It is not a good idea alone that makes a business successful; often, the ultimate success of a business lies in the skills, dedication, and abilities of the business leaders.
As a business leader, you will hold a wide range of responsibilities, from motivating staff to managing the finances.
This variety of challenges is what can make the daily work of a business leader so exciting; however, it will often also mean that you are facing a diverse range of challenges.
No matter the age of your business or how large the scale of your operations might be, becoming a better business leader is possible. Improving your skills as a business leader will help you to better encourage your staff and promote business growth.
What is a Business Leader?
This might seem like an obvious question, but it is useful to outline exactly what is meant by the term business leader before outlining how you can excel within this role.
Many people assume that the term business leader refers to those in the highest positions within an organization, such as a CEO or a company owner; however, this is not necessarily the case. Anyone who is in charge of leading a team can be described as a business leader.
If you are responsible for organizing, motivating, or communicating with a team of people, then you can work to become a better business leader.
What Makes a Successful Business Leader?
A business leader does not have to have a specific position or earn a certain amount of money, but successful business leaders do tend or share some common characteristics. The list below outlines some of the most powerful qualities for inclusive leadership training to be a successful business leader.
1. Vision
Many great business leaders will possess a clear vision for the future, of what they want and where they see the company. This vision can be hugely important as it allows the business leader to see their goals and plan a realistic path to success.
Not only is vision a useful tool for helping you to achieve success, but it can also be a powerful motivating factor. When you can communicate and share your vision with other people you are working with, this can create a motivated sense of community, as you are all working together for a clear and defined goal.
When staff can understand your strategic plan for the future and feel like they are working toward something meaningful, then they are more likely to stay motivated and engaged.
2. Communication
Successful leadership requires you to be a strong communicator. This means that not only will you need to be able to communicate the long-term goals and vision for your company but the daily tasks and challenges too.
Communication is critical for so many aspects of business; you need to be able to communicate with staff to ensure the highest efficiency and productivity rates possible. Communication is also important for innovation and worker morale.
3. The Ability to Delegate
No matter how skilled and talented you are, you will never be able to do it all, which is why, as a business owner, you must be able to learn how to delegate. For you to be able to stay dedicated to your long-term goals, you must learn how to delegate.
Not only will delegating allow you to focus on your most pressing tasks, but it will also empower and strengthen your relationships with employees as they can see your trust in them and your appreciation of their talents.
4. Empathy
Being a successful business leader is not just about having a vision, mission, or plan; it is about working with other people. To build the strongest team and get the most out of your staff, you will need to have empathy.
Being empathetic means having the ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes. This means that you will be able to understand people, what motivates your staff, and how you can best support them to reduce stress, and burnout and increase satisfaction rates.
5. Self-awareness
Being a successful business leader does not mean that you will need to have all the talent and skills possible. Arguably, what is more, useful for business leaders is the ability to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. Having a strong sense of self-awareness will help you to build a strong team, better delegate tasks, and realize what you need to improve in the future.
6. Risk Taking
Running a business is never without risk, which means that to run a business, you will need to be able to take risks. Strong business leaders need to be ready to take risks and employ unconventional strategies to reach their goals. Of course, as a business leader, you will need to be realistic and perform the relevant risk strategies, but ultimately you should be ready to take a chance when appropriate.
How to Become a Better Business Leader?
Now that you understand more about what makes a successful business leader, it is time to focus on how you can improve your leadership abilities. It is important to realize that leadership skills are not innate abilities; rather, like many other skills, leadership can be learned.
The list below outlines some of the best ways that you can become a better business leader.
Encourage Open Communication
As previously outlined, one of the most important qualities that a business leader can have is strong communication. Being able to encourage a culture of open communication is vital when you are leading a team of people.
Not only will encouraging open communication enable you to have a more effective, honest, and productive relationship with your team members, but it can also strengthen internal relationships between staff.
Business leaders who are looking to encourage open and encouraging a culture of open communication need to realize the importance of personalization. As you well know, every member of your team is an individual with their own needs, set of values, and priorities.
Successful business leaders will not only encourage a culture of open communication but will customize their style of communication slightly to suit the needs of the individual they are talking to. This often involves awareness, empathy, and active listening to achieve person-specific open communication.
