Success Advice
6 Key Ways to Become a Highly Respected Leader
Although it is often said that leaders are born and not made, this is incorrect and should be ignored. Most people have the ability to become a leader. However few have the steely determination that is required to learn leadership.
There are many articles on how to develop and hone leadership skills, but it’s very unlikely you’ll adopt them. To become an effective leader involves a lot of hard work and practice. If you have that mindset, you are ready to learn leadership skills. It is important to prioritise leadership skills in order to maximise the return on all your hard work.
I have laid out the 6 key elements below. Master these skills and you will have laid the foundation to become a great leader:
1. Know your field
Gary Vaynerchuk, is a hugely successful entrepreneur with over 800 employees. He has often said that he is a practitioner. He uses a metaphor ‘Clouds and dirt’ to represent his dream (the clouds) and learning all the details of his craft (dirt). Everything in-between such as office politics, ego, etc are not important. Watch the video here:
Knowing the ins and outs of your company at the most basic level allows you to make informed decisions. A leader earns respect by making the right decisions. Even the most charismatic leader will eventually lose credibility if they don’t know what they are doing. Poor decisions will also impact the company’s performance. Leaders can inspire and motivate a team but without a good understanding of their company they will lead their team in the wrong direction.
“If you spend an extra hour each day of study in your chosen field you will be a national expert in that field in five years or less.” – Earl Nightingale
2. Learn how to be confident
Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher once said, ‘In the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.’ Confident individuals often gain respect without being the brightest spark. A study by David Dunning and Justin Kruger showed that the unintelligent get confident while the smart get modest. Does this sound familiar?
Although we may like to think leaders are the ones that know best, it is often not true. Once you know your field well, it’s important to learn the skill of being confident. Without it you’ll be another intelligent voice that falls on deaf ears. Like it or not, it is human nature to follow and respect confident individuals. To be a leader you need to be confident.
3. Listen to and understand your employees
It is often the perception that the boss knows what needs to be done and spends most of their time telling people how to do it. It is important to understand that the most effective leaders listen the most and only exercise their authority when it is needed. The strongest person in the room is usually the quietest.
Richard Branson once said “Great leaders are great listeners, who know their best asset is the people they work with”. When you understand and support your employees you make the transition from a manager to a leader.
4. Take full responsibility
Harold J. Smith once said “more people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying them”. People prefer to pass on blame than accept responsibility. Although it may get you off the hook, you will slowly lose credibility. Taking responsibility earns you respect. Everyone makes mistakes. It is how you deal with them that defines you.
In the years I have built my company, I have learnt the first step in learning from your mistakes is to take responsibility for them. Denying responsibility may be an easy option but you are missing out on the chance to improve. To be a true leader it is mandatory to improve yourself. If you are not prepared to better yourself how can you expect your team to improve? To be successful requires continuous self-improvement; true leaders know this.
5. Delegate properly
There are right ways to delegate and there are wrong ways. Firstly, you need to prioritise tasks. Typically the leader should deal with the most important tasks. The least important tasks should be delegated to employees low in the hierarchy. It sounds so simple but when you are in a position of power it’s tempting to shy away from those hard tasks that are often the most important.
Some leaders can be perfectionists such as Steve Jobs. Perfectionism may allow you to climb the ranks but it can lead to micromanagement. A leader that micromanages is fighting a losing battle. The aim of a company is to grow, that means more tasks and more responsibility.
Eventually there comes a point where micromanagement significantly reduces productivity. True leaders learn not to manage everything. Instead they focus on understanding their team so that they can delegate tasks to the most suitable employees.
“The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels.” – Eli Broad
6. Think of the big picture
Leaders have a vision for the company and have a strategy to achieve it. It’s common for employees to implement tasks and leave the strategy as an afterthought. Therefore a leader always needs to be thinking of the bigger picture.
Without a common vision a company can quickly lose direction. Leaders often have to make tough decisions that sacrifice short term profitability in order to achieve their long term vision.
Ultimately, leaders think on a different level to the rest of us. To become one you need to learn these six leadership skills.
What other ways do you lead in your business? Please leave your thoughts below!
Success Advice
How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements
Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.
Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.
There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.
Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.
Embed the strength of AI and ML.
AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.
Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.
ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses.
In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.
Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities
Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased.
Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information.
Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place.
In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.
Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development
You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.
You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.
Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.
Developing key skills to achieve goals
Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.
Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.
Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.
Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.
Development/Coding Knowledge
Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.
Hacking proof framework
There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.
Communication Abilities/Soft Skills
Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:
Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.
Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.
Agile Implementations
It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.
- Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds.
- Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
- Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
- Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them.
- Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.
- Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
- Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
- Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.
Conclusion
There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.
Success Advice
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Motivation
From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone
By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality
Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)
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10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind
The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy
You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)
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