Leadership Skills and the Role of the Leader
Behind every successful business or organization, you will likely find a great leader. Taking on the role of a leader means wearing many hats. There are three critical components to being a successful leader. Good leadership skills are not only gut feelings or high business acumen, it is also knowing how to find and use the appropriate tools when necessary.
Create a vision: The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. We’ve all heard the saying “You must stand for something, or you’ll fall for everything.” But what does that really mean? Standing firm when it comes to your company’s policies and procedures is all well and good, but it doesn’t speak to having a vision. Your role as a leader really starts with creating a vision…where are you going? Where do you see the company getting to in the next 10 years and then 20 years and then 30 years?
Know your purpose: A successful leader reasons and acts with organizational purpose firmly in mind. This provides focus and consistency. However, you must know your purpose: Why are you in business? What made you get into this business? What’s the point of your business? Why is your company still being in business…is it about money, creating jobs, some social good or a combination of multiple things? Again, ask yourself what’s your purpose and why are you in business?
Hire the right people: A good leader knows that a high turnover makes the company weak from the inside. If you want your business to profit, you need to hire people who will retire with you, or at least stay with you for years and years. This in turn, means you need to know how to assess people so that the hiring matches your business needs.
Finding and hiring people whose core values are similar to yours is critical. Skills can be taught but values are something that people bring.
Hiring the right people and putting them in the right seats and at the same time making sure they are excited about what they do is a really important part that we sometimes skip.
Once you have hired the right people, they need to know what is expected of them and also how well they are performing their job against the standards or expectations that have been set for them. Holding your people accountable for their performance and enforcing the company’s standards is an important component of creating a good place to work.
So, what is the role of a leader? One of the most important leadership challenges is to know what you stand for as well as what you won’t stand for and be able to communicate it to your team.
Set the vision, set the purpose, hire the right people, make sure that you hold your people accountable and enforce the standards. This will help you distinguish your organization as a well-run company and provide true leadership to your team.
Dave Baney is the founder and CEO of 55 Questions, LLC. We work with successful top executives with a driving ambition to crush their competition. We help CEOs and Entrepreneurs improve alignment, communication and accountability throughout their organization. www.55Questions.com
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