Improving your Business Management Leadership Skills

Being a good business management leader is more than just having people listen to you or doing what you tell them. It requires you to have clearly defined goals for the company and good listening skills. A manager looks at their job as a day-to-day career; a leader wants and needs people to follow them into the future. Your employees need to look to you for trust. First, they need to respect you and this isn't always easy if you have fallen flat on your face in the past and didn't make strong efforts to recover. Second, give your staff a reason to follow you. Let's look at these two topics a little closer.

Trust
Establishing trust is one of the most difficult things a business leader faces. Trust involves feeling that you can depend upon another person to achieve a common goal. You know how people feel about you and how you feel about them. If you have had past incidences with employees and they have formed a negative opinion of you, it will be difficult to change their minds. Change the way you treat people and start pointing out their achievements and telling them why you appreciate them.

People will know they can rely on you if you show qualities of integrity and consistency. So how to you build this trust? Start by listening. Bring each member of your staff into your office and talk about their needs and concerns and what they think you can do to improve the office environment. You might be surprised at some of the "little things" that will make a world of difference to a person. Give each employee your full attention and make an effort to get to know them. Practice memorizing your employee's names and at least one or two things about them such as their favorite sports team or their family. This way when you pass them in the hallway you can call them by name and coin in a personal phrase that shows you take the time to get to know who is working for you.

Empathy is another big factor in establishing trust. It puts you and your employee on the same "playing field" and you work together to resolve a situation. This goes along with listening. Without showing empathy, people will look at you as a "cold hearted" individual who only cares about the money, not the people.

Follow the Leader
Once you have established the trust of your employees, you need to give them a reason to follow you. Leadership skills are not obtained overnight and require a lot of effort on your part. First, develop a business plan for the future and make your staff excited about jumping on board to achieve the goals. Show your employees how you are going to achieve financial success. Discuss how you will take steps to improve quality, productivity, innovation, and revenue. Talk to your staff about how you plan to lighten the load in certain areas that may be overwhelmed.

Show people your dream and once it has been achieved, they will know you are a great business leader. Having a good track record always helps! Success is easier to follow than failure. However, if you fail, pick yourself up gracefully and try again. Being able to swallow your mistakes will prove to your employees that you are not afraid of anything and you are willing to put your reputation on the line for the sake of the company.

By taking theses small steps, you will see a change in the way your employees view you as a leader and you will gain the necessary trust and respect you deserve.