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Leadership Skills

Written by: Bob Therrien

Article Overview: In Sales Groups Leadership Training Is Very Important Something that might surprise you: there are more leaders in any given group, statistically speaking, than there are followers. Most times there are more talkers than there are listeners too.

Leadership Skills

Leadership Skills

By Bob Therrien


In Sales Groups Leadership Training Is Very Important


Something that might surprise you: there are more leaders in any given group, statistically speaking, than there are followers. Most times there are more talkers than there are listeners too. There are more people who are willing to take the lead than there are people willing to follow. But willingness and even a capability of taking the lead are not leadership. A person with good leadership skills can empower and build trust within your organization. Employees like to have training, and leadership training can be fun. You can set up a once a week session, led by your staff or hire outside speakers. If you search you can find just the right book that can guide you to the style that best fits your organization.

Leadership must be taught, and often must be taught through example. Who is your leadership style based on? Did you have a business mentor that you admired? Formal leadership training should have a place, particularly in an adult organization where many leadership habits may already be set. You can't lead by bullying everyone else, though there are leaders who try. You can, however, be shown why that leadership style is ineffective through good training. Many times the first step to becoming a great leader is to develop listening skills. In the past many people thought that leading was just barking out commands. Many times, these days that just isn't effective. I believe that it all begins with organizational skills. Being able to sort things out and process the necessary steps that fit the styles and timetables of your employees. Then being able to communicate the plan, but also the ability to check back in to see that the plan is being executed and make necessary changes to the plan. Then communicating again about the progress, timetable and direction of the plan.

You may be a great leader; but leadership training, and training in general, does not come easy to most. Having great communication tools at your fingertips might help. Books, audio/video aids like movies, posters, and training tapes can be the basis for your leadership program. In addition, you can use the presentation tools you probably already have for sales meetings to put together your own leadership training. I find to be an effective leader that I need to be current with world, local and technology news. I normally start my day by spending a few minutes browsing different categories of content that might be needed during the meeting schedule that I have planned for the next few days. For example, if I know that I need to be able to chat about home improvement, I check a couple of articles. Same for online business, legal, family, etc. My company has created a grouping of RSS news feeds, stories & articles.
I find that it's up-to-date with the feeds, and easy to stay current.



© 2005, 2006

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