Becoming a Great Leader

What are the factors that influence poor leadership?

Studies show that small business failures are very often associated with poor leadership. Research also shows that it’s not any one skill that causes business failure, but a myriad of them, depending on the individuals involved.

Often, the last thing a solo or small business owner will invest in is developing themselves and their leadership skills. Worse still, many tend to invest in systems and technology before examining the customer journey, which can be a costly mistake.

Small business owners can be constrained financially, which impacts their ability to invest in developing themselves. However, organisations across the board are failing to develop their employees’ soft skills, so it’s not just isolated to small business owners.

In the Future of Jobs Survey, conducted by the World Economic Forum in 2020, 94 per cent of business leaders reported that they expected employees to pick up new skills on the job. According to data gathered d through the survey, formal upskilling tends to be more closely focused on technology use and design skills, while emotional intelligence and leadership skills are less frequently targeted in that formal reskilling provision.

I often see evidence of this in my work. Many business owners will show up every day, and instead of training for gold, they’re stuck. The reason is that they’ve already come so far on their journey; they’ve got their business off the ground, and it’s operational. It’s not doing poorly, but it’s not doing amazingly either. Why is this? It’s a result of their leadership development plateauing.

At the outset of embarking on any mission or journey, enthusiasm alone can carry us a long way, but we get tired and start plodding along after a while. If you’re not managing yourself and your business, it will also be plodding along.

As a leader, you must continuously coach, direct and guide your business to obtain its goals and objectives - that’s your job.

How regular training will help you become a winning leader

Let’s go back to the Olympics for a minute. Like an Olympic athlete, performance improves with practice. Similarly, in business, the skills and abilities that worked when you started out on your mission for gold are unlikely to be the same ones that put you on the podium

Usually, broad abilities such as common sense and intelligence will have helped you develop the skills and accomplish the tasks you need to get started in business. Simply look at what you know now that you didn’t know before starting your journey as an entrepreneur, and you’ll know what I mean.

This is where your leadership skills come back into play. A coach or leader will need to continuously learn to help you bring out the best in yourself. They need to know the right questions to ask at the right time. They need to demonstrate exceptional leadership skills like listening, empathy, positive attitude, accountability, respect. They will help you with performance management.

When the business’s muscles are not being flexed, stretched and pushed to their limits, they will not get to the next level.

Here’s a thought worth reflecting on: Is your business being coached for the Olympics or a stroll in the park? Investing in your leadership skills can take you up a level and help you performance-manage yourself. Think of it like starting your training for the gold medal! Perhaps your current ability is that of someone strolling in the park. Or maybe you’re already running marathons, and if so, that’s great! But you’ll still need to keep training, learning and getting support to enter the Olympics!

Don’t be hard on yourself if you find you’ve just been strolling in the park. Part of developing your leadership skills is becoming more self-aware and heightening your emotional intelligence. While there are specific characteristics that many leaders naturally display, you may need to work on the rest.

For example, leaders who demonstrate honesty, integrity and empathy will connect better with their clients (and colleagues, if they have any). It’s even been proven that these three attributes alone contribute to employee commitment and satisfaction. And if you’ve been following me for a while now, you’ll know that employee and customer experience are very closely aligned.

Becoming an effective leader requires practice, dedication, and commitment. Constantly ask yourself (and others around you) questions about how you’re doing. Ask for honest critique about which leadership skills you need to master in your business. A very useful technique is to visualise your skills levels, where you want to get to, and the steps required to get you there.

To upskill, we need to stretch ourselves continuously, and the best way to do that is to introduce increasing levels of difficulty. If you’re not sure where or how to begin, seek out a thought leader who can give you a curriculum or challenge you on your progress.

Another aspect of this is that for small business owners to effectively performance-manage themselves, they need to be equally good at many system-oriented management practices, such as improving efficiency, measuring and controlling operational benchmarks. Often, those things come with a ‘how to’ guide, or there are things you can Google and apply instantly. Soft skills, not so much.

Developing soft skills and behaviours focusing on leadership engagement, training, and customer interactions can result in improved business performance and increased customer satisfaction.