business ADVICE
Scott Tyler, Managing Director - International Institute for Business Excellence
Six Ways to Lead Your Business Through Troubled Times Strong leadership is required to navigate a business through the current cloud of uncertainty. Successful business leaders have a knack for identifying market opportunities before others and manoeuvring their organisations to prosper from them. So what are the qualities of a successful business leader? How would such a leader respond to the current economic climate? This article hopes to provide insight into the answers to both these questions. The purpose of this article is two-fold. Firstly, it is to share the five key leadership qualities most correlated to business success, and secondly, to share six ways to lead your business through troubled times. Leadership Qualities Business Success
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5. Social Skills Successful business leaders can be very persuasive and engaging. They focus on building and inspiring a team to help achieve their goals. Now that we have looked at the five qualities of successful business leaders, let’s now look at how such a leader would lead their business through periods of economic uncertainty. Six Ways to Lead Your Business Through Troubled Times
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There are five leadership qualities that have a high correlation to business success: 1. Self-Awareness Strong leaders have an acute selfawareness. They are typically self-confident, openly acknowledge their strengths and shortcomings and usually a have healthy self-deprecating nature. 2. Self-Regulation Successful business leaders have the innate ability of self-regulation. They place a lot of value in trustworthiness and integrity. This is often reflected in their ability to effectively deal with ambiguity. 3. Motivation Business Leaders are often champions of change and have an unparalleled drive for achievement. As a result they often appear to have a knack for recruiting and retaining talent to help achieve their goals.
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4. Empathy Having the ability to relate well to customers and colleagues is a key quality of a strong business leader.
1. Set only a few clear, general goals as business strategies. Keep things simple but focused. Have a plan and make it clear to all employees. The people whom we employ have a special need for us to put everything into perspective for them. As Jack Welch once said: “Anyone can steer the ship but it takes a leader to chart the course.” 2. Inspire a shared vision. As a leader, you need to inspire your team to share your vision and to focus them on your plan and objectives. Leaders make sure people not only see their vision, but also live and breathe it too. Their energy and optimism is contagious. 3. Enable others to act. It is critical to empower your team so they may make an active contribution. Provide your staff with the support and resources they need to achieve their goals. They should also be held responsible and be accountable for their actions. Leaders find a way for the team to win.
4. Challenge the process. Leaders continually probe, push and challenge the status quo. Strategies that worked in more predictable market conditions rarely work during times of economic turmoil. Challenge how you are currently delivering your service. Is the market demanding something different? Has purchasing behaviours changed? 5. Model the Way. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls. They inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example. Exhibit the behaviours that you expect your team to adopt. 6. Make sure your employees know they are important. Leaders use every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach and build self-confidence. Encourage loyalty through appreciation. Reward behaviour. I hope this article has provided some insight into the qualities of a successful business leader and how they would approach navigating their business through times of economic uncertainty. G If you would like some help modelling your leadership style to those described in this article, call the IIBE NOW. One of our senior consultants is on stand-by ready to discuss your unique needs and how our various Leadership and Executive Coaching Programs can help your business. IIBE p | 1300 309 171 e | info@iibe.com.au