Formal training is a fantastic start to a leadership career, but unfortunately, good ones are rare and very costly. The good thing is that in my twelve years of experience training military and civilian leaders, I have learned that growth is actually accelerated outside the classroom. So how can you improve your leadership skills without returning to class?
One of the best ways to improve your leadership without formal training is by self-assessing your strengths and weaknesses. This gives you self-awareness of what you excel in and what you need to work on to be more efficient. Being consistent with this practice helps you become a better leader.
Are you looking for more ways to improve your leadership skills? You’re in the right place. This article covers 14 tips on how to become a better leader without formal training.
1. Know Your Weaknesses and Strengths
In the past decades, the mantra for being a successful leader has always been “focus on your strengths.” To some extent, this advice is helpful because it encourages you to engage in activities that will push you to the top of the ladder without much effort.
However, every leader has a set of weaknesses, and ignoring them limits the leader’s potential. Leaders that succeed are the ones who take deliberate action to work on skills and abilities that don’t come naturally to them.
If working on your strengths is like pressing the accelerator of your car, then working on your weaknesses is releasing the parking brake before going for a drive.
If working on your strengths is like pressing the accelerator of your car, then working on your weaknesses is releasing the parking brake before going for a drive.
Working on your weaknesses prevents you from being an arrogant leader. It also keeps you humble to ask for help and to learn from those who are strong in areas you’re weak.
Being consistent in turning your weaknesses into strengths and focusing on your strengths builds resilience and the ability to thrive in your leadership position.
Real leadership mastery comes from excelling at your strengths and being “good enough” at your weaknesses.
I just finished Dr. Jordan Petersons Big Five personality test, which gave me some truly valuable insights into my character and how I can better interact with my colleagues.
2. Learn From Other Leaders
Leaders should have an innate curiosity to learn from other leaders. Frankly, no one has it all figured out. But by observing how other leaders conduct themselves, you can learn lessons from their good and bad examples.
But remember, every leader has a unique leadership style that matches their personality and beliefs. When learning from others, your ultimate goal should be to gain insight into how to deal with similar situations when they arise but not to copy.
Another way of learning from other leaders is by reading. No matter how busy a successful leader’s schedule gets, they always create time for reading business books and magazines. Reading exposes you to current information and experiences of other leaders that push you to become more grounded in your role.
One of my favorite leadership books is actually on economics. The book does a great job explaining human behavior; Daniel Kahnemans Thinking Fast and Slow is my number one recommendation to all my friends. It has taught me to identify my decision-making biases and allowed me to avoid huge mistakes in my thinking!
Hers a great article when you want to see five examples of great leadership communication!
3. Learn From Your Mistakes
Being a leader does not mean you’ll be right all the time. Once in a while, you’ll take the wrong stride, and if your tolerance for taking risks is high, like me, then you’ll make a lot of them ;).
But how you handle your mistakes defines the kind of a leader you are.
It’s easy to cast blame on others when you are a leader. But doing so denies you the opportunity of sitting with your mistakes and learning the lessons to prevent a repeat mistake.
Never blame anything on someone else! Take extreme ownership of your life and your team!
Never blame anything on someone else! Take extreme ownership of your life and your team!
At first, it’s hard to accept one’s mistakes. Research shows 67% of people don’t like owning up to their mistakes. But when you are in a leadership position, you must learn vulnerability and acknowledge your mistakes. The most helpful lessons are the ones you learn from your failures.
When you take responsibility for your errors, you earn respect from your seniors and juniors, making it easy to move on from the mistake.
4. Be Yourself (But Strive For a Better You)
A leader is a blend of their personality, experiences, background, and knowledge. Though leaders may share some qualities, each has a unique leadership style that reflects their authentic self.
Unfortunately, some leaders copy their idols or other leaders with a track record of success without factoring in their personalities. The lack of authenticity in this kind of leadership makes the leader unstable because they’ll constantly be changing themselves to match others.
Imitation is a truly strong part of our biology; that’s how we learn to walk, talk and interact with the world as kids. You can certainly make a strong argument that imitation is the main way of learning throughout life.
Now, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn from other leaders. Instead of reinventing the wheel, you should tailor the lesson to your personal qualities.
Remember, being yourself requires you to be self-aware and comfortable with your strengths and weaknesses. And when you are authentic, you can lead confidently and earn your team’s trust because your words and actions match.
My recommendation to leaders is this:
Be yourself at all times; unless yourself is an asshole, then be someone else.
Be yourself at all times; unless yourself is an asshole, then be someone else.
Being yourself has become such a cliche that it has lost its value; it is the same with accepting yourself. If we just accept who we are, then what? What happens with developing a better future self?
I have plenty of behaviors that I wish to improve. As leaders, we shouldn’t aim just be ourselves and expect everyone else to follow us because what happens if that person is unlikeable and untrustworthy?