Changing a working culture takes time, with change starting from the top and working its way down. As a business leader, being committed to encouraging a culture of open communication can, in the long term, have a big impact on many aspects of your organization.
Work on Your Leadership Style
Many people don’t consider themselves to have a set leadership style; however, just because you aren’t aware of your leadership style, this doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There are many different leadership styles out there.
For example, there is the classic authoritative style, in which the confident leader asks fallow to follow their set expectations. There is also the more relaxed laissez-faire leadership style, which involves trusting staff with a hand-off approach in which leaders trust skilled staff to motivate themselves and reach their goals.
When you are finding your leadership style, there are many considerations you should bear in mind. Firstly you should try to think about your skills and how you currently motivate and organize staff. During this process, it is useful to ask for some feedback to find out some more information about your existing leadership style.
Once you have made an assessment of your current leadership style and your existing strengths and weaknesses, the next step, when developing your leadership style, is to consider your company.
Different leadership styles suit different organizations; you should consider where you are working, the amount of staff you are working with, and what the community is like. You should try to develop your leadership style to best suit your staff and working culture.
Show Appreciation
As a business leader, it is your job to work closely with staff, to motivate and get the most out of your employees. To ensure you can get the most from your employees, you will need to effectively show appreciation for their work.
There are many ways in which you can show appreciation for staff; you can offer them praise, rewards, and public recognition. However, when showing appreciation for staff, it is important to personalize your approach. What might be seen as a reward for one person can be uncomfortable for someone else.
For example, some people will appreciate public recognition for their work, while others might find this very uncomfortable. When you are apricating your staff, you should take the time to think about what they will genuinely enjoy ensuring the most effective outcome.
Become an Expert
As a business leader, you cannot be expected to be an expert in everything, but you should be able to excel in your field. Being an expert in the niche field in which your business is operating will enable you to ensure you can push your team forward and promote long-term business growth.
There are many different ways in which you can become an expert in your field. For example, you could go back to school to gain a strong understanding of your industry.
There are some courses, like a master’s in executive health Ottawa that allow you to learn both industry knowledge with business skills, to help you become an expert in your field while also becoming a better business leader.
If studying does not appeal to you, then you could start attending more industry events and reading relevant news to keep up with innovations in your field.
Track Employee Engagement
As a business leader, you cannot be expected to do everything yourself. Tracking employee engagement is one of those tasks that is pretty difficult for a business leader to do alone, which is why it can be useful to use employee engagement software.
Employee engagement is a term to describe the relationship an employee has with their work and the organization for which they are working. An engaged employee is absorbed in and enthusiastic about their work, whereas a disengaged employee is the opposite.
Tracking employee engagement will allow you to more easily and effectively allocate tasks, manage expectations, and increase employee satisfaction rates.
Understand How You Are Perceived
Sometimes you can have the best intentions, but this does not always come across when you are communicating with staff. When you are looking to become a better business leader, it is a good idea to pay attention to how people perceive you.
It can be difficult to understand your reputation and how you are perceived, but it is by no means impossible. Firstly, you should try to be aware of yourself and pay attention to how people respond to make sure that your expectations are in line with reality.
For example, if you notice people are being hostile or closed to your suggestions when you believe you are being gentle, then you might need to reassess yourself. You can also offer staff some anonymous forms to learn more about staff perceptions of you and your leadership style.
Learn to Trust Your Staff
When you are leading a team of people, you must learn how to trust them. Micromanaging your staff and being overly involved in the work they are doing can have a series of negative consequences, from reducing productivity rates to damaging working relations and subsequently increasing staff turnover rates.
When you have strong recruitment and training processes, you should be confident in the knowledge that you have hired the right people for the job. In a culture of strong communication, there is no reason to not have trust in the people who are working for you.
Stay Inspired
As a business leader, it is your job to inspire your staff, to keep them motivated and committed to working towards the vision of your company. To keep inspired, you should remain motivated, keep learning, and think about your long-term vision.
When you believe in and are committed to your long-term vision this can help you to keep inspired yourself and subsequently inspire your staff.