5 Ways Confident Senior Leaders Stand Out ☝️

Ever wondered what makes confident Senior Leaders different?:

1. Big Picture Focus: 🌍 The best senior leaders don’t focus on the smaller things; just their teams or challenges.  They focus on the bigger picture - for the whole firm / division / broader group - and consider this in their decisions and when they talk.  You will notice this as they are bigger thinkers: “Thought Leaders", which is very important as you go up the organisation.  So ‘zoom out’ from issues and be seen as someone who considers company values, strategic direction, competitors, how to excel with your clients etc - it will get noticed. 
2.  Effective Communication: 📣 Another strong leadership trait is their confident communication.  Impactful leaders listen more than they talk; they have an ability to assimilate information from a group and then summarise, simply and succinctly (“what I’m hearing is that the core issue here is X”).  Pace is also important - be clear, concise and slow down the pace on your communications.   “Words are bullets”… use them wisely.
3. Visionary Leadership: 🚀 Great Senior Leaders create a really compelling vision.  They have an ability to create excitement in the teams to move confidently towards that vision - creating the path together.  They don’t dictate, but allow their team to create, innovate and feel empowered to figure out how they will get there, in a psychologically safe environment (read more about this here)
4.  Decisive Action: 🏃‍♂️ Confident Senior Leaders have the confidence to make decisions with 70% of the facts (or less).  Sometimes leadership is about being courageous; stepping up and taking risks, and being seen to do that in a positive, confident way.  So back yourself and step into the unknown when you need to.  
5. Authentic Confidence:  🌟 Finally, the best leaders are ones who are confident but in a way that is authentic, secure and humble.  They aren’t pretending they are someone they aren’t.  They aren’t driven by ego.  They don’t want all the credit.  They are truly there to lead and inspire their teams to be better, fulfilling their potential that the leader allows them to blossom.  From there, the company is unstoppable. 

Tips to Boost Your Leadership Skills:

Look for Role models - who do you admire?  How do they operate?  Be proactive in noticing what works / doesn’t work and mirror the best possible behaviour.  But remember, you want to be an authentic leader for you, then you will really connect with your teams.

For more guidance, explore our Confidence Toolkit to enhance your leadership journey.  We cover:

1. What’s holding you back?  Unwinding Your Brain Spring with 3 Killer Tools 
2. Beating Self Doubt 
3. Stress as your Confidence Superpower 
4. Dealing Confidently With Senior Leaders 
5. Speaking Up With Confidence 

"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the best out of the people."

Ronald Reagan