How can I gain the confidence to be an effective leader?

In order to gain the confidence to be an effective leader, you need to have courage when making decisions in times of great uncertainty and chaos. Making decisions is hard when your thinking about other people, but remember, most people love having someone else tell them what to do, it frees them up to think about other important things.

Even if you’re the smartest person around (and maybe you are), you’re just one person. The leader who can get 5, or 10 or 100 other smart people to do their best will get 5/10/100 times as much done as the “smart” leader who does it all.

Motivate others to come up with the answer. Too many people think they, as leaders, need to solve all the issues. They don’t, they need to create the right environment that nurtures others to solve it. If your team is smarter than you are, you’re in the right place. Scary place, but right place.

Don’t expect to be Jack Welch or Steve Jobs immediately. Give yourself time. Try to be an effective leader 6 months from now. Set goals, allow yourself to fail and learn. Then in 6 months, set more goals.

Know your strength. At face value, this seems so simple, but this is because “know your strength” has become as diluted and misused as “follow your bliss”. Almost everyone’s heard of it, not many people know what it’s supposed to mean or what to do about it.

Knowing your strength in a leadership capacity means you understand the conditions of which you are most effective at creating a “leadership experience” (perception) in your target audience.

Finding the balance is tough, but that’s what a good leader does. It’s showing that you’re working hard too, you’re part of the team, you’re constantly pushing everyone, including yourself, to fly higher, think better, work smarter. You’re encouraging, but never completely satisfied (there’s no such thing as standing still – you’re either moving forward or slowly sliding backward). You’re always keeping the vision of where you’re headed, and you’re making sure that everyone has that vision too. You’re a living example of your company’s core values, that will motivate others to live them too.