Do you feel like you could be a more effec­tive Small Business Leader?

“If your imag­i­na­tion leads you to under­stand how quickly peo­ple grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have prac­ti­cally any­thing you go after.” — Napoleon Hill

First and fore­most, becom­ing an effec­tive Small Business leader requires lots of self-confidence. Above that, a leader must be able to share that self-confidence with oth­ers and cre­ate con­fi­dence within every­one they encounter. Most peo­ple have the abil­ity to become effec­tive Small Business lead­ers, but they have a hard time build­ing their supe­rior self-confidence levels.

Below are some tips on how to build your effec­tive Small Business leader self-confidence lev­els by tak­ing action now!

Promote the Golden Rule by fol­low­ing it

- Treat every­one as you feel you should be treated. This will not only cre­ate mas­sive trust lev­els between you and the peo­ple you desire to lead, but it will also aid in cre­at­ing a com­fort­able envi­ron­ment for you fol­low­ers. A leader who acts more like a dic­ta­tor will lose more ded­i­cated fol­low­ers than they will ever gain.

Lead with VISION

- Followers need a rea­son to fol­low, a rea­son that is impor­tant to them and feels as though it will truly ben­e­fit them. Your job as an effec­tive Small Business leader is to not only pro­vide a reason…but to pro­vide a vision to cre­ate rea­son. In order to fruit loyal fol­low­ers from this vision you must pro­vide clar­ity, under­stand­ing, struc­tured lev­els of par­tic­i­pa­tion, and rewards to keep the vision tangible.

Radiate a feel­ing of impor­tance to others.

- Followers can eas­ily lose their enthu­si­asm and will surely take more fol­low­ers with them. To avoid this from crip­pling your Small Business, you must make every­one feel impor­tant. Do not let your goals and deci­sions come across as being self-centered, you must ensure that you empha­size follower’s strengths and con­tri­bu­tions towards the over­all goals…and not your own.

Stay vis­i­ble on the front lines

- In order to suc­ceed as an effec­tive Small Business leader, it is essen­tial that you are vis­i­ble in the day to day process of get­ting the job done. Talk to peo­ple down on the front lines, relate with every­one, take part in how busi­ness is being han­dled, and observe as much as pos­si­ble. This will also lead you towards gain­ing new insights into your small busi­ness, thus lead­ing to new oppor­tu­ni­ties to strengthen the bond between you and your fol­low­ers. The bond that is nec­es­sary in a Small Business in order to achieve great things!

Never deny that you are wrong when you have made a mistake!

- Covering up your mis­takes may seem like a good idea at first, but most fol­low­ers will rec­og­nize this faster than you will EVER think. When some­one sus­pects that you are cov­er­ing up your own errors, they will then be more inclined to hide their mis­takes too. This will cause many prob­lems for you and your Small Business, one of them being a lack of trust lead­ing to more secrets, thus lead­ing to you not receiv­ing all of the impor­tant infor­ma­tion you require to make sound decisions.

Privately Criticize Your Followers

- Even if you believe it to be ‘con­struc­tive’ criticism…chances are…you will only be embar­rass­ing and alien­at­ing those who fol­low you. Public praise on the other hand is a valu­able asset in your arse­nal. Not only does it make the ones you praise feel good about them­selves (result­ing in self-confidence and future achieve­ments), but it encour­ages oth­ers to excel and achieve greater accomplishments.

Create Healthy Follower Competition

- When used cor­rectly, com­pe­ti­tion can be a very valu­able asset towards Small Business suc­cess. Setting team goals is a great path towards cor­rectly accom­plish­ing this. When set­ting up team goals, you must reward those fol­low­ers who meet and exceed them (thus cre­at­ing healthy com­pe­ti­tion). By imple­ment­ing a fun com­pet­i­tive drive within your Small Business, you will have the abil­ity to exam­ine the group’s suc­cess and how they got there…but you will also get a per­fect chance to exam­ine the group’s fail­ures. By under­stand­ing what is caus­ing the group’s fail­ure, you will posess a health­ier insight towards suc­cess­fully imple­ment­ing solu­tions that will assist in less fre­quent group failures!

Travis Gutierrez — Phoenix Small Business Solutions
Owner/Small Business Solutions Specialist