How can you be an inspiring leader?

Greg Kirwan discusses the importance of being an inspiring leader in today’s challenging world of work.

In today’s world of work, leaders need to be more resilient than ever. The impact of the pandemic and a widely dispersed workforce have had major repercussions on the way leaders and their teams need to operate. It’s essential for leaders to be future fit and have the necessary tools at their disposal so that their actions are empirically proven to stabilise organisations. Leaders also need to be able to inspire, influence, and transform teams, be courageous and authentic, and increasingly need to change or strengthen the culture within teams.

In this series, Olivier Mythodrama’s CEO Greg Kirwan looks at how leadership teams can make a positive impact, what happens when leaders get it wrong, how they can overcome challenges and why they need to be future fit.

Continually inspiring your team can be a real challenge. If you don’t know what inspires you, it’ll be almost impossible to inspire anyone else. As the working world has changed over the last few years and continues to evolve, members of your team are likely to be more dispersed than before and some may have never even met face to face. The ability to inspire others and find new ways to do so have become more important so that organisations can achieve their desired outcomes.

So, how can you inspire in today’s challenging world of work?

Share your vision

It’s really important that you’re open and honest with your team. If you’re transparent it allows others to see beyond their own role, making them feel more included and have a greater understanding of the business, their working environment, where and how they fit in to both and what’s expected of them.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Communicating effectively and frequently with your team is so important. If you don’t tell them what’s expected of them how are they supposed to know? Our workforces are more dispersed than ever, and we’re relying more heavily on technology to keep in touch, so having open channels of communication is crucial to make up for the lack of in-person interaction. As whole teams are no longer sharing an office space together, gone are the days where information is picked up from passing conversations or overhearing phone calls, so it’s now necessary to bridge that gap and keep everyone in the loop by communicating more often.

Opportunities for growth and development

Don’t forget that your team need to feel they’re growing and developing within your organisation and as individuals. If you invest in their development and keep nurturing them it will go a long way in helping with retention, engagement, and productivity. It also helps improve the culture and morale inside your workplace which is crucial during these times of uncertainty and change.

Trust

Trust is the basis of any relationship, and it flows both ways. You need to trust your team will work effectively and efficiently and your team also need to trust you, something that many leaders take for granted or assume they already have. Without this mutual trust, you won’t be a very effective leader. If there’s mutual trust your team will feel energised and empowered and they will be more willing to follow your leadership.

Be authentic

I’ve had many senior level people say to me that they feel they’ll be viewed as less authoritative if they open themselves up to their team and allow others to see their true self. In fact, the opposite is true. Being more authentic and honest increases the trust within your team and improves productivity and teamwork.


Join Greg in the US this June as he showcases our Inspirational Leadership programme. Find out more here.


Olivier Mythodrama has been delivering innovative and thought provoking leadership training for over 20 years. The people and organisations we have worked with describe our training as life changing. We think they’re right. We already work with some of the world’s leading businesses. Are you ready to join them?

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