Leadership

Not all bosses are created equal. Some may be born leaders, but most of us have to learn how to master the role.

But even if you’re doing a great job of leading your team, there’s always room for improvement, right?

And the good news: 70% survive their leadership weaknesses, says Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, authors of Speed: How Leaders Accelerate Successful Execution.

But first, you need to identify your weaknesses. Here are five common leadership liabilities shared by Business News Daily – and how to turn them into assets:

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Most leaders rise to the top because they excel at their work. But the most successful leaders stay at the top – and set the bar for others – because they master certain roles that others struggle with.

“Great leadership is dynamic,” says author Travis Bradberry, who wrote Emotional Intelligence 2.0. “It melds a variety of unique skills into an integrated whole.”

Here are leadership traits and behaviors the top leaders balance to excel:

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It’s a challenge for most managers: What to do when people who used to work with you now work for you, thanks to some reshuffling, etc.

Though they may come at you with handshakes and congratulations, inside they might be feeling a little skeptical — and a lot envious. You’re just like them, after all – what merits YOU to now be in charge?

New managers can succumb to early power-struggle mistakes when supervising former co-workers.

We either overstep our boundaries or under-enforce them. Or we fail to recognize common pitfalls we that could mess up team dynamics and one-to-one employee relationships.

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They say TV rots your brain. But doesn’t that depend on what you watch?

If you’re a fan of “NCIS,” you may have actually learned something from the lead character Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Gibbs is a former U.S. Marine sniper turned special agent who works and lives by his own special set of no-nonsense rules.

These rules define who he is and how he manages his team.

Of course, not all of Gibb’s rules can be applied to business, but here are 13 worth tweaking for your environment.

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Chances are, when you look around, you see a group of people that hardly resembles the pool of folks you were a part of before you became a manager.

They’re likely younger, better educated, less experienced, more tech-savvy and generationally different in many ways.

Part of every manager’s role is to adapt to the dynamics of the team – not the other way around. Knowing how to work with changing demographics requires knowing how to make rules that they’ll be able, and willing, to follow.

Otherwise, people might pack up their laptops and go looking for greener pastures.

A great first step in keeping these emerging up-and-comers happy is to ditch old-style rules that went the way of 8-track tapes and TV vacuum tubes.

Here are a few of the fuddy-duddy rules you can ditch right away.

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You’re great at leading other people, but could you do their jobs?

If not, it’s time to learn.

Before you start thinking, “Yeah, right. I’m busy enough doing my own work. I don’t have time to learn their jobs,” give us a chance.

On the surface, it might not seem important – or even feasible — that the boss knows how to do employees’ work. But new research finds the exact opposite is true.

A manager’s understanding of employees’ work has the biggest impact on their job satisfaction, a study in the Industrial and Labor Relations Review found.

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No matter what you think about the Harry Potter novels, you must give it up for J.K. Rowling.

She was at rock bottom when she had the idea for the book series and wrote the first one on a manual typewriter.

It’s now estimated that after taxes, thanks to the books, movies, theme parks and television, Rowling’s earnings are $1.2 billion, according to The New York Times.

Not too shabby for a single mother who was once on welfare.

When it comes down to it, leaders, supervisors and managers can all take a page from Rowling’s book on what it takes to be successful and fulfilled both personally and professionally.

What other life/business lessons can you steal from the world-renowned author? Here are nine that could change your life:

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Feel like you’re spending more time putting out wildfires?

You know, the unnecessary ones sparked by petty employee outbursts.

One minute things are fairly quiet and, next thing you know, something flares up and causes yet another disruption.

You can almost smell the smoke outside your office.

Here are five classic employee fires that, with some deft handling, you can stomp out for good.

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It’s easy to point the finger at others when things go wrong. Sports coaches and players are blamed for games lost, deadlines are blamed for poorly executed plans, we even blame the weather when we’re having a bad day.

The blame game isn’t something new. We all know the term “scapegoat.” That term comes from a story in the Bible (if not even earlier) in which the collective sins of a community were placed upon the unsuspecting back of a poor goat.

Too often we get sucked into a pattern of blame and counter-blame, but I’ve got a couple of powerful questions that could alter that pattern and put an end to the question “Who is to blame?”

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