I want to share with you few tips that can help you improve your leadership skills but before i do, let me tell you why leadership skill is a necessity.
As an entrepreneur, i see myself as the pilot of a plane. The crew and passengers represent my employees, customers and investors. All of them are relying on me to pilot them to the promise land. If you can see the picture i am trying to paint, then you will realize the importance of developing not only your leadership skills but your business skills in general.
Now how do you develop leadership skills?
The first thing you need to work on to develop the skills is your attitude towards failure. How you react in the face of failure will determine how strong your leadership skills will be.
Successful entrepreneurs don't accept the word called "failure." They don't see failure; they only see an opportunity to learn something new from their mistakes. For me, i don't fail. I make mistakes and experience few setbacks but i don't see myself as a failure. One of my mentors, Henry Ford says it all. "Failure is just a resting place. It is just an opportunity to begin again more intelligently"
So if you are going to be a great leader in business, you must change your perception and mindset towards failure. Don't run and hide when you make a mistake. Don't blame others, face your mistakes squarely and learn something. Remember, mistakes are great learning tools.
The second key to developing your leadership skills is self control. In the word of business and leadership, self control is omnipotent. If you lack self control, forget about leadership and forget about being in business. How can you control your employees, customers and investors when you can't control yourself?
Nobody is going to follow a leader who has no control over himself, so take note.
The third key to look at is your personal standard. Successful entrepreneurial leaders are known to have high self imposed personal standard. To this set of entrepreneurs, their integrity is worth more than the money. So if you want to lead in business, you must be firm. You must never compromise your standard.
In your service to customers, you must not compromise quality in the name of increasing profit. Quality will surely payback in the form of customer's loyalty.
Next on the line is your appearance. We can't talk about developing leadership skills without including appearance or outlook. If you are going to be a leader that employees and investors will follow, then your outlook should speak leadership. Your charisma should be bold and appealing so that when you talk, people will listen.
Even in the face of criticism, your facial appearance should display a high level of confidence. Keep your fears to yourself and talk positive.
The fifth key to developing your leadership skills is to develop your communication skill. Great leaders are great communicators. To be a great leader in business, you must learn how to effectively communicate with your employees, customers and investors. In fact, communication skill is so essential that its importance can never be over emphasized. Now let me ask:
How can you raise capital to start a business if you cannot communicate or sell your ideas to investors?
How can you convince a customer that your product is of highest quality when you cannot communicate?
How can you inspire your employees to be the best and achieve greatness when you cannot communicate?
I believe with these questions, you will come to realize that communication is very vital in world of leadership and business in general.
In conclusion, it is important you know that businesses and investors are looking for strong leaders with business skills to pilot their business and grow their money respectively. Before i rest my pen, i will leave you with this word of wisdom.
"Leaders don't do great things. They inspire others to do great things and influence people to make the right decisions."
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