OK so let’s start with a little bit about you. You may have started a company on your own based on something you love doing and now you find yourself running a busy business with many staff without any management and leadership training. You may have proved yourself by being good at what you do and risen the ranks of a business finding yourself managing teams again without any management and leadership training. Either way you find yourself doing less of what you are good at and enjoy and more time on the things you know less about.
So how can you let go and start growing you and your business?
- Stop doing and start leading
- You may not be ready for that move from a doer to a leader and some business owners struggle with the need to let go. The business may be your baby and it can stay that way but with more help on hand. Try to seek training and create your own journey into leadership. Give yourself time to learn and grow as an individual. This sort of training could teach you to identify and work on your leadership gaps and become a better listener, better decision maker, better delegator and many, many more.
- Recruit people who are different to you
- Recruiting people is a genuine art. You may be the type of individual who recruits you get on with, perhaps even you see a lot of yourself in. Try something different though. Identify the gaps in your knowledge and that of your business. Recruit those who know more than you do; this way your staff will complement your skills rather than echo them. A good sign that the management team is on the right track is when you are challenged by your team. When was the last time your team challenged you?
- Create the right culture
- Your team must know that it’s okay for them to experiment, innovate and push the business into unchartered territory. They should feel that failure is just as good in some circumstances than success. To cultivate this environment, it’s important that everyone, including you, is open to creativity, innovation and change. Intrinsically linked to this is the ability to create and communicate the right vision for you, your business and your team.
- Measure performance
- Measuring performance creates the ability for individuals, teams and the business to celebrate successes, not only in the long term but also in the short term. The key here is to Identify what operational data drives the output in your business. Ask yourself, what are the levers in the business that you need to know but do not track – then build reporting around that. Set clear KPIs across the business, measure and report on them regularly and target your team to deliver them.
- Build a support network around you
- Leadership can be a lonely place. Having people outside of your business, including family, is important to gain perspective. Joining likeminded business owners who share their successes and challenges and offer you feedback can be invaluable. It could provide the new viewpoint on your business that you’ve been seeking. Linked to this is the opportunity to be coached. Professional input from a coach outside of your business can be extremely beneficial for opening safe spaces for conversations about important business decisions, giving you confidence in your strategy and output as well as clarity of thinking. The stigma to seeking support is quickly disappearing. Some of the of the most well known and successful leaders of today all have leadership and business coaches.
Want help to let go and grow you, your team and your business then take a look at what we could do for you with our leadership coaching services or contact us at enquiries@incrementa.co.uk.