Implementing quality leadership is a significant challenge within a team. Being a good manager is not necessarily synonymous with being a good leader. While some people have natural leadership, the qualities and skills of an effective and recognized leader can also be developed for sustained successful management and proven leadership.
In this article, we will look at “how to strengthen the leadership of your managers?”
Defining leadership today
What are the characteristics of a leader?
A leader is an inspiring and charismatic person. Through his energy, enthusiasm, actions and success, the leader generates a virtuous circle. He must also motivate others on the basis of positive feelings. This is done in particular by his sincere commitment to his work. It is a matter of carrying out ambitious and realistic projects that must pull the team upwards.
Enthusiasm is an attractive trait that implies being followed. But keeping enthusiasm in complicated times is difficult. This stems from a positive mindset and a problem-solving equation for life’s challenges.
Clearly, success must be the result of the leader’s actions. Thus, his actions will be followed in a sustainable way by his team and the leadership will be maintained.
Being fair to others, being exemplary, and inspiring respect are all attitudes that the leader must adopt.
Self-confidence is another key quality. It must be accompanied by a sincere belief in the chosen path, and a positive vision of the outcome or a dose of success. It involves imagining, creating solutions to new challenges and finding support. The role of the leader is to distribute this support correctly according to the skills and the motivations of the team members.
What are the main skills of a leader?
We focus on two key skills :
- Knowing how tolisten to others, adapting to them and being able to implement the appropriate solutions and strategies are yet other skills and soft skills developed in the context of leadership.
- Promoting open open and fluid communication will enable team members to feel confident. They’ll feel encouraged, and their motivation will be strengthened; all this in all modesty, so that the team feels at ease.
What are the differences between a manager and a leader?
The differences between a manager and a leader concern their vision of the tasks to be carried out, their attitude towards others and their day-to-day behavior:
- Managers focus primarily on getting things done and adopt a transactional approach, while leaders place a premium on people, seeking to transform the situation by inspiring others and demonstrating an inspiring vision.
- While managers are inclined to look for the correct execution of tasks, leaders encourage their teams to focus onactions that have a real impact and that count, by encouraging reflection and fostering innovation.
- Managers tend to favor rational thinking and passing on instructions, while leaders inspire their colleagues and provoke thought by drawing information and ideas from others, seeking to change things by taking risks and moving out of the comfort zone of the status quo.
To summarize, a leader is an inspiring person who listens to others. He/she knows how to transfer his/her knowledge and is autonomous. He/she seeks the opinion of others, knows how to establish clear and realistic objectives, and supports the members of his/her team….
How to strengthen the skills and qualities of a manager?
Synergy between leaders and managers is possible. The HR professionals in our Webinar dedicated to "Reenchanting the managerial role" put forward several approaches relayed in the replay below:
Establish a People BP & People Services Rep & Manager trio
Tiphaine Brisou-Debeze (Head of People) talks about this organization at Sage, which was set up 3 years ago.
- The manager has a dedicated contact for each HR topic, and the scope of each is clearly defined.
- Access to specific “Managers’ Essentials” training programs
- Weekly communication content (“Managers Briefing Pack”) is provided to relay information to the teams.
Developing a "managerial tools" team
Mégane Panis (HR Project Manager) heads up an HR department dedicated to providing managers with the tools they need to change their day-to-day attitudes.
Deloitte's "Performance and Engagement" team is dedicated to providing 2,000 managers with a range of tools to help them tackle their assignments with confidence.
The Managers Factory includes :
- Co-development programs
- A managerial reference system skills
- Evangelizing postures to adopt
Promoting managerial communities and co-development
Elise Van Der Schans (HR Director at SmartTrade) illustrates these two levers which, combined, offer HR professionals effective support in their transition to more leadership-oriented postures. They create a collaborative learning environment, where managers can feel supported, encouraged and inspired by their peers, while acquiring the skills and perspectives needed to tackle today’s leadership challenges.
Concluding with figures
As you can see, the levers are many, and the actions you can implement can be team-based, individual, in pairs, personalized, targeted and participative.
It’s also worth noting that over €6 billion has been allocated, including €3.2 billion by the OPCOs for the development of training in companies with fewer than 50 employees (€521.2 million), for the Professional Training Account (€855 million) and for work-study schemes (€1.8 billion).
These training courses are an essential lever for helping your managers.
