To lead is to measurably help others succeed. Are you looking to move into a management position? Or perhaps you are currently a new manager looking to build your skill base. Skills and lessons to practice and learn for a future small business owner should be a priority, yes?
While there is always the argument about the differences between management and leadership, management, leadership, and teamwork go hand in hand, don’t they?
So to build a strong team you need to be the type of manager that will measurably help others succeed, don’t you think? Future business managers certainly need to grasp this fact and understand the concepts of the best management and leadership qualities and attributes don’t they. Spot on.
I have been in management and leadership positions in the military and business world for forty years and I often get asked what the best lessons for future business managers I have found.
Surprisingly (or not) my list of lessons probably has varied to a degree, depending on when in my career it was constructed.
Build a team whose members have diverse backgrounds and mindsets. This broadens the creativity process.
Each person will contribute different thoughts and ideas, which lead to unique conversations when everyone comes together. The education, background, and experience of individual members lead to a creative group.
Team members will learn from one another. Different perspectives lead to new skills and effective innovation strategies. The result is a stronger team equipped to take on new challenges and quickly solve problems of all sizes.
Every bold new business idea starts with a success story. Either it is a single organization or an aggregate sample that implemented a particular strategy and achieved outstanding results. That solid track record helps to convince others to adopt it, yet somehow the new management fad fails to deliver as promised.
The list of lessons is based on real-world experiences as well as managers and leaders I studied (including many bosses). For example, Dwight Eisenhower was only one of many I studied over those many years.
Being such a business manager is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning and renewing lessons you have learned.
Every great manager always looks for ways to improve their ability to improve their leadership qualities and attributes.
If you read 10 books on business management, you could easily build a checklist of 50 or more management lessons for future business managers.
But more is not necessarily better for the best lessons to study and apply.
The following lessons represent my favorite lessons on business management that I believe could make the biggest impact.
Applying state-of-the-art tools and processes is widely seen as a mark of excellence. So, perhaps not surprisingly, “best practice” is one of those terms that you constantly hear in corporate circles. Managers often see implementing them as key to their performance.
Yet many experts point out that adopting so-called best practices can stifle your ability to innovate. After all, once you designate a particular way of doing things as “best,” who is going to question it? And if nobody questions it, it won’t be improved.
Still, even keeping those objections in mind, best practices can be immensely valuable, if approached with open eyes and good sense. The truth is that much like any business process, they’re only as good as the managers who implement them. While many do use best practices as a crutch, they can also be used as a platform from which to innovate.
If I was starting my career over and could take 13 leadership lessons back in time with me, these are the ones I would choose:
Create an environment of continuous learning
It is absolutely necessary that business managers be good learners. They need to instill this in all their team. They must learn from their mistakes.
To be most successful, managers must acknowledge, understand, and improve on their shortcomings. And they must encourage their team to also focus on continuous learning.
Small business owner … be a multiplier
Multiplier business managers know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is NOT the lone genius.
Rather, it is the genius who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone in the team.
Build connections
Both managers and leaders know their job with their teams is about building lots of connections.
They make people feel they have a stake in common problems.
Small business owner ideas … encourage feedback
It is vital that you let your team know you are interested and will listen to their concerns and ideas and contribute to solutions to any and all problems.
Offer recognition and always share success
Focus on building team confidence by publicly recognizing their efforts and achievements. Think of it this way; anything is possible if you share the glory.
Giving others a chance to claim credit is an easy, and effective, way to magnify results.
Communicate clearly and often
Language is a manager’s most powerful tool, whether it is written or oral. Always keep your people informed of team goals, priorities, and schedules.
Without the ability to communicate, managers can possess all the other attributes and still fail to have an impact.
Be decisive
One of the key jobs of a manager is to be an effective decision maker. Employees are never comfortable with managers who make slow decisions and they frequently change their minds.
Quality managers make decisions quickly and stick with them.
Provide sound guidance
Be available with your staff members and show interest in their career development within the business. Don’t hesitate to offer guidance along the way.
Building and maintaining trust
Always do what you say and set good examples. Demand from yourself the same level of professionalism and dedication that you expect from others.
Trust, once broken, is seldom restored to its original state. It is the most fragile yet essential attribute of leadership and management.
Present the big picture
Consistently show the team how their projects fit into the larger goals and objectives of the business. You can never be too detailed on communicating the big picture.
Be patient but persistent
Delivering strong managerial skills takes time and practice.
Seek guidance from mentors, colleagues, your boss, and your network.
Deliver confidence
Having and being able to deliver confidence counts. Most managers are self-confident. The real skill and ability are to extend faith to others.
They must be good at recognizing and believing in the talents of others.
Working teamwork: Small Company … 20 Struggles that Are Easily Understood
Accept learning is never done
You have worked hard to get to this point. Rely on your experience but accept there is still much to learn.
Learn from everywhere you can, including your own team.
Key takeaways
The moral of this story is that the best leadership lessons should have a great influence on team development and teamwork.
If these different thoughts are possessed by your current management or leadership team, or your emerging leaders, you will be in a good position for the road ahead.
It’s easy to look at someone like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk and imagine that their success was inevitable. Their accomplishments are so out of the ordinary that it just seems impossible that they could have ever been anything other than successful. You get the sense that whatever obstacles they encountered, they would overcome.