The growth of your small business hinges on having the right leaders in place who know how to motivate employees to accomplish important goals. However, research suggests that 77% of companies believe their leadership is lacking, and maybe you feel similarly.
After all, as crucial as it is to have great leaders at your business, it’s challenging to find and develop them. But failing to overcome this obstacle leads to even more challenges. Consider Kodak and Nokia. Their leadership teams lacked good judgment and decided not to enter the digital photography and smartphone industries. Now, the success those companies achieved is a distant memory. And it’s all because their leadership teams couldn’t see the potential of an idea and have the willingness to innovate.
Consequences of Poor Leadership
Losing your household name status is not the only consequence of having poor leadership at your company. Of course, it’s one of the worst results because it can directly impact whether you stay in business, but other pitfalls exist when inadequate leaders steer the ship. For example, your small business may experience three hurdles.
1. Low engagement levels and little motivation
Leaders who know how to provide clear direction and support will encourage employees to perform at their best. Conversely, leaders who are unclear and always uncertain about the best direction to take will leave employees unmotivated, stressed, and unengaged. This combination is a recipe for disaster. Low employee morale usually leads to a negative work environment in which no one can grow and succeed.
2. Employee turnover
Did you know that 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and career development? That means your leadership team can increase employee retention by committing to their workers’ growth. But the sad truth is that most leaders don’t invest in talent development. Instead, they focus on pushing employees to fulfill unrealistic expectations with little to no guidance, leading to high employee turnover.
3. A lousy company culture
If your leaders don’t provide clear guidance, support, and career development, it’ll be incredibly difficult to foster a great company culture where employees feel like they belong. While workers may not stay at your company forever, they still want to feel a part of the team and work towards something bigger than themselves.
But without outstanding leadership, your employees will feel like outsiders. They won’t buy into your brand’s vision or mission, and their relationships with fellow employees will be founded on a shared sense of grief rather than excitement.
How to Find Strong Leaders
With bad leadership having devastating consequences, you must take steps to find great leaders for your business. But how do you accomplish this successfully? There are several things to look for in a good leader.
1. Self-awareness
An effective leader will consistently focus on developing their emotional intelligence. The reason? Emotionally intelligent leaders are more receptive to feedback, resilient, and adaptive. They’re also effective communicators, active listeners, and more open to change. However, how can you know if someone is self-aware? Look for individuals who can pinpoint their strengths, weaknesses, and biases that could affect their decision-making.
2. A commitment to personal development
A sure sign of a great leader is someone who’s always eager to personally develop. They’re constantly looking for ways to refine their skills. They also set goals, focus on accomplishing them, and take accountability if they fall short. Additionally, good leaders learn from their mistakes instead of letting their failures keep them from moving forward.
3. A desire to develop others
Exemplary leaders don’t just focus on developing themselves. They also focus on developing those around them. When looking for great leaders, find people who want to provide tools to empower their teams and are comfortable delegating responsibilities to help employees grow. Someone who actively goes outside the organization to recruit top talent to strengthen their team is also a sign of a great leader who wants to see others develop.
4. Innovative and action-oriented
Finding great leaders means finding people who are innovative and action-oriented. These types of individuals are willing to try new ideas, encourage creativity, and put in the work to see ideas come to life. Great leaders aren’t committed to the norm, especially if there’s a better way to do something, and they don’t sit back and relax when there’s work to be done.
5. Transparent and ethical
As you’re looking for leaders, make sure to find people who are transparent and ethical. You want someone who’s open, authentic, and able to recognize how their team is feeling. You also want someone who’s eager to praise great work and willing to take responsibility when something goes wrong.
How to Develop Great Leaders
Once you’ve found great leaders, it’s essential to take time to develop them. You never want leaders to join your team and become stagnant in their roles or contribution. So, you must be diligent about helping your leaders improve, and there are five ways you can do so.
1. Discuss your vision
Telling your leadership team your vision is imperative. However, asking them to help you refine it is even better. When you give people a chance to craft your company vision, it provides a shared sense of mission, which inspires your leaders to go the extra mile to achieve business goals.
2. Monitor and reward
Similar to employees, the leaders at your company need to know when they’re doing a good job, which means you must monitor and fairly measure their performance and reward great work. Give each of your leaders realistic goals and incentives to achieve them. With this system in place, your leadership team will take proactive steps to achieve milestones and strive to do so with excellence since there’s a reward on the line.
3. Coach and mentor
Supporting your leadership team through coaching is a great way to continue developing them. Having one-on-one conversations and offering advice and guidance on specific problems will help your leaders address their weaknesses and become stronger.
4. Create room to grow
Give your leaders room to grow. If you want them to develop and help your business succeed, you must provide ways for them to sharpen their skills. Sometimes, this might require you to offer formal training at conferences or workshops. Other times, it may simply require you to ask them to steer a new project at the company or help approach a unique problem.
5. Emphasize reflection
Guided reflection can help anyone grow, including the leaders at your company. After someone on your leadership team completes a project, have a conversation with them to discuss how everything went. Ask what they learned, what challenges they encountered, and how they can improve to do better on the next project.
Don’t Underestimate Good Leadership
Having great leaders at your company will take your business to the next level. It’ll help you achieve more sales, hire top talent, retain employees, and create a culture that fosters growth and excellence. So don’t overlook the importance of having a great leadership team. If good leaders are lacking at your company, take time to find and develop ones to increase your business growth.