Leave the latest leadership best-seller on the bookshelf and cancel that 30-minute webinar about effective management styles and instead tune into your team – a resource that can share beneficial knowledge in terms of soft skills and personal growth which are both crucial when it comes to successful leadership.
According to entrepreneur and CEO of Vipe Studios Ivan Popov, “all it takes is for the leader to actually listen and pay attention to their surroundings. They’d be surprised to know just how much they can learn through daily communication with the team members. At the end of the day, a leader’s success is measured mostly by the success of the team — what’s important here is that this success is not because of the leader only; the employees themselves contribute a great deal by showcasing their personal experiences, work ethic and communication strategies,” he said.
Five Things Employers Can Learn From Employees
Ian said: A good leader is someone who never stops trying to improve themselves work-wise. And while books and courses are always a great option, we can actually add some additional sources of knowledge and experience. Here are five things an entrepreneur can indeed learn from their relationship with the employees at the office.
1. Diversity in teams, even when challenging, is definitely worth the effort.
A team may (and should) consist of different people with different backgrounds and experiences. This way everyone can easily contribute to the whole group by sharing thoughts and beneficial ideas. The trick for the leader here is to learn how to balance out all the diverse opinions and work approaches. Essentially, this could teach them a thing or two about flexibility and team growth.
2. Communicating with the employees daily requires the leader to put all theoretical knowledge into practice.
Teamwork is indeed a great source of various types of situations and issues that need solving and fixing. Even if an entrepreneur has mastered the management theory, only a live situation can actually showcase all this knowledge in practice. That’s why it’s often said that a good leader is someone who manages to keep their team happy and content with the work they do. Without the team, the feedback and the plethora of situations a workday presents, we, as entrepreneurs, could never really improve our theoretical knowledge and check whether it’s suitable for actual situations.
3. There’s a close connection between the leader trusting their team and trusting themselves as well.
We all know that trust is essential when it comes to establishing great professional relationships. If a leader fails to trust their team, then delegating work may soon result in interpersonal issues and arguments. Since building trust is mutual, whenever a leader allows themselves to let go of control and trust their team members, they also showcase trust in themselves. Why? Simply because the team’s success proves the leader’s fair judgment. Whenever an entrepreneur sees how well they’ve managed to distribute work, they ultimately begin trusting their skills as well.
4. Since the team often consists of professionals, there’s a high chance the leader can oftentimes take the role of a student.
There’s beauty in not knowing everything all the time. This way, any person can allow themselves to submerge in other people’s knowledge and expertise. Coming from a place of respect and trust, entrepreneurs can learn a lot of skills from their employees that later could be used in their own experiences. We all are teachers and students at the same time — the fact that someone is a team leader doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve got nothing to learn from the members of that same team.
5. While money is important, being happy with what you do is more important.
Nowadays, a great majority of employees worldwide tend to choose satisfaction and happiness over big paychecks, especially if the latter is at the expense of the first. Through this constant chase after work fulfillment, entrepreneurs and leaders could indeed stop for a second and remember what truly makes their engine run. Essentially, this is the core of truly successful businesses.
Being part of a team, regardless of the role, is an incredible opportunity for everyone to learn so much and further elevate their professional expertise and personal development.
Entrepreneurs and leaders worldwide can indeed benefit quite a lot if they listen and pay attention to their teams. Through this enriching experience, they can gather additional information and knowledge on all things worthy and self-improving. It would be for the better if they play the role of a student from time to time since this position allows them to truly open the door toward successful leadership and business ownership.
