Business leader, as you head into the fourth quarter of 2022, you have a lot on your plate. Finishing the year strong is probably one of your overall desires.

As you revise your own personal leadership growth plan for the end of the year, consider prioritizing these five leadership skills to increase your odds of directing a successful conclusion to 2022 for your team and organization.

Delegation

“The best gauge of leadership effectiveness is not necessarily how long and hard you work, but how many other people we develop around us to share the workload,” said author Ed Stetzer.

Leadership is not about how much that you can get done, but how much you can get done through others. That’s a paradigm shift that every new leader needs to make, both to avoid personal burnout and to assure that your team is “two-deep” in every function in every department.

You have been promoted or hired or become a business owner because there are certain skills and responsibilities that only you can do.

Delegation-thinking is to offload anything that just you cannot do. You need to stay at 15,000 feet as a leader.

If you aren’t spending any time on crafting a vision for the company, who will? If you aren’t developing systems that avoid the constant putting out of fires, who will?

But delegation isn’t just about getting things off your plate. It’s about succession; it’s about assuring that someone can step in for you when you’re on vacation or ill. And it’s about empowering others, increasing their capacity to help your organization thrive. Delegation develops.

And when you delegate, be sure to delegate vision as well as task. Give your delegate the “why” behind the task, what “done” looks like, and what a “win” in this task looks like and turn them loose without micromanagement.

Relationship-building

 I have encountered many employees who feel that their organization doesn’t care about them as people. But when they say “organization,” they really mean “management.”

In leadership, we have so much on our radars that we can often forget to say, “thank you,” or “what you did was amazing.” Employees who don’t get validated often look around for another job.

When you show your people you care about them, this becomes your retention strategy.

Put on your calendar right now: 30 minutes daily of walkarounds. It’s the concept of MBWA, or managing by wandering around. It’s also called a gemba walk in Japan, which means “going where the action is.” 

Be visible with your team. It increases trust when you enter their workspace. Walmart founder Sam Walton used to say: “The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say.”

During your walkaround, ask three questions:

• How are you? Then add the word “really?” to show you care
• What are you working on? To stay in the loop with their priorities
• How can I help? To be a servant-leader

Since Covid shutdowns and the related emotional toil, everyone (yes, everyone) needs more encouragement. Double your efforts to lift the morale of others. Give them a steady blast of AIR: affirmation, inspiration and recognition.

Write thank-you notes, leave positive voicemails, post shout-outs on Teams or Slack messaging. Give gift cards, nominate them for awards, host celebrations.

Vision

Make time for planning and plotting a course for the future. Yes, I realize it’s hard because of the whirlwind of busyness. You will have to honor that blocked-out time, and most likely leave the building to a quiet place to get space to think, dream and plan. Every minute of planning saves you 10 minutes of execution – that’s a great trade-off.

Your team really wants to know where you are taking them. And you personally need a track to run on. “The primary reason things fail is inadequate planning,” said author Phil Pringle.

Without vision, people bump into each other and use “confusion” as an excuse to take their foot off the gas pedal of effort.

Some say 90% of a leader’s time is best spent planning (with 10% being administrative work). OK, maybe that blows your mind to think of that time allocation but increase it this quarter. Forward-looking is a key component of leadership.

Initiating change

I heard that the only person who likes change is a wet baby.

But seriously, calculated change is the path to growth. Change is the driver of momentum, and when you have the Big Mo on your side, the whole team feels like it is winning. Hopefully, you believe in the concept of constant improvement – of your products, services, systems, customer relationships – frankly, in all areas – no status quo allowed!

Of course, I realize that motion causes friction, so, as a leader you need to grow in how to lead change well. The change is just the beginning; the transition is what often is the hard part.

People’s emotions hang onto the way things have been and have to be inspired to go a different direction. It starts with building a guiding coalition of your core team, then branching out to the other influencers in your organization, and then the early adopters.

 “All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience,” wrote author Henry Miller. That’s scary for people but keep the payoff in mind.

Challenging the process

Anything worth doing is worth evaluating. And not just what went wrong, but what went right – so that it can be repeated. 

Keep asking, “How can we do 1% better?” to your assistant, your core team, your boss or board, your front-line employees, and your customers. Listen to their responses.

Without this constant flow of feedback, stagnation can set in. Give everyone a voice.

Without accurate feedback, we will lose track of exactly where we are – and become self-deceived or obsolete.

Which one of these five skills need your attention? Find a webinar, course, mentor, coach, or book that will help guide you to strengthen your leadership skills this fall.

Paul D. Casey lives in the Tri-Cities and is the owner of Growing Forward Services, which aims to equip and coach leaders and teams to spark breakthrough success. Casey has authored five books and hosts Leader-Launcher.com for emerging leaders each month. Online at growingforwardservices.net.