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All tagged small business leadership
In publishing my manifesto for modern leadership last week I realised I’d probably raised some very good questions. What exactly is ‘modern’ leadership? Who is the ‘modern’ leader? And why do they need their own manifesto?
If you feel as though your leadership could do with a tune up after the uncertainty and turmoil of the last year you’re not alone. So many people I’ve spoken to recently feel as though they’ve been in survival mode for months.
With so little certainty over the future, looking longer term has felt impossible. But that feels so tiring and demotivating that many of you are looking for ways to get back on track.
I recent coaching sessions, I’ve found that the same things have come up again and again. Leaders want to feel as though they’re leading again. They want to feel as though the business is going somewhere and that they are in control.
Being able to do that actually tends to require very small shifts but the results are overwhelmingly positive when you make even small changes consistently.
If the last few months have taught me anything, it’s how much of a luxury some people still think coaching and development are.
That makes me sad. For me, it’s anything but. My own business has been impacted significantly by this crisis but I’ve doubled my own spend on coaching and supervision as I know it’s a necessity. I work with numerous businesses who feel the same - I know they’ll weather this storm.
For me, creating a version of you as the ideal leader of your business is as important as being clear about your ideal client. And scarily, I see most of my clients put a lot more work into who their client needs to be than who they need to be. Often that’s because we assume we are ‘fixed’ as we are.
Creating a persona that is all the things you need to be as a leader - confident, self assured and decisive, even when you’re having a bad day – allows you to step out of yourself and still get the job done.
A week today I attended an event called Be More Gazelle - How to grow your business at speed...
I’ll start with a confession… before this event I had no idea what a Gazelle was. Obviously I know it's a kind of deer like mammal but in business terms, not a clue! It turns out I probably should have done because it’s exactly the kind of companies I work with. According to The FT it's an extremely fast growing company (20% + YOY) that maintains consistent momentum.
Are you a secret Gazelle? I can’t be the only person that doesn’t know what one is?!
The event was run by Upstream – a fab initiative that's aiming to redress the silicon roundabout East-West imbalance and make Hammersmith and Fulham the best place to do business in Europe. What an exciting vision! Are you in the West of London? Look it up and get involved. There were far too many business advisors there and not enough actual businesses and I'd love to feel as though I was part of a growing and thriving community of great businesses.
OK so this is the second time I’ve written about this but the more clients I work with and the more I learn, the more I think this message bears repeating. For all the advice there is out there about how to run a business, there are really only 5 very basic things that every business needs to do well. And yet, I find very few businesses that have all of these nailed.
I’ve worked in, and with, businesses of all sizes. From multi billion pound blue chips that exist in hundreds of countries to kitchen table enterprises that are just getting off the ground and literally everything in between. And only a handful have all 5 of these things down pat. They all do some of these things, and some of them do all of them to some extent but none do all of them, all of the time.
I thought when I started working with small businesses and start ups that they would be hugely different to the big corporates. And they are, massively different –
Want to know how to be a better leader? Know this - leadership is everything you do.
At a recent panel discussion I went to, the question was asked - how do I find time to lead my team? When do I lead in between all of the other priorities I have? And the answer? Leadership is everything you do. Your team will look to you for cues and clues on exactly how you want your business to run. Every conversation you have with them or someone else, you are showing them how people have conversations in your business. Every decision you make, you are showing them how decisions are made and what the priorities are in your business. The way you deal with customers and suppliers is the way that customers and suppliers are dealt with in your business.
