Leaders play a pivotal role in the success of any business. They bridge the gap between organization goals and employee performance and drive many aspects of business. Leadership can make or break a group and that is why developing better leaders is a top priority across nearly every industry.
To understand some of the secrets to the most successful leaders, we reached out to a top business coach, Jordan Montgomery. Jordan is the go-to guy of business executives, sales organizations, and entrepreneurs striving to improve themselves. Yahoo Finance recognized him as one of the Top 20 Entrepreneurs last year. In our interview with Jordan, he covered two key skills for success as a leader.
Building Connections with Your Team
A connected team is a successful team, and leaders play an important role in forging these connections. A leader should take time to make people feel special and included. One of the key ways to accomplish this is to get to know your team. Often this is synonymous with time. If you spend the time to get to know your team, their hobbies, their life, their city, where they’re from, you’ll see your team flourish, and your relationship deepen.
By being willing to honor the individuals on your team through time, you showcase how meaningful your relationship is.
Be a Better Leader by Not Comparing
A common leadership mistake is to compare one employee to another and then wonder why one performs while the other doesn’t. What we fail to realize is that comparison is dangerous because it often minimizes individual team members’ gifts. Jordan describes it like this, “we live in a world where we’re constantly comparing. Where we want what that other person has and what happens is we sell ourselves short. We don’t reach our potential because we aren’t meant to do what the other person does. You were created to do what you do well, and you have to know yourself well enough to execute on your gifts.” The best leaders can identify team members’ strengths and weaknesses so that they can play into them.
So stop the comparison game. Jordan often uses a Craig Groeschel quote when coaching leaders on this topic. It goes like this “the quickest way to kill something special is to compare it to something else.” In other words, leaders should not let one individual’s skills or performance shadow the unique abilities of someone else on their team. Instead, they should focus on getting to know their team and leaning into the strengths of their individual differences.