1. Ask questions: Instead of talking, think of a provocative question and listen. By mastering the art of asking questions, you can help people learn and build confidence since they are developing their own answers, ideas, plans, etc.
  2. Celebrate mistakes; however, not trends of mistakes: Society typically penalizes mistakes. For example, students lose grade points for mistakes. However, mistakes are how we learn. If you never make mistakes, you are not taking enough risk.
  3. Do what you say you’ll do. This sounds obvious; however, I’ve found it is much harder to implement than it seems and is rarely found in leadership. Do not over commit. No matter how insignificant it seems to the leader, it will be a significant event to the employees if the leader does not follow through on his/her promises.
  4. Follow up but do not micromanage. There is a distinct difference between following up with employees on progress towards goals, roadblocks, and asking how you can support them and micromanaging every detailed task. Follow up is geared to achieving results and micromanaging is geared towards monitoring the tasks (regardless of the results).
  5. Communicate, communicate, and communicate. Just when you think you’ve repeated yourself too many times, repeat it again (with different examples, stories, etc). Communication is the key to success – providing clarity, vision, feedback, celebrating successes, etc.