We have all met people like that, so we must be careful not to become one of them.
We must learn from feedback and continually improve in a direction that aligns us with meaning.
5. Listen to the People Around You
Digital leaders are always in a tight spot because of the waves of information battling for their attention. Though technology avails invaluable information that can help leaders improve, it does not compare to the information coming from your team.
Your team has firsthand experience with your projects and knows what’s working and not.
If you fail to listen to your team, you’ll quickly be surrounded by people unwilling to engage with you. This results in a lack of collaboration and cohesion in the organization.
One powerful skill you can possess as a leader is effective listening. It allows you to get feedback and ideas from your team that can help you make informed decisions. Also, it shows you respect and value your team, helping you build trust and loyalty.
6. Find a Mentor ASAP!
Did you know that 100% of the TOP 50 US Fortune 500 US Fortune companies have mentoring programs, but only a few percent of small businesses do?
Small teams and businesses often make the mistake of not using leadership mentors, sometimes the argument is “we are not ready” or “we don’t have the money and time,” but then I want to ask you, do you think these companies joined the Fortune 500 club and then implemented mentorship programs, or is mentorship a reason why they got there?
The biggest mistake I see small teams make is not using the power of coaching to improve their communication, decision-making, and ability to influence. This stops their development.
They get stuck, lose their team’s support, and sooner or later tend to give up on their own ability to lead.
I have personally met former colleagues, only to see them struggling with the same inability to make good decisions that could have easily been overcome with some coaching and mentoring five years ago.
A much better way is to start working with a leadership mentor/coach as early as possible; just like a football player aiming for the NFL will get private coaching to work on their individual needs, so should you!
A good coach or mentor will offer you the truth you need to hear; they will be obliged to tell you how they perceive you, good and bad so that you can improve. They will never tell you what to do but instead enable you to think in new ways and develop a unique leadership style your team wants to follow.
A good coach or mentor will offer you the truth that you need to hear; they will be obliged to tell you how they perceive you, good and bad so that you can improve.
You will quickly experience that leading your team becomes easier; you will have fewer confrontational questions and social issues, and your sense of purpose will make you dang near unstoppable! This is my personal experience with coaching.
When you want to be an influential speaker able to motivate your team while also confident to make tough decisions, I invite you to book a free leadership call with me, and let’s work together!
7. Learn Competencies That Lie Out of Your Expertise
Most leaders believe that they don’t need skills outside their leadership roles. They might say they do, but if we study their behavior, they stay comfortable and unwilling to stretch themselves beyond their daily routines.
Passive leaders believe that the only way they can learn about the organization’s performance is through employees.
However, successful leaders are always looking for learning opportunities. Being open to learning new skills outside your leadership scope helps you become better at making decisions, understanding problems and connecting with your team.
When you want personalized tips on what skills you should practive to improve your leadership, I invite you to book a free leadership call with me!
8. Be Self-Disciplined
Self-discipline is an invaluable skill for leaders that takes years of intentional actions and self-awareness to cultivate. As a leader, you have to juggle a load of responsibilities, from hectic schedules to ensuring efficiency in the organization to managing your team and pursuing your work and personal goals. Without self-discipline, it’s easy to lose focus and abandon projects mid-way.
Self-discipline gives you the agency to stay focused on what matters, regardless of how you feel. You can set priorities and manage your time to ensure nothing falls behind the set timelines. To become self-disciplined, you must practice the following soft skills until they turn into habits:
- Emotional intelligence: Your emotions should not influence your decisions. Instead, you should learn self-control to manage your thought patterns, especially in negative situations.
- Persistence: You’ll inevitably encounter challenges along the way, but they should not be a reason for you to quit.
- Self-awareness: When handling many responsibilities, forgetting your values can happen in the blink of an eye. To keep your values intact, you should regularly do self-assessments to monitor your behavior.
Read my guide on self-management when you want to use your emotions as strengths!
9. Practice Humility
Humility keeps a leader teachable and aware of their limitations. Though it’s not always a popular trait in lists of leadership qualities, leaders who embrace humility lead from a place of strength because they are approachable and willing to consider other people’s opinions.
They understand and accept that the people around them know things that 1) they themselves do not know and 2) are worth knowing. This is the foundation for active listening, one of the key traits of a great leader.
Being humble does not mean you are a weak leader. You can be humble and still lead confidently. How can you practice humility as a leader?
- By leading to serve: Humble leaders do not sit around and wait for others to work for them. They lead in the frontline by helping and guiding others to achieve their goals.
- Accepting your mistakes: When mistakes happen, and you’re in charge, you take responsibility. You don’t shift blame to others to make yourself look good.
- By admitting you don’t know everything: Being humble as a leader allows you to admit your weaknesses and to take lessons from others who are more knowledgeable than you.
