Going Local
3 Steps to Developing an Awesome Leadership Team
Picture this. Your company is growing, your sales are through the roof, and there's nowhere to go but up. Watch out Fortune 500, you're on your way. Sounds pretty awesome, right? It is a cool place to be. But there is also a dark side to getting bigger. In fact, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Commerce, unexpected growth is one of the top 10 reasons small businesses crash and burn.
So how do you succeed where others fail? It starts by developing or adding the right team members to help you lead. They are the key to successfully growing your company bigger than yourself. To get you started, here are a few principles Dave uses to develop his leadership team.
1. Just Let Go
A letter from the IRS? That is nothing compared with the fear most business owners feel when they realize they can't do everything on their own, no matter how hard they work. But in order to grow your business, you have to let go and allow others to help. And then, allow your leadership team to do their jobs once they've been trained.
"Titles don't make leaders," Dave says. "If you give someone the title and hold them to the results, you must also give them the authority to act. Responsibility without authority is an explosive shell of a position." 2. Stay Local
Hiring leaders from the outside is difficult to do. That's why the majority of Dave's leaders are homegrown. It offers an additional benefit: They already share his values and are the biggest cheerleaders for the company culture.
So how do you know who should be promoted to a leadership position? We polled a number of small business owners through social media. The number-one attribute they listed was passion, closely followed by a self-starter/go-getter, a servant's heart and decisiveness.
Daniel Tardy, vice president of EntreLeadership, agrees. In addition, he looks for those who embody the right balance of confidence and teachability. "Someone with too much confidence and zero teachability is perceived as arrogant, while being too teachable and lacking confidence is usually a recipe for someone who will spend more time thinking than they spend doing," he says.
3. Education Is Key
Selecting the perfect candidate is just the first step in growing competent leaders. Once they are on board, they need to be mentored to become the leaders you need them to be. But it shouldn't stop there. Education should always be part of the job.
Dave is not only a huge proponent of reading nonfiction leadership/business books to grow himself, but also to grow his leadership team. He knows that leaders are readers. EntreLeader Shawn Freeman Spencer, officer manager, A.X.I.S, Midland, Texas, thinks learning is critical too. Her leadership team's monthly meeting includes a discussion of a leadership book they've all read. She, and numerous other EntreLeaders, have also sent their leaders to EntreLeadership Performance Series to learn as well. The event is designed to teach teams how to lead, inspire and win.
"In December we sent all of our leaders with the exception of one, who we had just hired," Shawn says. "We really value it and feel it has made a tremendous difference." | Share this: |  |  | |
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