In case you didn’t already know, today is Best Bosses Day! We’re grateful for all our bosses here at CWS and in order to celebrate, we’re writing this blog post about how leaders (ours included) inspire their teams!

The great debate about leadership has primarily started with whether leadership can be learned or is just born within an individual. According to InitiativeOne (and this Entrepreneur article), leadership CAN be learned. Apparently, only 24% of leadership skills are genetic and the remaining 76% are learned.  

How does this translate to the public view on the debate? InitiativeOne found that 19% believe leaders are born, while 53% believe they’re made. That leaves 28% believing that leaders are a result of both being born and made.

Two things that aren’t up for debate when it comes to leadership though are how you can quickly kill your team’s motivation and, in contrast, how to inspire them.

Ways to Kill Motivation

Here are ways to quickly kill your team’s motivation, which is a dangerous mistake for any business!

• Negativity: If a leader is constantly negative and shooting down their team members’ ideas, it’s a recipe for disaster. Employees will become fearful of contributing any new ideas, strategies etc. Also, nothing spreads quicker than negativity! It can quickly takeover the atmosphere of the office, which won’t be good for employees and customers alike!

• Fear of Failure: Instilling fear of failure in your employees is another sure way of killing inspiration in the workplace. If as a leader, you’re harping on your employees for mistakes, it doesn’t encourage them to learn from the experience and ensure it doesn’t happen again. Instead, it leaves them timid and nervous to branch out of their comfort zones.

• Micro-Management: This can be a hard one for leaders that like to be involved in their employees’ work. Not giving them room to breathe and take ownership of their projects, including the management and organization of them, can be demeaning for your employees and not allow them to grow to their full potential.

• Lack of Clarity in Mission, Vision & Goals: This is a no-brainer. If your employees aren’t clear on the company’s overall mission, vision, and/or goals, how do you expect them to hold up the standards of the dealership? Make sure that they are aligned with these key things for your business and motivated to showcase them.

How to Inspire

On a more positive note, there are six key ways InitiativeOne says you can inspire your team to push them to further growth and ultimately your business.

• Care As Much About People as Business: There has been a huge push in the leadership field to focus on empathy for your employees. Remember that while it’s a business you’re running, it’s being run by humans with emotions and lives of their own.

• Pushes for Excellence in Team: Push your team to strive for success and their highest level of excellence. Get them excited about the opportunity to push themselves further and celebrate the team’s successes and milestones along the way.

• Lead With Both “Head” and “Heart”: This can go hand in hand with the first point. Be smart about the business and how you’re running it, but also be compassionate. Not restricting yourself to all business, but rather talking with your team members on a personal level too will help keep morale high.

• Seek to Learn From Others, Not Just Teach: A good leader knows that they still have so much more to learn. Figure out what areas you’d like to learn more about and seek out your employees that can help you do that. It’s admirable to have a leader still striving to learn new things to ultimately make even more informed business decisions.

• Develop Others: Show your employees that you are truly devoted to helping them both professionally and personally grow. The time you take to help them be a better person and employee will solidify your investment in them and the business.

• Value Input of Everyone on the Team: Showing that you take the input of EVERY employee seriously is essential. When employees see that it’s not just the higher ups that get a say, they feel like they have more of a voice and direct impact on the business. Ultimately, that could contribute to their passion for their job and overall success of the dealership.

We’re proud to say our leaders encompass these positive traits and approach to work! We value their leadership styles and hope you thought of one of your influential leaders while reading. Make sure to let them know on this Best Bosses Day!