The 4 Most Important Duties of Every Good Leader

All great leaders understand that their jobs aren’t simple.

You don’t clock in, do the same work you did yesterday, and then clock out.

The situations your organisation faces change on a daily basis. This means you need to demonstrate the effective leadership skills required to tackle major issues.

However, that’s not to say that there aren’t common duties that all leaders must regularly undertake.

They may be broad in definition, but these tasks are essential if you are to lead effectively and create high-performing teams that get results.

So what are the 4 Things Great Managers Consistently Nail, Demonstrating Highly Effective Leadership Skills?

Here they are:

Effective Leadership Skill #1 – Build Trust within Your Team

It’s vital to have trust in your team. Your team members must trust you, and each other, if they are to achieve the targets that you (and the organisation) set for them.

Building trust is not a simple process.

You have to take your time, and earn the trust of your team members.

Furthermore, you must focus on developing alignments within the team. Each member must feel confident in the knowledge that the other members can complete the tasks given to them.

You can develop trust within your team in several ways.

For example, organising team-building exercises can help the team members to get to know one another and develop the personal bonds that are often so essential to trust.

Even something as simple as ordering pizza for your team at lunchtime could help the members to bond with you and one another.

As a leader, you will also take responsibility for assigning tasks to each team member.

You may not see it at the time, but this is very important when developing trust within the team.

If you assign tasks that are beyond the skills of an individual, you demonstrate a lack of understanding in relation to what they bring to the team.

As such, building trust involves learning about your team members, their desires, and identifying what they bring to the table.

Most importantly, trust is a huge driver of productivity and performance.

It is essential in building a High Performing Team.

Read: Here are 5 steps to intentionally and deliberately build trust in your team.

Effective Leadership Skill #2 – Create a Vision Statement

All great leaders have a vision for their organisations.

They know what the organisation must achieve collectively, and how to align each individual’s work to this overall vision.

As a result, creating a vision statement is one of the most important tasks you will face as a leader.

Without one, your organisation will make poor decisions that run counter to what you want to achieve.

At worst, the absence of a vision statement may bleed over into the messages you send to people outside of the company. This results in confused branding, as well as falling confidence within your organisation.

Having a vision statement is just the start.

You also need to bring that vision to life through your team.

Everything that your team does should be done with your vision statement in mind. This keeps everybody on the same page and ensures your organisation delivers consistent messages and products.

Your company’s vision statement differs from its mission statement.

The vision statement explains what the company would look like, having achieved it’s goals and why they’re important.

It should be inspirational and aspirational in a way that challenges and inspires employees, creating a mental image of the future state that the organisation wishes to achieve.

As a result, you have to think about the purpose behind what your organisation does if you wish to create an effective vision statement.

Effective Leadership Skill #3 – Spend (Quality) Time with Your People

Did you know that over two-thirds of employees believe that their managers don’t spend enough time with them?

This indicates that there is a clear divide between leaders and their teams.

Effective communication allows you to bridge this gap.

At Great Managers, we say that

Communication is to relationships, what breathing is to life.

However, you must understand that communication is a two-way process.

You may think that you’ve conveyed your directions effectively.

But if your team doesn’t feel as though you listen to their responses, you will find that it creates misunderstanding, lacks focus and it will be very difficult to achieve the results that you expected.

There are many ways to communicate effectively with your team members.

Meetings allow you to convey more formal messages but don’t underestimate the importance of informal conversations.

You’ll learn more about the people in your team, which will help you to understand how to utilise each member’s skills effectively.

Effective Leadership Skill # 4 – Create Accountability

Your team will contain members with various levels of skill and experience.

You must take this into account when assigning tasks.

However, this does not mean that you shouldn’t hold less skilled or inexperienced team members accountable for their work.

Creating accountability measures is one of the key tasks you’ll face as a leader.

To do this, you must take each team member’s role into account.

What do you need them to achieve?

What tools do they have at their disposal?

Do they have the skills needed to achieve results?

Answer these questions, and you will understand what you can expect from each individual.

You can then use this information to assign roles and assess each team member’s performance. If somebody fails to perform to the standard you expect from them, you must hold them accountable.

What to do Next

None of these are one-time tasks.

You must come back to them constantly if you wish to create high-performing teams.

Before you start thinking about solutions, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does your team make mistakes that lower the standard of work?
• Are you struggling to retain your most talented team members?
• Do you have to deal with conflict within your team?

If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, you are probably not prioritising the four key duties we’ve covered here, effectively.

The research proves a Great Manager can double the effectiveness of their people.

If you would like to learn what great managers do differently to grow profitable, sustainable businesses and high-performing teams, for a limited time you can subscribe to our online training, exclusively for managers… for free.  Click here for more info on the Great Managers MasterClass.