Being a leader is way beyond the exotic cars, private jets, and luxury lifestyle; it is more of a sacrifice – Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has been reported to eat his lunch mostly during meetings with his workers.
Take a good look at any leader you know; you will notice he possesses some unique characteristics that distinguish him from others — all leaders have essential skills and habits that make them stay ahead of others who don’t possess the skills.
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How Leaders Develop Their Skills
To master a skill, you need to develop some traits to do the mastering without any hassle. Such a trait is Unique Daily Routine.
One of the traits that distinguish leaders from others is how to go about their daily activities – they tend to follow a strict routine which in turn helps them achieve their daily goals.
All leaders wake up early to attend to their emails as they won’t have time during work hours, they grab a bite to provide energy for the day’s activities, and they avoid distractions at work.
There is time for everything; as most leaders would say, that call or email you want to answer during work hours can turn into a long conversation, thus cutting short your productivity for the day.
Leaders allocate time for everything – they create a to-do list and tick each one after executing it to avoid repetition.
1. Work, Work, And Work
Leaders hardly have time for themselves; they are either at work or in one meeting or the other trying to boost their productivity.
Most of the leaders work their asses off, and they exceed the standard 40 work hours per week; Elon Musk, for instance, was reported to spend 180 hours per week before cutting it down to 90 hours per week which is still more than the average American.
With frequent work, you are preparing yourself to learn how to be an effective leader. You gain experience only when you work, but don’t forget to rest because even the world-renowned leaders rest.
2. Task Delegation
One of the essential factors that make a successful leader is the ability to delegate tasks; Leaders can’t be everywhere at a particular time; that is why they have diligent workers who execute tasks on their behalf.
Delegating tasks allows the leader to have maximum concentration on what matters and thus, boost their productivity. This way, you have time for personal growth and private matters.
3. Have A Plan For Personal Growth
Readers are leaders; successful leaders are undoubtedly good readers – they read all kinds of genres, from autobiographies to fiction books.
They make sure they gain something of importance every day to stay on top of their game – you can never go wrong with books.
“The day you stop learning is the day you start dying.” Whoever made that quote was surely referring to leaders. To be ahead of others, you need to do the impossible; when they are crawling, you walk, when they are walking, you run, when they are running, you fly, and when they are flying, you become OUTSTANDING.
Another important thing to do as a leader is to execute projects of different types either at work or your community, taking up online training such as the online project management program to up your game.
4. Learn Critical Thinking
Critical thinkers are problem solvers — that is what is required of you as a leader. At work or in your community, you need to help them solve the daily problems they are facing.
For you to be a critical thinker, you need to be proactive; foresee future problems and create a solution for it in case the problem surfaces, and if the problem doesn’t surface, then the knowledge will still be part of you which can be transferred to your mentees or colleagues who look up to you.
4. Networking
Another important thing for all leaders is to learn how to network; networking makes you create circles and engage in healthy competition with other leaders. With your network, you can also seek the opinions of their fellow leaders on mentorships and business ideas.
Conclusion
Successful leaders didn’t just wake up and find themselves in the limelight; they worked for it, they sacrificed a lot for it, they earned it.
It is not by mere wishing; knowing the essential traits of LEADERs isn’t enough; practice the traits and use the skills listed above consistently until they become part of you. With that, you will find yourself at the top seat soon.
