COVID

Here are 10 soft skills that leaders will need to influence their teams

Leaders need support in the workplace

People have changed. The pandemic has raised many concerns for humanity and driven the adoption of digital transformation so fast that companies are playing catch-up.

So many new aspects of work have surfaced. Remote working causes feelings of isolation and burn-out as people no longer have a separate place to work and live.

In some ways, we have gained productivity as there is no need to travel between work and home, but some people are lacking the discipline to “switch-off” and balance their work and home lives effectively. What people need is a person to coach them through their response to the pandemic, the changes everyone is experiencing with many people finding it hard to cope.

Leaders could coach their people to achieve balance.

Coaching is such a valuable skill as it helps people to acquire new skills and practice them effectively. As a leader here are some behaviours and skills that people find important to cultivate.

1.Transparency

2.Listening Skills

3.Appreciation of and encouraging Teamwork

4.Trustworthiness

5.Consistency and Reliability

6.Willingness to Change

7.Rewarding and Recognizing Employees

8.Empathy and Sensitivity

9.Making Decisions (and Accepting Responsibility)

10.Conflict Resolution (Rather than Conflict Avoidance)

The next step is to practice these behaviours

The workplace is challenging and every leader wants to be seen as supportive, decisive and fair. By focussing on the listed attributes a leader will be able to engage his people and gain their support. This is easier said than done and therefore, I make my services available to businesses and corporates as an external coach.

Being an external coach helps me to be objective, clear-headed and effective. In order to solve a problem, it is better to see it clearly without preconceived ideas and coaching is one of the best tools to identify problems…wherever they may hide.

Contact me for more information