How to put good leadership into your business

What people look for is strength in a leader. Helping people with management and leadership issues is The Business Minder Gary Chamberlain's best trait. One of the top reasons that new businesses fail is due to a lack of leadership. Getting people in business to understand this point can be a bit of a battle. You are not a leader until you have produced another leader who can produce another leader.

Leading a group of people requires a mutual sense of trust and understanding between you and your team members. As a first step towards that goal you should learn to connect.

A good leader is always open to their team's ideas and suggestions. You should be ready to consider them and possibly develop them further. A good leader also gives the team new challenges, preventing them from becoming bored and complacent while showing confidence in their potential.

Gary is passionate about business management and working with people to help them get better results. Some have described it as tough love business management. Gary says "There is a big difference between bullying and being honest with a person. A bully wants to tear people down because they themselves feel inferior. I want to build people up and give them inner strength to do things they never knew they could. A good leader knows their team better than anyone else and what their strong skills are and how they can be leveraged, as well as their weaknesses."

"Remember I'm here to build people up - not tear them down." .. "Why would you want to be battling me when I am here to help you? Excellence is achieved through hard work, consistency and confidence. Not to mention someone pushing you to your limit!"

A certain degree of pushing and guidance is required in order to bring about positive change. To be a better leader requires positivity, purpose, empathy, compassion, humility and love. These key traits will put you on the road to genuine connections with the members of your team. Always share constructive feedback about anything that the team or each team player does. Positive feedback is as important as negative, and a good leader strives for balance.

Your team members aren't the only ones who can benefit from honest feedback. A true self assessment of your own leadership can be difficult, so mentors, fellow professionals and even your own staff are invaluable in evaluating your effectiveness. Completing a reverse performance review where your staff are given a fair opportunity to give leadership feedback about you is quite revealing. Its one of many ideas Gary suggests so you can get a snapshot of how well you are doing as the leader of your business.

Gary's clients commented

"After working with Gary, I learned both personal and professional lessons. Gary taught me to not be afraid to ask for help. I learned a lot about myself and the inner workings of my business.”

“One of the things I learned from Gary was how much of an enabler I am. If I want my staff to step up, then I need to hand over more responsibilities to them and let them fail, succeed, learn and grow. That is an area that I have to work on every day and I am becoming less of a control freak.”

“I have learned to delegate and let others help me. This is the only way to be a better leader.”

“I have become a better boss. I have brought a supervisor in on the weekends to manage the staff and help so that I can focus on the customers. The employees are taking constructive criticism well and improving."

"I have now become more aggressive with the direction I would like the staff to go. I have less tolerance for the behavior we once overlooked.”

"There are now new rules and procedures that the staff must understand and follow and there is a different training process in place for new staff members"

An effective leader knows how to show others what is required, rather than simply telling them. You should lead your team members toward a more collaborative, committed work environment without coaxing them. Leadership coaching can also help you discover areas that need improvement.

A professional who helps you to develop a plan to achieve your leadership goals can be much more motivational than books and seminars. Coaching allows you to make the connection and apply changes in a real life setting. You need time to integrate, process and reflect, and unless you go through those steps you won't have sustainable change. Having a business coach coming in to facilitate leadership improvement is a great way to boost the vitality of your business. Mind Ur Bisnis - The Business Minder in Asia can help.