Crucial Leadership Strategies


Basic Instincts

Im certainly not the smartest guy around, but I do have good instincts. More importantly, I trust them. As a business owner, or lead decision maker you should trust your own too. Negotiating through each day in a small business is like traversing a minefield. Often, only good fortune and common sense can get you safely through. The same entrepreneurial spirit that led you to risk starting your business in the first place is probably what guides your day-to-day decision making. If something doesnt feel right to you, such as making an expensive purchase or the timing of hiring a new employee, then call on your experience and gut instinct to make the right decision. Most importantly, never let someone talk you in or out of taking what you know to be the correct course of action for your business.

Delegation

My management style is delegational. One of the things that small business owners often do to excess, and something that I always try to resist, is trying to do everything themselves . From sales to finance, from operations to support, the business owner can do it all, right? Wrong. I believe its critical that even the smallest businesses delegate responsibilities among partners , employees and staff. If you dont do it when youre small, youll never do it when youre bigger. You have to trust the people around you; a business will almost never grow to any significant size without the collaborative contributions of smart people. However, this doesnt mean that as an owner you shouldnt have a hands-on approach. Successful delegation simply means making a decision and allowing others to execute.

When times are good and the company is growing at a faster rate, its even more important to divide and conquer. Hire well, and allow your managers to run with initiatives to completion. When things are busy, its just too hard to do everything yourself and its important that periods of rapid growth be captured and exploited. This cant usually be done by an Im-the-only-one-who-can-make-decisions mentality .

During tough times in the company, however, you may have to readjust your delegating tactics. Nothing is worse than when business is slow. Everyone in the office is stressed and its tough to see the forest for the trees especially when it feels like that forest is crashing down all around you. During these times you can certainly expect to do less delegating and have a much more proactive and hands-on management role. This is the time where every decision really counts. Its important to be prepared to make the tough decisions in order to ensure that the company will survive.

Staying Fungible

Key leadership positions, by definition, are integral to profit centers and the overall success of any company. Its often said that no one is irreplaceable. In a small business, that is not always true. Its critically important to grow and mature key management positions . Moreover, in a small company everyone must be fungible . This means that the CFO sometimes works in a business development role, the VP of Sales handles operational issues and the CTO can become embroiled in a financial problem. Large companies can afford to have legions of workers overlapping in job functions and responsibilities. Small profitable companies usually cannot.




Inside the Minds Stuff - Inside the Minds. Managing for Profit. Leading CEOs on Key Strategies for Increasing Profits Exponentially in Any Economy
Inside the Minds Stuff - Inside the Minds. Managing for Profit. Leading CEOs on Key Strategies for Increasing Profits Exponentially in Any Economy
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 130

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