Author: Rehan Ijaz / Source: Entrepreneur An old friend called me yesterday and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn about where his life w
An old friend called me yesterday and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn about where his life was taking him. During the discussion, he commented, “I can’t believe the idiots I have to put up with at the office.” It is easy to dismiss people around you, or beneath you on the corporate scale, as incompetent, but I’ve realized that everyone else’s job always looks easier and less stressful, until you walk a mile in their shoes.
Here are three keys to building that understanding and leading more effectively.
1. Develop the heart of a servant.
As a leader, this is incredibly important to understand. Your job is to step into everyone’s shoes and find ways to make the path less treacherous, stressful and demoralizing. A leader is in service to those around them; and the best ones do this so consistently, that their team takes it for granted.
Serving your team’s needs, without losing your status as their boss is a balancing act. The key counter-balance to being a servant is the projection of confidence. Well-established confidence in one’s self is the perfect pairing for the heart of a servant. But how can a leader project confidence, even when they’re having a bad day?
2. Physical fitness and presence are important.
I’ve heard some of my colleagues lament the fact that “young and energetic” is sometimes outweighing experience when opportunities come up to climb the corporate ladder. Balancing the workplace generation gap is a challenge, and when it comes…
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