- Being empathetic: Practising humility as a leader helps you empathize with other people’s weaknesses. Instead of intimidating them, you allow them to learn and improve.
Being humble does not mean you are a weak leader
10. Anticipate and Leverage Adversity
Leading an organization is like sailing in the ocean. Sometimes the waves will be calm, and the sail will be easy. But the waves might be rough on other days, and you’ll have to fight hard to keep your boat from capsizing.
On average, 69% of organizations face a crisis every fifth year, and sometimes they follow each other consecutively, giving you no room to breathe. This can be stressful and overwhelming. However, being a leader requires you to have an attitude of thriving amidst adversity.
Enduring obstacles and setbacks help you sharpen your leadership skills and learn more about yourself. Although you might make mistakes, you get the experience of handling challenges and crises in a better way should they occur again.
Great leaders are forged through adversity and challenges.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain
11. Network With Other Leaders
Networking involves forming connections and relationships with other leaders who hold similar positions as yours. It provides opportunities to learn from leaders who have faced the challenges you encounter in your organization. This allows you to apply their lessons to your leadership style and improve your skills.
You gain valuable insights and best practices, stay up-to-date with industry trends and expand your professional network. It also helps you build credibility, increase exposure, and develop a more diverse network of contacts you can consult in emergencies.
12. The Task That Lays The Foundation For Success
Think about this, what do you value the most, someone who is highly competent but that you don’t trust, or someone whit medium competence but that you trust will have your back when things get rough?
Many team leaders I meet are so focused on vanity metrics and output that they miss out on what actually leads to high performance in the first place. This type of leadership tends to see a performance increase over the short term but will soon stall.
Often the manager tries to do more of the same thing, expecting an increase in performance, but instead, the opposite happens. The team gets dissatisfied with the focus on metrics instead of humans and begins looking for opportunities elsewhere.
You have probably seen this happen at your company or heard of it from your friends.
It’s like having a Ferrari but only using the first two gears. Step on the pedal as hard as you want; it won’t go much faster.
What we need to do is access all the gears and all the potential of the team. Because if we don’t, people leave.
If you want to drastically increase retention rate and employee engagement and satisfaction, there is one task you must prioritize above all others. Building trust between you and your team!
Employees leave their jobs because they lack trust in their leaders.
Trust is the foundation of achieving your goals; it doesn’t matter if it is trust in your own ability or others. Here’s an example; my last team did three deployments and worked together for four years; this has never been done in my company before. The reason we could do it? We Forged Unbreakable Trust!
When you build a team with a deep sense of belonging that honors and respects each other, the tasks matter less; you get your stuff done because your teammates expect it from you. Suddenly your team can out weather bad decisions and stupid assignments.
When other teams worry about what is coming next, your team looks inwards and becomes stronger, knowing that whatever storm comes your way, you’ll have each other’s back, and you might even enjoy it.
Without trust, there is no team, only a gathering of individuals.
When there is mutual trust between you and your team, both parties feel a sense of safety. This is called psychological safety and has a big impact on your business.
When you are ready to Forge Unbreakable Trust, I invite you to book a free leadership call with me and let's see if we should work together.
Knowledge becomes more powerful when shared. As a leader, you are exposed to a plethora of knowledge that can help your team become more efficient. By openly sharing your knowledge and expertise, you demonstrate your willingness to support the growth and development of your team.
You create a more engaged and motivated workforce empowered to emulate you. This creates a culture of continuous learning and improvement, challenging your team members to take on demanding responsibilities. It also encourages creativity and innovation.
Being responsible for the training of others also pushes you to “get your shit together,” so to speak; it forces you to double-check your facts and separate between opinions and proven successful ideas.
When you share knowledge with others, you become a better leader and drive success individually and collectively.
14. Set High And Specific Standards
Managing a team requires you to set an example for them to emulate. Therefore, you need to have a set of values and principles that guide your interactions with others, your activities, and your decisions.
To become an excellent leader, you should always set high standards for yourself and your team. When you set a goal, ensure you get the best results possible. Let your team know you don’t settle for mediocrity.
Setting high goals alone doesn’t cut it; you will also have to be as specific as you possibly can; the team needs to know exactly what differentiates a hit from a miss. You don’t want to “increase profit”; you want to “improve sales by 10% before the 21st of May”.
However, you must also be willing to support your team by offering guidance and providing necessary support.
When you are ready to learn more about effective goal setting as a team leader, reach out to me here for a free leadership call.
Final Thoughts
It’s not necessary to go through formal training to improve your leadership skills. You can become a better leader by:
- Being intentional about working on your weaknesses.
- Learning from your peers and juniors and tailoring the lessons to meet your leadership style.
- Reading leadership books, magazines, and other resources.
- Staying up-to-date with your industry trends.
Remember, becoming the leader you want takes time and effort. You must be patient with yourself and consistent.
