Leadership skills are extremely important for business owners. You can not guide the team and run the show if you do not have leadership skills. A leader is a dealer in hope. A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader but becomes one through the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.
If you want to become a good leader or if you lack leadership skills here are 5 essential leadership skills for running a business.
5 Essential Leadership Skills for Running Business
#1 Assertive Communication
Communication is extremely important when it comes to leadership and you have to be assertive in communication if you want to become a good leader.
Our natural style as human beings sometimes is either passive where we just take a back seat and let other people take charge or for some people it is aggressive where they force their way through and get what they want. No matter what now think about it both a passive style and an aggressive style are unhealthy.
The first and most important capability as a leader that you need to have is the ability to communicate assertively.
What do I mean by communicating assertively?
Assertiveness is a balanced style where you communicate with clarity what you want and yet you have an open mind and you’re respectful of other people’s points of view.
This balance is what makes you a very very capable and magnetic leader It’s not about being passive and submissive. It’s not about being aggressive and forceful. It’s about being assertive and communicating with clarity and having respect for others makes you a magnetic personality.
#2 Ability to Ask Questions
The second skill is the ability to ask questions. The ability to ask questions is an essential leadership skill. Why?
Simply, the quality of the questions you ask your team is the direction that your team thinks. It is the direction in which your team has conversations and the direction in which your team takes action.
Think about it if you are asking questions that are blame oriented questions like –
- Why didn’t you do this?
- What’s wrong with you?
- You are the only one who does this all the time what’s the reason for that?
These types of questions demotivate the team and drain them.
If you’re the kind of leader who creates or asks fear-driven questions like –
- What if it doesn’t work?
- What if it fails?
- What if things fall apart?
In that case, you are not leading in the right direction with the right intent. You need to ask quality questions.
You need to ask questions that are goal-oriented questions. You need to ask questions that are plan-oriented. You need to ask questions that are purpose-oriented. You need to ask questions like –
- What do we want to achieve?
- What’s our common objective?
- What’s our common goal? How will we make it happen?
- What are the steps that we will take?
- What’s the process that will follow to achieve that goal?
- Why is this goal important to us?
These types of goals-related questions naturally uplift the conversation & uplift energy. It also uplifts the actions in your business.
So the second most important skill as a leader is to ask the right questions.
#3 Delegation Skills
The third critical leadership skill that you need to have to build a successful business is delegation skills. You need to be good at co-creating goals with people. You need to be good at delegating tasks and activities with absolute clarity and generating clear commitments from people. You need to be good at following through with people on what you’ve delegated.
All of these aspects of co-creating goals, generating commitments with clarity, and following through are a subset of the overall macro delegation skills. If you’re not good at delegating you’ll end up doing everything. If you end up doing everything you will never build a successful business and that’s why delegation skills is an important leadership skill where you need to develop the ability to let go to let the business grow. If you are holding on to everything then you are the roadblock of the business.
So delegation is the third most important leadership skill for you to possess to build a successful business.
#4 Feedback Skills
The fourth important leadership skill is feedback skills. You need to be good at giving people effective feedback. Your feedback should not be demotivating or spread negativity. It should be giving the right direction to the people.
- Your feedback has to be given in a respectful tone.
- Your feedback should be specific.
- Your feedback should be solution focused.
- Your feedback should be actionable.
They should be able to take action once you give them specific and solution-focused. Feedback in a respectful tone is an extremely important leadership skill to possess as a business owner.
#5 Holding People Accountable
The fifth essential skill for the business owner is holding people accountable.
Most people’s perception of accountability means blaming the team member for not doing what they were supposed to do. That’s not accountability that’s creating conflict. Accountability is the ability to create an inner responsibility in the person who has not done what they were supposed to do.
How do you create that inner responsibility in a team member who’s failed at doing what they were supposed to do? You create that inner responsibility not by attacking them but by getting them to reflect on what is the pattern in their action their behavior, their habits, in their mindset that is stopping them from doing what they are supposed to do.
When you get people to reflect on that pattern and break that pattern that’s when they take responsibility for what they are supposed to do. This is a special conversational skill and most people lack it. Most people in the name of accountability blame team members and that doesn’t serve any purpose that’s why accountability is the fifth critical skill as a leader you need to develop to build a successful business.
Over to You
I hope the above 5 essential leadership skills given above will help you in becoming a good leader. If you have any doubts or if you want to learn more you can e-mail me at sk@moneyexcel.com.
