Are you a leader just because you own and operate a small business? No. Effective business leadership demands a captain of the ship not someone just standing at the helm. Leadership is active, not passive. Leadership is a combination of traits and the ability to think and act like a leader. Leading and directing the activity of others for the overall benefit of the organization.
Here are a few traits of strong leadership:
1. Leaders Plan
The core of business leadership is being proactive rather than reactive. Leaders are good in crises - but that doesn't mean they sit around letting crises develop. Leadership involves identifying potential problems and solving them before they reach crisis proportions. Good leaders analyze and plan and adapt their plans to new circumstances and opportunities.
2. Leaders have Vision
Vision provides direction and without direction, there’s not much point to all that planning; your small business will still flail about. So if you don’t have one already, take your first step towards business leadership by creating a Vision Statement for your business.
3. Leaders Share the Vision and take charge
Sharing your leadership vision helps your vision grow and your business leadership develop. As you share your leadership vision you will strengthen your own belief in your vision and strengthen your determination to make your leadership vision become reality. Other people will start to see you as a person who's "going places". Your business leadership skills will grow as you and staff recognize you as a person with leadership skill.
Whether it's implementing a plan to improve your bottom line or responding to a crisis, you, as the leader, are the one who makes the decisions and sees that the appropriate actions are carried out. You can't just "talk a good game" to be a leader; you need to act and to be seen as taking effective action for the good of your small business.
Learning to be a leader isn't easy because it takes a conscious commitment and consistent effort to develop one's business leadership skills. I hope these tips help develop that skill and contribute to greater business success.
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