7 Leadership Skills Your Team Needs from You Now

Strong leadership is crucial now more than ever to help your leasing team maintain success. The current atmosphere demands leadership skills applied in some unique ways. Findings from a survey by Leadership IQ in June 2020, of more than 21,000 employees of varied roles and backgrounds on how well their leaders were performing, revealed these 7 leadership skills your team needs from you now:

1. Use Ideas from Outside the Organization

About a quarter of respondents answered that their leaders occasionally, rarely, or never use ideas from outside the organization. Why is this important?

• The entire global community is part of today’s situation.
• Being open to ideas leads to the best inspired effort.
• We’re seeing major shifts in the retail, hospitality, medical and education fields.
• Your staff interacts with organizations that have changed.
• The more you listen, the more you inspire others to bring their best effort.

2. Remove Roadblocks to Success

Of the people surveyed, 29% said their leaders rarely or never remove roadblocks to their success. This leadership skill matters because:

• Roadblocks are everywhere!
• We’re already occupied managing residents, family and personal issues.
• If employees are stuck, how can they run at a target, let alone a moving one?
• Helping to remove roadblocks is one of the fastest ways to reduce burnout in your leasing team.
• The only way you can determine what roadblocks need to be removed is to ASK!

3. Take a More Active Role

For this question, 20% of leaders always take a more active role while 30% rarely or never do. It’s vital for leaders to become actively involved because:

• So much is going on in the day-to-day, some of our focus has been lost.
• We all know this is important, but it can be hard to keep up with everything.
• Your leasing teams may have lost focus too, so it’s your job to remind them!
• Consider what an extraordinary statement it would make to your leasing team if you were to take the time to actively support their individual growth and development, despite all you are juggling!
• When you help your employees develop new skills, it creates higher performance and better employee (and customer) retention.

4. Ensure Alignment with the Organization

An encouraging 29% of people surveyed said their leaders always ensure they are aligned with the organization while 26% said this occurred occasionally, rarely or never. Why does corporate alignment matter as a leadership skill right now?

• Your team can tell when you are not aligned with the organization.
• Increased understanding that leaders at the top are likely struggling with this.
• Maybe strategies are changing mid-course.
• The more you appear aligned, the more your team will be inspired to give their best and get behind you.
• You model alignment and your example is critical right now!

5. Encourage Suggestions for Improvement

Results were evenly split here – 26% always versus 27% occasionally, rarely or never. Allowing and encouraging suggestions for improvement is vital because:

• Everyone is looking for new solutions right now.
• The more ideas a company has at its disposal, the higher the likelihood of its survival and growth.
• Think of the value of creating and maintaining a “bank” of ideas.

6. Respond Constructively to Problems

For this question, an equivalent number of people responded that their leaders always respond constructively to those who said they rarely or never did. This matters because:

• You’re not going to stop running into problems, so you need to learn to respond constructively.
• Ignored problems don’t go away.
• The bravery required for someone to bring you a problem should be rewarded with listening.
• When problems are handled constructively, trust builds.
• Believe it or not, you need the problems for the chance for constructive improvements.

7. Openly Share Problems You’re Facing as a Leader

Only 20% of respondents said leaders openly shared problems they are facing and 21% said they rarely or never openly shared problems. Openly sharing as a leadership skill is important because:

• This allows a leader to be transparent but not downtrodden.
• It’s gloomy and anxious for employees being kept in the “dark”.
• The more your followers clearly understand the challenges being faced, the more apt they are to elevate their own performance to meet the target.
• When you share, your employees are much more likely to recommend the company as a great organization.

Consider distributing a similar survey to your own team so they can anonymously share their viewpoints. The feedback will be invaluable for you in your own development as the most effective leader you can be, including these 7 leadership skills your team needs from you now.

Presented by:

Sue Weston

Principal
The Susan Weston Company

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