6 Ways To Help You Engage in Leadership as a Process
Leadership is a professional concept that you can think about in multiple ways. While some people consider leadership a position at a job or a set series of characteristics, many others view leadership as a process that you can perform and improve. Understanding what it means to consider leadership as a task you perform can help you plan effective activities and improve your overall management skills. In this article, we define leadership as a process, explore the benefits of this framework and provide some tips to help you exercise this viewpoint in the workplace.
What is leadership as a process?
Leadership as a process is an approach that involves viewing management as an action to perform or an activity to prepare, rather than a job or trait. Framing leadership as a process means you can focus on specific tasks that allow you to supervise others effectively. For example, it may encourage you to create workflow plans, record job performance metrics and set goals to improve your leadership skills over time. Leadership as a process also involves enhancing the working relationship between management and their staff, allowing each individual to help a company achieve its goals.
Benefits of leadership as a process
Here are some benefits of framing leadership as a process:
Allows you to set goals
If you consider leadership as a process, it may encourage you to learn new skills consistently and refine your management capabilities. This allows you to make goals relevant to the leadership process, like receiving and implementing feedback on department operations or developing confidence in your professional strengths. It can also motivate you to succeed and help you stay focused at the workplace, which may improve your job performance overall.
Provides guidelines for obstacles
If you consider leadership a process, you can often use associated skill sets to handle a workplace conflict or a project obstacle. Understanding what steps are necessary to problem-solve effectively can allow you to find a high-quality solution and encourage a team to remain positive about their outcomes. These efforts can also enhance professional skills relevant to your industry. For example, a hotel kitchen chef may better understand how to organize their supplies and enforce kitchen safety standards.
Enhances mentorship abilities
When you're a leader at your workplace, you might mentor members of your team so that they can develop professionally and become leaders in the future. If you consider leadership a process, you can cultivate teaching skills that can help you instruct team members on essential management skills. For instance, you might host a training session for a team on how to offer insightful feedback. These efforts can increase your bond with a team and allow you to develop a positive workplace culture.
Improves communication
If you view leadership as ongoing actions that you take to encourage and motivate your team, this may inspire you to communicate with each staff member regularly about their needs or concerns. For example, you might host more team-building activities, schedule one-on-one meetings, or check in with an entire group periodically. These efforts can help cultivate trust between management and their staff.
Encourages personal growth
Thinking about leadership as a process can help encourage you to seek personal growth, meaning it can encourage you to achieve goals and stay accountable for your actions. For example, you might schedule time each day to perform a task for a long-term goal or practice active listening skills to maintain positive relationships with team members. By framing leadership as an ongoing procedure, you can also continue refining these daily practices for the future.
Tips for engaging in leadership as a process
Here is a list of strategies that can help you engage in leadership as a process:
Conduct a self-analysis
Assessing your skills and potential challenges can help you understand your leadership style, allowing you to determine how to best improve your management capabilities. Consider setting some time aside to perform a self-analysis about your leadership process. Reflect on which personal qualities help you guide others effectively, like active listening skills or a positive demeanor. Then, determine which skills to improve and pick a timeframe for this goal. Afterward, it may be helpful to develop criteria for monitoring your progress over time.
Schedule one-on-one meetings
Meeting with members of your team individually can help you engage with leadership as a process by allowing you to see your team's expertise, abilities and needs. You can then use this information to create personalized professional development plans to help them perform their tasks effectively and meet their career goals. Consider scheduling these meetings regularly so consistent interactions with a team can remain an active component of your leadership process.
Create team-building opportunities
Creating a cohesive team can be an important aspect of a leadership process, as it's important for a department to understand each other's work style and trust each other to complete tasks. Therefore, performing team-building tasks can encourage a department to share objectives and become active participants in the leadership process. For example, you might incorporate team brainstorming sessions that allow personnel to share innovative ideas or create an online portal where staff can share feedback.
Develop a positive work culture
A strong work culture can help people at a company collaborate and strive toward mutual goals. Engaging in leadership as a process often means you can motivate others in the workplace, which may inspire you to guide others on a day-to-day basis. For instance, you can define company values in a mission statement to share with personnel or implement valuable feedback. You might also establish an employee recognition program to award individuals for high-quality job performances or exemplary qualities.
Review your leadership process
Checking your processes periodically can help you address potential challenges and modify your strategies, allowing you to improve them for the future. Try to schedule a time for each component of your leadership process, such as how you track workflow goals versus how you approach team relationships, where you evaluate your progress comprehensively. You can also review a previous self-analysis of your leadership skills to determine any areas of improvement.
Implement changes
Change your processes if they require improvement so your team can more effectively complete its goals. Whenever you have an idea for an action that may improve your leadership, test it on a small-scale project to see whether it enhances your procedures overall. Viewing leadership as a process allows you to experiment with different techniques to see which options best suit your team.