51% of US workers work for a firm/corporation employing 500 or more people. So a majority work for a large corporation and since many corporations are small a large majority of workers work for corporations. While over 90% of all firms have between 0 and 20 employees, these firms only employ 19.2% of all private sector workers. These small firms can be anything from coffee shops to small car dealerships and are organized as both pass-through businesses and C corporations. On the other hand, while only 0.4% of all firms have over 500 employees, this small group of businesses employs 50.6% of the nation’s private sector workforce, with most of those employees working for C corporations. Some of the world’s largest companies employ nearly a quarter of a million people each.

We all know about the greed of the corporate America. And we all must have stories about nightmare bosses that we worked for in the past or present. The most common way to describe them would be selfish, revenue-oriented, lack of empathy, and without leadership skills. I hope those days working for a boss who doesn’t care about his team are long behind me. But you never know when you join a new company when you switch departments or when you start working for a new manager.

So what makes a good leader? What skills do you need to learn and perfect to create a good strong team of people that will follow you and make you successful? The answer is not really that difficult. There are many ways that you can be a good leader. It doesn’t matter if your team is 10 of hundreds of people. The main approach would be the same. If you want to become a person that others will look up to and remember how strong and positive you were then it’s time to start right now.

Take A Good Look At Your Team

I’m not talking just trying to remember their names. It can be difficult if we are talking about a whole department. Names you will learn with time. But look at your team because they are more than just names. They have families, situations, and issues that are deep beneath the surface. Every person has strong suits and to be a good leader you should try to get to know them. We need to know what motivates each person. How strongly they feel about their jobs and their knowledge about the company.

The first thing to have in mind when you are getting to know your team is to stay positive. Try not to listen to the office gossip and try to find out things for yourself. Even if it’s your assistant or the person cleaning the floors. If they are part of your team they are your responsibility to lead and inspire. Give them time to get to know you. Take the time to get to know them and learn what is their contribution to the company. I have often heard that is easier to learn new habits than to change the existing ones. And very often companies hire new people instead of training the people that are already working. That mindset needs to change. All people deserve a chance to perform better and with good leadership, they may surprise you with what they can do.

Don’t Play The Blame Game

Mistakes happen in every workplace. Sometimes they can be small and harmless but often they will cause trouble and make you seem unprofessional. That is very true in large companies where a simple mistake can bring more trouble then it is worth. A moment of carelessness, a number wrong on a report, or a guest complaint that could have easily been avoided. A true leader. A person who takes charge of the team will always take the blame. No matter what. That is my personal opinion. It’s true in the opposite way. When everything is running well and the owners are happy they often praise the management and not the lower staff.

So even if you know who it is to blame. Even if you know how the mistake happened and you want to bring that person forward. A leader would stand tall and say it was his mistake. Not bringing the other person’s name out. Because he is in charge of the team and it is his responsibility. That doesn’t mean that the person responsible will not get sanctions but in front of the higher management a leader will not involve his team and blame someone else. He is hired to lead, not to assign blame. And this is something that many bosses will never understand. They are too busy looking for a scapegoat than to inspire others to greatness.

Meet The Needs Of Your Team

Every person is different. As so is each person on your team. You as a leader need to learn how you can help them shine. You need to learn about their situations. Simple as making sure that the night shift is always the same number for all the people. Giving pregnant women on your team light duties while they are working. Being understanding with people who have small children and need to take more time off than others. Noticing the people who are ready for more responsibility and have great performance gives them chances to step up. These are the facts of life.

There are times when you will see that understanding the needs of your team will pay off in the future. People will be more happy and eager to work. A positive environment will create more revenue and you will reach more goals. Instead of saying you have to follow me, a leader tries to follow the needs of his team. Placing the right person in the right position will make your job easier and everyone will be more consistent.

Respond To Any Negative Feelings

A leader is an honest person. We all know that there is no such thing as a perfect team. There will always be people who are not happy, who earned their place because of connections or privilege. There are always people who try to make the whole team bad. But how you respond to negative people is the key. A leader knows what can be and can’t be discussed. Any negative gossip about the management or the owners is not accepted. You as a leader are representing them to the team. So if you are positive and believe that you can achieve success your team will follow you.

Even when the situation gets hard. Maybe you didn’t reach the goal. maybe the company is not providing raises or not listening to input. There is nothing good about being negative. A leader will inspire his team even more when things get bad. If you are asking your staff to work overtime you need to be there with them. If you are asking your staff to cut on their vacation days you need to do the same. Whatever you ask your team you need to lead by example. And if they do not do as you ask you still need to stay positive and understanding. That is the difference between a boss and a leader.

Don’t expect people to come to you with their issues and problems. It is your job to recognize when somebody has a problem and approach them and ask them what is going on. Ask them how you can better support them and provide help. As a leader, you will listen to all their issues even when sometimes they are not work-related. People break up relationships, have a death in the family, get a divorce, move away, or just have financial troubles. It is your duty as a leader to acknowledge these issues even if you can’t help at least they can talk to you and you can understand how they are feeling. It’s called being a human being and having a soul.

What Are The Rewards Of Being A Good Leader?

So why would you do it? Why would you put all this effort into getting to know people? What is the motivation behind leadership? It will make your job so much easier. In the long run, there will be a sense of trust. And you will find that you don’t even have to be present all the time. There will be no need to micromanage your team. They will be able to perform tasks and do things that you have taught them because they will feel a sense of accomplishment. They will feel valued and comfortable in the environment you have created for them.

So even when people go and you give them a good recommendation to help them achieve better things they will bring the things you have taught them to other places to become leaders themselves. And if we had more people like that around the corporate America pregnant mothers would not be scared of losing their jobs. People with master’s degrees would not work in fast-food restaurants. People would be valued for who they are and what they can do and not how they are connected.

And when people start getting jealous of the community you have created and try to stab you in the back. Your team is there to support you. They will say only good things about you. There will be nothing to use against you because your team trusts you and wants you as their leader. So leadership is more important than anything else. But it needs strong and positive people to get it across.