What is special about being a business leader? Why is it so important? Isn’t it just being the boss of a company and telling other people what to do? Perhaps in the past, this was what business leadership boiled down to, and perhaps some people today still run their businesses this way. However, leadership is about so much more than telling people what to do and punishing them when they don’t do it. The best leaders do a great deal more than this, and it makes for a much more successful, profitable, happy company and working environment for everyone involved.
Business leadership is a crucial element to get right for any entrepreneur. When done right, business leadership makes all the difference between success and failure; with a good leader at the helm, it’s possible to push your business to far greater heights than you might ever have imagined. It’s clear that business leadership is important, but if you want to know more details and look into the subject more closely, read on; here are some examples of why business leadership is so vital.
Ensuring The Business Maintains Its Vision
Every business must have a vision. This vision is the ultimate goal of where the business will end up and what it will achieve, and a business owner should have this goal in mind from the very start. In fact, it should be part of the all-important business plan, something that will be used to obtain funding, find investors, and even find partners in some cases.
The vision of the business could be any number of things; it will depend on the particular business, the owner, and the marketplace. The vision might be to grow to a certain size and then sell, for example, or franchise. It might be to expand into different territories and perhaps even overseas. Whatever it is, it should be written down, and, although it can be flexible, everything that is done within the business needs to relate to it and get the business closer to it.
How can this be done if the employees aren’t aware of what the ultimate business vision is? The answer is it can’t. If a business owner keeps everything to themselves and just expects their workers to do as they’re told without having a reason for what they’re doing, those workers may do the work, but they won’t necessarily feel happy about or proud of what they’re doing. There will be a certain spark missing in their lives, and that could lead them to want to leave, costing you time and money, and potentially damaging your reputation.
If you want happy employees who understand why they are doing what they are doing, and who might even go above and beyond for you, you need to let them know what the business vision is; it will make a big, positive difference to productivity.
Once you have done this, it will be easier to maintain that vision. The more people who know about it, the more accountable you can be held for it. Plus, if you begin to stray off track, there will be someone there to help get back on the right road.
Inspiring Morale
Something that has been lightly touched on above is the morale of your staff, and now this article will go into that in more detail.
It has been said that being a business leader is like being an army general; your team will have its own jobs to do, but ultimately, control and order are all down to you. You may not like the comparison, but there is certainly some truth to it; when you’re a good leader, your employees will look up to you and expect great things from you, just like an army would expect great things from a general.
Even if you’re not sure you’re general material, there is one thing you’ll have in common with soldiers and the military; as a business leader, you’ll need to inspire plenty of morale. Even on bad days, you’ll have to pick everyone up and keep them moving forward, no matter what has happened or how you are personally feeling.
When morale within a business is good (and this includes letting the team know what the goals and ultimate vision are), your employees will be more willing to work hard. They will put in extra effort, and they will do their very best. In a team where leadership is bad and morale is low, this will not be the case, and the employers will do only what is asked of them and only do the bare minimum.
In a world where there is so much choice for employees and where recruitment is an expensive endeavor, taking care of your staff and ensuring good morale is more important than ever before, and good leadership will allow you to do just that.
Communicating Well
Something all good leaders have to be proficient in is good communication. Although some people seem to be naturally gifted in this regard, if you don’t feel you are a good communicator, there are some things that can be done. Experience will help you, but perhaps even better is studying for a business leadership MBA. This qualification, which can be worked for online to make things even more convenient and opens the opportunity up to everyone, will teach you many different aspects of exceptional business leadership, and communication is one of those elements. It might be the most important of all.
It will make no difference if you have the most wonderful goals in mind for the business, or if you have certain plans that have to be completed – or even if you want to praise your staff for a job well done if you can’t communicate that information. No one will ever know what you really mean or what you want, and rather than running an effective, streamlined business where everyone is pulling in the same direction, things will be chaotic and confused and no one will know quite what to do.
When you are a business leader, you’ll need to be able to communicate with many different people about many different things. This could be talking to your team about its work, speaking to customers about why they should buy from you, discussing funding with lenders, or asking for investment from partners. You might even have to communicate with the general public at a conference or workshop, depending on how your business runs.
Good communication means being clear and concise and being able to instruct people in a way that helps them and doesn’t irritate them. It might sound easy, but it’s a skill, and you will need to have this skill to move forward and be a successful leader.
Providing The Right Resources
As a business owner, you might not be personally responsible for buying new equipment, software, and other resources that might be needed within your business (although, if you run a small business, it could be that that is one of your many roles), but whether you place the orders yourself or you have a buying team to do it for you, the final say on what is purchased for the business will always be down to you.
A bad business leader will make decisions about buying equipment and so on by themselves, without any consultation. A good business leader will want to know more. Firstly, they’ll want to know why the item is needed, and the best way to determine this is to speak to the person or department who requested it. Find out the details and see how it would improve the work done, assuming it would. Once you have this information, do some more background research. See if there is a cheaper option, for example. You’ll need to have all the information before you can say yes or no.
Even if the equipment required is expensive, if it can do good for the business and will make a difference, it’s worth agreeing to. Not only will this help the business, but it’s also good for morale too, and you already know that’s essential. As a business leader, it’s your job to ensure your team is happy and able to do their job, and sometimes that will be done through a physical piece of equipment. Always provide what is necessary.
Encourage Continuous Learning
A good business leader will already know the importance of continuous learning, very possibly due to having studied for an MBA themselves. They will want their team to understand how important education is as well, and they will therefore do all they can to encourage continuous learning.
There are a number of ways this can be done. Training is a hugely important part of any employee’s working life, and by offering training, either in-house or through an external operation, you can give your employees the opportunity to learn more about their roles and become more confident in themselves. Not only is this good for the employee, but it’s also good for the business since it will instill a feeling of loyalty and job satisfaction that will help enormously.
Another way to encourage continuous learning is to offer to pay for or perhaps partly pay for a qualification. This might be an MBA as mentioned above, or it could be something directly related to what the team member does. This will have the same results as training but will also give you a qualified member of staff to boost your business with.
