Part of being a leader is being able to identify and nurture leadership qualities in other. You want to encourage your employees to be able to grow in the organization and take on additional responsibilities. Here are three things to look for in your employees to determine if they’ll be good leaders, and how you can help them improve those skills.
Take initiative
Taking the initiative is the first part of being a leader. When your employees do things that show initiative, like coming to you with a solution for a problem or stepping up to complete a project, reward them. You can’t force your employees to be active participants, and the ones who aren’t stepping up to the plate likely don’t have leadership potential. If an employee never volunteers for additional responsibility, then they probably aren’t interested in management. Also look for the employees that are investing in themselves outside of the office, like working to earn an MBA. Encourage your employees to pursue these types of opportunities to help build strong leaders.
Show humility
Someone humble about their work is often more open to constructive criticism on how they can improve. Leaders need to have a lifelong leader mentality to be successful. People don’t respond well to a leader that they see as perfect. Leaders need to make themselves vulnerable as then their employees will feel more connected to and accepted by them. When the leader is vulnerable, employees trust their leader more and are more willing to learn from them. Foster humility in those with leadership potential by helping them to identify both their strengths and weaknesses. Any conversations around weaknesses should be framed as opportunities as growth.
Can speak well and listens better
Do you have an employee on your team who has successfully argued for one course of action over another? Someone who has been able to discuss complex processes concisely and thoroughly? Leaders need to be effective communicators to be good at their job. Otherwise, they will never succeed. A leader should know what they’re going to say in advance, but also be able to speak without a script. You need to react quickly and be able to think on your feet. The biggest part of being a good communicator is being a great listener. The majority of the time, listening is more important than speaking. It allows you to learn what can be done about a given situation. Help your employees grow their active listening skills by splitting them into small groups and working on exercises together like the story line exercise.