

• Those who cultivate a growth mindset of trial and error.
• And those who terrorize their team with perfectionism.

But terror only works for a limited time – that’s one thing I learned so far.

Eventually, people get sick of your abusive behavior. They don’t respect you anymore and start gossiping around you. That’s when you lose them forever.

• Embrace your team’s mistakes and take responsibility for them as if you made them. Protect your teammates to make them feel at home.
• Don’t accept the same mistakes multiple times. If that happens, talk to understand if there are any misunderstandings or difficulties with the task,
• Give your availability to discuss problems or technical challenges. You have to be the one who speaks up and brings those problems to the higher levels.

Six months ago, I avoided talking about my teammates’ performance. I didn’t feel good enough to tell them how they were doing. But if you don’t give feedback, how can anybody improve?

How can they understand their weak points and work on them?

I still struggle to give people performance feedback. But I’m trying to improve.

So, I set up a monthly meeting with my team to discuss their goals, paint points, and things they’ve been doing great.

• Tell each person on your team what they’ve been doing great. Praises give responsibility, and people will work even better to keep the standard.
• Ask your team for their individual goals and build a path together towards them.
• Make team goals clear and understandable for anyone.

Teams improve faster when there’s a genuine interest in sharing knowledge among team members. So, push for knowledge sharing and be the first to organize meetings where people can showcase their latest work.

I used to avoid those moments because I didn’t know how to teach people. But my behavior split up the team – everyone did their job without knowing if somebody else did the same thing. So, every new task had to start from scratch.

• Organize meetings where people can share new ideas or things they have been working on. It will make them feel meaningful and spread knowledge in the group.
• Ask people to remain updated on the latest trends of your business. New ideas should always be appreciated, even if undoable.

Many people struggle with work-life balance. And they think it’s their boss’ fault for calling them past their work schedule. But part of that fault is theirs – why did you answer?

When I started this new job, I heard the same things. Some colleagues worked even two hours over their schedule. And nobody paid them for those extra hours.

They didn’t respect their free time and po people around them got used to it.

But being available diminishes your value.

So, respect your free time and let people know you are not working for free.

• Never answer calls past your work schedule or near that. Tell people you already left the office or that you have an urgent task to do. Train them to be respectful of your free time.
• Teach your team to respect their schedule. Don’t call them after work. And tell them when the day has finished so it’s time to leave. Even if they won’t, they will appreciate you for that.

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