How To Grow Your Leadership Skills While Growing Your Business?
Growth is not restrained by time. Becoming better does not ever end. In a constantly evolving environment, businesses must adapt if they wish to thrive.
Leadership is essential to a team’s success, but while running a growing business, leaders often get caught up in the endless daily tasks and ignore the miniscule areas where they can improve.
These areas might seem insignificant, but could end up being game changers if improved on.
Management and leadership are often substituted for one other, but that is not the case. Managers are appointed, but leaders are grown through the right training and circumstances.
Most leaders have natural skill and an intuition for inspiring hard work and getting the best from everyone, however talent alone is not enough. Leaders have to meliorate too, which requires them to grow and improve their skills.
The question which arises in this case is how do leaders grow their skills while growing their business, without stepping away from their daily work. It sounds rather unusual, but the way to go about this is by diving even deeper into the daily tasks of the business.
Here are 7 steps devised to help you grow your skills while remaining involved in your business:
The Tiny Details:
In every task that is assigned for the day, there are these tiny errors, which are ignored. By ignoring these tiny errors, space is being created for larger errors. By giving importance to the miniscule details, you are establishing a legacy where every small job, every little extra effort and every person despite their position matters. This inspires and motivates everyone to put their best foot forward every day and it starts from the person leading the team.
Listen To What Isn’t Being Said:
Every word a leader says is important, but every word that a leader hears is what makes the difference between a good leader and a great one. Most people do not speak out their grievances or their innovative ideas for a great many reasons. It thus falls to the leader to listen to what they aren’t saying. Means to listen:
- By reading their mannerisms and their expressions when they speak. This will inform you about when to press them for more information and when to take a more gentle questioning stance. People aren’t always in charge of their emotions and their expressions say a lot more than they do, especially to someone in a higher position than them.
- By encouraging opinions. An environment where their ideas are considered makes for a healthier workplace and happy workers. An authoritarian approach should be reserved for the rarest occasions. A web chat where people can post their ideas anonymously or by claiming credit would make for an efficient means to listen.
Take A Step Back:
This sounds backward yet it is the most instructive thing that a leader could do. By taking a step back, a different perspective is availed. The problems which were seen before might now be seen as opportunities and the issues unseen before might now be visible. History teaches a lot more about the future than most people care to know. The past victories and losses have great lessons to teach if one is willing to learn. Before pursuing a new task or path, a step back might prove to be more effective than just jumping head first and not be prepared for the unaccounted issues.
Analyse Setbacks:
Losses and setbacks teach a lot more than wins. When we achieve success, we tend to move on as we assume that the line is crossed, but in order to cross the line, we had to take several turns and go back and forth. By analyzing all the setbacks in one successful task, we can prepare for similar problems in other tasks should they appear. Preparation is the key to success. A habit of preparation requires effort and hard work which includes looking over previous mistakes.
The most successful leaders like Eric Schaer and other global executives understand that success is something that is cultivated over time. To become successful, every firm needs an extraordinary leader like Eric Schaer who can motivate their team.
Acknowledge The Small Victories:
Celebrating the big wins is not something that has to be taught, but a lot of us often forget to celebrate the small wins too. In a growing business, the small wins pave the way for continual success which is the end-goal. So creating a heritage of celebrating every win encourages and motivates far more than pep talks and big speeches. To make winning a habit, we have to learn to acknowledge all wins.
Create Goals:
A goal helps both the individual and the organization as a whole. Daily goals, monthly goals, quarterly goals and yearly goals are a great way to organize tasks and ensure continuous growth. When an individual achieves a goal, the rest of their co- workers are motivated to achieve their goals. For a leader, daily goals are a great way to record and ensure continuous growth of themselves and their organizations.
Add A Supplementary Skill:
Every leader has to have some skills that go beyond the orthodox leadership structure. To find one’s supplementary skill requires self-analysis. It could be something as simple as being regularly early or something a little more outside the box like rounding during shifts. Both of these are skills unique to the individual and emphasize their leadership mentality. A great leader will always try to add more skills to their reservoir.
So after going through the 7 steps, one can rest assured that their growth as a leader need not be stunted even as they run a growing business. Growth is a necessary ingredient to success, whether you are an aged business owner or you are running a new, upcoming business.
”Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit” Rightly said by Conrad Hilton, author of Be My Guest.
