Sarah Burness's Blog: How to Be a Better Leader

Leadership comes naturally to some people, but others must actively work hard to be an effective leader in different facets of their lives. If you have a managerial or executive role in your profession, you may be able to use SmartPlanner.com products in different ways to become a better leader. With a closer look at some of the most important tips that you can follow to become a better leader, you will see how this is possible.

Organize Your Time Properly

In order to lead others to achieve great things in their own positions, you must first and foremost be a good role model. This means that you must be well-organized and structure your use of time wisely. More than that, you must be efficient in all that you do so that you can tackle more tasks and devote ample time to everything that crosses your desk.

Keeping a detailed planner or schedule ensures that you never miss important meetings or overlook items that require your attention. More than that, you can better allocate ample time to each task so that you can focus more fully on it.

Delegate Tasks Efficiently

A leader certainly does not tackle all tasks in his or her department or business. Leadership is about delegating tasks to the right individuals so that the work gets done right and in an efficient manner. More than that, it also is about helping your team develop and refine their skills so that the individual and the business as a whole can benefit from it.

Planning and creating lists is important in efficient delegation, and your planner or calendar can assist with this process. For example, you can establish times for team meetings, determine which tasks you do not have time to handle properly yourself and more.

Be Available to Your Team

While you may need to plan numerous meetings and events in your calendar outside of the office, you also need to allow ample free time so that you are available to your team. This may mean that you schedule 15 minutes of free time after every meeting to chat individually with different team members.

It may mean that you schedule individual or small group lunches or coffee meetings to keep in touch and to foster their creativity for innovation in the business. You always need to be available to your team as needed if you want to become a better leader.

Improve Communication Skills

Communication is a two-way street, and it involves active verbal and written communication as well as the time to listen to or read communication sent to you. You need to give ample time to your email and text messages, and you also need to devote your undivided attention to your employees and team members when they are speaking to you face-to-face.

Many managers and executives unfortunately feel stressed and frazzled throughout the day because they are overbooked or because they failed to manage their time wisely. If you want to be a great leader in your organization, you must be able to manage time wisely so that you can improve your communication skills.

As you can see, there are many aspects of time management and planning that relate to your ability to be great leader. If you are interested in becoming a better leader, you may be able to make great leaps forward in each of these areas through the use of a planner or schedule. It can also be helpful to analyze your specific leadership weaknesses and to get feedback from your team if you want to improve yourself in the most effective ways possible.