Are You An Effective Leader?

New Year, New You. Our guess is that a lot of our customers’ New Year’s Resolutions might sound like: ‘Be a better manager’, or ‘Be a more effective leader’. As with all resolutions, something that can get in the way of achieving this goal is how vague of a resolution it is.

Be More Specific

Make your goal more achievable by narrowing its focus. One way to become an effective leader is to challenge conventional wisdom, question everything you know.  Marina Abramović in her 2016 autobiography Walk Through Walls offers this relevant anecdote:

“There were always seven guards with me, but my detachment would change as I moved from province to province. In one area there was a Red Army major who was so fascinated by me, this woman walking the Great Wall, that he brought a few of his soldiers to accompany me. One day we came to a super-steep hill, almost straight up, and as I started to climb it – still leading the way – these soldiers all started yelling.

“What are they saying?” I asked Dahai Han. “They say we have to go around this hill; we can’t climb it,” he said. “Why?” I asked. “This is called Never Standing Hill,” the translator said. “Nobody has ever stood on top. You can’t climb it.” “But who said that?” I asked. He looked at me as though I was the stupidest person in the world. “That’s just how it is,” he said. “It’s always been like this. We have to walk around it”.

Now the major and his soldiers had sat down and started to eat lunch. I looked at Dahai Han, said, “Okay,” and I started walking up the hill. Straight up, it didn’t  matter – up and up I went as they all sat there eating. Finally, I got to the top and looked back down. And then the major started screaming at the soldiers and then they all walked up the hill.

That evening, in the village where we stopped, the major gave a big speech about me. You can’t take obstacles for granted, he said. You have to face them and see if it’s possible to overcome them.”

Changes in the Workplace

It sounds grandiose to suggest that as leaders you are all going to start pushing the envelope but you can apply this idea to smaller assumptions in the workplace that impact your teams. The most popular example that is starting to gain traction is the idea that an ideal workspace involves sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. Or something a bit more challenging, the 40 hour work week which has reigned supreme since the industrial revolution but hasn’t gotten an update, except for in Sweden.

Actually, a switch from the 40 hour work week to a Results Only Work Environment is probably going to need more than an effective leader to overturn, but another office assumption that is more surmountable is the idea that conference calling is a necessary evil with insurmountable drawbacks. Conference calls are a dynamic and empowering tool that are ineffectively used due to ineffective leadership.

Whether it’s failing to ask someone to mute their line or a dull, unengaging and unproductive monologue the failings of conference calls can be traced back to human error. An effective leader will be able to navigate and avoid these pitfalls – but 247meeting have made it much easier with our new app 247meeting Mobile. If conference calls are an untapped resource for your team – try it today.

If you would like to stop taking your Conference Call obstacles for granted why not try 247meeting Mobile and overcome them with ease!

What kind of Sales Leader are you? Are you effective? Find out with our new ebook. Download it for free here.