If you are like most business owners, then you believe that your team deserves great leadership. The trick is to really understand what kind of leadership your team needs and deserves. There are many excellent books on leadership out there; they all tell a similar story and deliver a familiar message, yet too many business owners fail to deliver what they read. The trick to great leadership isn’t talking about it, it’s not about DO-ing anything, it’s all about BE-ing a great leader. Here are my Top 3 tricks (tips) on BE-ing a great leader for your team.
Trick #1: Managing vs. Leading
The first trick is to understand the difference between Management and Leadership, and knowing when to be one or the other. Management is all about creating competent and productive people. Managers manage processes, Leaders lead people.
When you are managing your team you should be focused on performance and productivity, managing to the agreed upon standards and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Management is all about yesterday’s performance and today’s performance improvement.
Leadership is less processed-based and more abstract. It’s about inspiring your team and getting their buy-in because they want to, not because they have to. Great leaders live by the company’s culture, listen and invite feedback, follow-through on commitments, and accept responsibility. Not all leaders are managers, but all managers should be leaders.
Trick #2: Tools
The second trick is understanding that as a Leader, your Number One customer is your team, and that your responsibility is to provide your team with the Tools, Training and Environment to succeed. If you and your managers expect the team to deliver an incredible customer experience then you need to give them the tools they need to do so.
Trick #3: Work on You
The third and final Leadership trick is personal development. John Maxwell’s Law of the Lid explains how your team (and therefore your business) can only be as good as you can lead them. So if your leadership skills are a 7, then your team and business can only sustain performance at a level of 6. This means you must continuously grow yourself and your skills if you want your business to grow.
As a leader, your job is to add value to your team and your business, and the best way to do this is to serve them by listening to their needs, learning ways to meet their needs and then being the leader they ask for. If you would like to know how to start becoming the leader your team needs, schedule a session with one of our coaches to explore ways to become the leader your team deserves.
Author: Mark McNulty, Business Coach