Is your business growing and you are hiring more employees to help the company scale? Then you’ll need to understand the top business leader traits you should emulate. This ensures that you get the most out of your employees, and they are empowered to complete the roles to the best of their abilities.
78% of business leaders focus on actively engaging with their employees. This means you need to be hands-on with your employees for your business to function smoothly. However, you’ll need to learn the best way to engage with employees, and the following 7 business leader traits will help you.
1. Confidence
A good leader must be confident in the decisions they make, or at the very least, portray confidence to the rest of the team. Employees will pick up on any hesitation, and that may lead to poor overall performance for the team.
You’ll need to prepare to ensure that you have good confidence as a leader. Excellent preparation ensures that you are knowledgeable about your subject matter and you can better navigate unforeseen circumstances.
However, don’t beat yourself up if you lack confidence from day 1. Building and showing confidence will be an ongoing process that will take time to master. You’ll get better at it with practice and you can look at other business leaders for their thoughts on how to build confidence.
2. Clear Vision
Business leaders need to have a clear vision that steers the ship in one direction. This avoids businesses from branching out into multiple directions with no clear aim or objective in mind. Here are a few thoughts on what could be included in your business vision:
- Problem to solve: many businesses are built around the idea of solving a number of specific problems for their customers. As a leader, you can make sure that the business focuses on solving those core problems, and doesn’t stray from the mission.
- Monetary goals: the goal of a business is to make money, and setting targets is the leader’s job. Ideally, the target you set will be hard enough so that it’s challenging and grows the business, but not so hard that employees get overwhelmed.
- Plan of action: the high-level vision should include a plan of action that allows the team to meet the desired goals. The plan should be specific so that employees know exactly what to do and don’t get lost along the way. However, there should also be room for creative expression, so employees can make the most of their skills.
3. Effective Communicator
Leaders must have the ability to communicate with their team members effectively, so the message is delivered. This ensures that employees are ready to get on with the task instead of having many questions that need to be tackled.
Also, different employees respond to various styles of communication. For example, some employees can handle direct criticism, while others need a softer approach. It’s the job of the leader to identify the best communication style with each employee for the best results.
Therefore, it makes sense for the business leader to get to know their team on a deeper level. This will lead to a higher quality of communication in the long-run.
4. Lead By Example
You cannot expect your employees to do something you aren’t willing to do yourself. For example, asking your employees to work weekends or extra hours in the evening when you have no intention of doing the same.
On the other hand, leading by example is an approach that gets employees energized. This is especially true if you are viewed as a good leader. Employees will strive to get to the same level of where you’re at, so they will be more willing to go the extra mile.
Also, you need to take responsibility and accountability for your actions. If you mess up, you should hold your hands up and own the mistake. This will encourage your employees to do the same.
5. Manage Complexity
Leaders must understand how to navigate complexity as it arises. That’s because in a business circumstances shift rapidly, and it can cause leaders to crumble under the pressure. Therefore, managing complexity is a business leader trait you should try to emulate. This also takes practice since preparing to stay cool under pressure is not easy.
It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the different ways in which complexity can arise in a business. This will help you get prepared for upcoming obstacles.
6. Empower Creativity and Innovation
Some of your employees might come up with random ideas and out of the box thinking. You should aim to encourage them to express themselves instead of shutting those ideas down. An innovative idea could be a difference maker in your industry.
Also, the best employees that have creative ideas will be happy to stick around for longer if you take advantage of their skills.
7. Encourage Teamwork
Business leaders cannot micromanage every employee – especially as the company begins to scale. However, by encouraging teamwork, employees can help each other to complete the task. Ultimately, a business that works as a unit will have the best results.
Also, you should hire employees that are good team members. This makes it easier for different employees to gel.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, the business leader traits in this article are all worthy of emulation. It will make your employees happier, lead to more revenue, and increase the chances of the business becoming a success. However, there are many more traits that you shouldn’t overlook. As a leader, you should be constantly improve to get the most out of your employees.
Also, there are many high-quality business leaders sharing their strategies and ideas on social media. You can find a few that match your leadership style and follow their advice. This allows you to take advantage of the knowledge they built up through a lot of trial and error.
