I’m amazed at the number of small business owners who are striving for increased business performance and yet haven’t linked their leadership as a critical factor in making this happen. One of the factors that’s often overlooked is responsibility. As the business owner you have the absolute authority to steer your staff to success. Yes too many give this away to their staff and no I’m not talking about getting all authoritarian and dictator here.
The power to guide your people towards achieving your vision for the business includes responsibilities like making sure they’re on the right direction, being mindful of each and everyone’s tasks and mistakes, and putting them back on the right track when they get lost. Nobody said leadership was easy or intuitive. In fact as a small business owner you can be fulfilling so many roles it can become overwhelming. It’s like juggling plates, but if you’ve got an IKEA plate, a denby plate and a ming plate (OK not sure ming made plates, it might just have been vases), which one do you let drop. Your leadership of the business is the ming. Let that one go and you’ve let your business go – well the results that were possible for you anyway.
Business leadership is one responsibility after another – the buck really does stop with us. There are times where occasionally it makes us feel better to blame someone or something else when things goes wrong, but this shouldn’t be a habit. It should be the rare slip up.
Instead of blame and excuses good leaders accept that something went wrong, and look for the learning instead. As the leader of the business or team what can they personally learn as well helping the individual who made the mistake find their learnings.
You may not have full control over other people and aren’t expected to have full control over their actions, but you have total control of your own reactions. Understanding what to do over sudden and unpredictable circumstances will make you responsible, give you greater flexibility and ironically give you a greater sense of control.