What It Takes To Be a Strong Leader - 3 Proven Techniques

What does it take to be a strong leader? When you first hear this question, you might quickly answer, "It takes smarts, It takes courage, It takes the the ability to jump in and lead." Of course these answers are true, but during lunch today I witnessed the true essence of what it takes to be a strong leader.

Everyone Can Be A Strong Leader

Today I went to Chick-fil-A at the mall with a group of colleagues from work. Like every time we go, there was a line and we were greeted with smiles and great service. We ordered our food and took our seat at a food court table. After we were almost done eating, someone from Chick-fil-A dressed in a white shirt and tie stopped by our table and asked if he could refill our drinks and take away our trash. He even asked, "How was the food?" For a second, we looked at each other puzzled, we were at the food court in a mall, not at a sit down restaurant.

Once he left, we watched him go around and refill drinks and take trash away from every Chick-fil-A customer in the food court. Each of us at the table were marketers, so we began to discuss this experience form a marketing perspective. Come to find out that the young man dressed in the white shirt and tie was the manager of the Chick-fil-A store in the food court. After a few minutes of discussing the power of this brand experience, we turned our discussion to leadership. This young manager demonstrated the essence of what it takes to be a strong leader. Below are the three areas of leadership we discussed:

3 Proven Techniques to be a Strong Leader

1. Roll Up Your Sleeves: To be a strong leader, you must not ask anyone on your team to do anything that you are not willing to do yourself. Roll up your sleeves, there will be specific times when you will need to stop being a manager and just work along side your team, helping them accomplish their work and objectives. When you do this simple act, you will gain the respect of your team(s) and they will follow you.

2. Lead by Example: The young Chick-fil-A manager demonstrated this by walking around the food court and helping each customer. A team meeting discussing the new policy of helping customers at the food court will only get you so far. You will need to lead by example, which is the most powerful leadership technique you can use daily.

3. Show You Care: The last of the 3 proven leadership techniques is to show you care. Show you care by getting to know each team member on a personal level. When you talk to them, make sure you listen (obey the 70/30 rule), if you do, you will learn important insights into what motivates them at work and in life. Showing you care will take time, but a with this daily focus you will become a strong leader in the lives of your team members.

Thanks to Chick-fil-A for not forgetting the most important principle in business, "Always take care of your customer!"