When you run a business, you can never afford to stop learning and the best business leaders are really good students. Successful business leaders like Lloyd Claycomb II learned early in his business career that one core subject you need to excel in is leadership, because it is so essential to the success of your business. Here is some leadership advice that will help you become more successful as a business owner.
Be Ambitious
The ideal business leader has a healthy dose of unflappable ambition. This quality is one that gets them up in the morning wondering what went on while they were sleeping. Did our competitors take a lead over us? Did the new plan we just implemented begin to take hold? Ambition is a driving factor and it is also contagious. When others in your company see how motivated you are to win, they will also share this feeling. So you need to have it in abundance and talk about it and tell others in your organization to do the same. Remember though, you also want a culture that respects fair play and ethics, so it is not winning at all costs, but winning fairly and being gracious when you do win.
A Reliable Leader
Reliability is a prominent quality of successful business leaders. In fact they thrive on reliability and invite it at every turn. They want their organization to depend on them and to know that their trust in them will never be taken for granted or breached. So they are constantly placing themselves in positions where they can be tested for reliability to show how dependable they are. This approach creates a very stable effect in a business environment and tells employees that the business is solid. Remember, problems always start from the top down in business and so it is imperative to show that the top is steady. The leader being reliable also allows for him or her to demand reliability from others and others will understand clearly why they need to comply. When an organization operates with reliability as a core element, everything works better and there is more success.
An Ability to Take Criticism
Being a leader means that you have to be prepared to stand in the way of anything that is coming. Sometimes what is coming is praise for a job well done and other times what is coming is ridicule, disdain and even anger toward you. In this environment you have to still lead effectively. So what you need is really thick skin and an ability to be tough under rough circumstances. You need to be able to take in the criticisms and listen to the ones that are accurate to make necessary changes and brush off the ones that are not. In the event these criticisms are unfair and causing you damage be prepared to retaliate, but this retaliation needs to be appropriate for the situation.
Being a leader is challenging, tiring and frustrating. Yet its rewards are numerous and uplifting. If you find yourself in this role, take it on knowing these truths.
