How Managers Can Become Resonant Leaders
Great leaders can inspire, persuade, and move people. They can spark change, make people feel they are doing the right thing, and feel good about themselves. Leaders who can create resonance are people who either intuitively understand or have worked hard to develop specific competencies that result in people working in sync with each other, leading to more productive and effective performance.
On the other hand, a dissonant leader with an authoritative leadership style can be ineffective and cause emotional frustration, stress, burnout, and disengagement among employees. These types of leaders can be perceived as cold and distant since they maintain a greater social and emotional distance from employees, which may only be favorable when orders must be delivered and executed immediately or to remain objective and logical in decision-making.
By not showing your team that you care about them, their opinions, and their feelings but only about getting the job done, they are less likely to associate positivity with the person, task, and workplace environment. Instead of fueling energy and a sense of collaboration and teamwork, feedback, and performance recognition, it demoralizes and destroys motivation and productivity. It makes the person feel unhappy or complacent. It eliminates their ambition to put more effort into the task or job at hand and creates indifference.
A resonant leader should constantly reevaluate their current state and future vision by listening, having empathy, and sharing compassion to build relationships and trust. These are all critical aspects of being a motivating leader and coach to your team. People want to feel validated, heard, and acknowledged, and that their opinion matters.
3 Key Competency Skills to Develop to Become a Resonant Leader:
- Self-awareness
- Social awareness
- Relationship management
Developing these three skills results in understanding your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, how you are perceived, and how you can effectively communicate to implement change, cultivate collaboration and lead a team that is in sync with each other.