We all know that when you are a business leader, you have to wear a lot of hats as there are a variety of responsibilities that you have to take on. You are in charge of the growth of the business, as well as important business decisions, as well as hiring and firing, and perhaps other elements like marketing and accounting, depending on the size of your business. When your business starts to see more money coming in, then growing the business and having a larger team around you helps the business, but also you as a leader. The downside with having a team? They need guidance, help, motivation, and being helped to be working at their best.
As soon as you do start to hire a team, you need to think about the importance of being a leader, and why being a good one can make or break the team. If you can nail it, then you will save a lot of time and money as you rehire, retrain, and help people to do their best. Here are some of the things to do for your own leadership development, so that you can become a better and more well-rounded business leader.
Work with your team
Some of the best leaders in business work alongside the team that they lead. It might not happen all of the time, but doing so from time to time makes a difference. This means that you get involved with what they are doing, rather than sitting in your office with the door closed. You could do a social media takeover for a day, for example, or deal with some customer service queries yourself. In order to understand your team and what they face each day, you need to be able to understand them and fully understand the work that they do for the business each day.
Be humble
If you’re not approachable as a leader and seem quite stuck up, then it can be hard for your team to want to do well for you, because someone who is full of themselves is not very likeable. So it is a good idea for all involved to be humble and allow yourself, as well as your team, to make mistakes and then learn from them. You’re not perfect as a business leader; no one is. But if you share things that you’ve done wrong along the way, and how you’ve learnt from them, it shows a level of humility to your team, but can also inspire them for change too.
Keep learning
For the team and your business, it pays for all members to keep learning and to keep being humble. Don’t just think that because you are where you are today that you’ve done enough; you should always be learning, and it should be evident to your team. This can inspire them, and also show them that they should be learning too, which could help them to get ideas for new things that they want to try.
