Leadership Tips For Small Business Owners

Jack Zenger is a world leadership expert who has co-authored four books on the subject. While he has worked predominantly amongst corporates, his key principles relate perfectly to the small business context...

Jack Zenger (not pictured) is a world leadership expert and has co-authored four books on the subject – Results-Based Leadership, The Extraordinary Leader, Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders and The Inspiring Leader – unlocking the secrets of how extraordinary leaders motivate. While he has worked predominantly amongst corporates, his key principles relate perfectly to the small business context:

Effective leaders get the balance right between "tight and loose" management

It’s difficult to strike that happy medium. One the one hand, business owners, especially those who have worked as solo-preneurs for many years, can tend towards micro-managing and stifling their employees’ initiative with rigorous instruction. On the other end of the scale, owners who’ve had little experience in managing people can apply a "laissez-faire" attitude with minimal guidance and direction, not to mention focus on outcomes and deadlines. This is equally de-motivating and destructive, so Zenger implores the importance of trusting one’s staff members to be capable of performing the tasks you’ve set before them, and giving them freedom to work within that, while still maintaining a firm grip on goals and performance. "If you can get that combination of ‘tight and loose’ leadership right, you’ll be well on your way to building a motivated team," says Zenger.

There are many different types of leadership style

The stereotype is fast falling away that you need to be a charismatic extrovert in order to be a good leader – in fact research shows that only 40% of CEOs would describe themselves as having extroverted personalities. And there is very little correlation between charisma (characteristics of being confident, warm and engaging) and how one leads. A relief to most of us who don’t possess this unique trait! Zenger has found that there are many leadership styles across the spectrum. He has identified six key approaches:

The inspirer –

lots of energy and enthusiastic about their cause and task

The visionary

– able to look to the future and paint a picture for others to buy into

The engager

– makes people feel valued through connecting on a one-to-one level

The technical expert

– someone who possesses so much in-depth knowledge on a topic that it cannot but inspire people

The driver

– their own personal zeal carries people along

The principled leader

– this leader fights relentlessly for a moral or ethical cause and inspires others to join in.

Good leaders connect emotionally and show respect

Through all Zenger’s research, he discovered another important attribute that all excellent leaders seem to possess. He realised that they were very good at establishing a warm and close contact with someone within a short space of time. For example, they naturally seemed to ask the right questions to a person in order to establish some common ground, which cemented the relationship quickly and firmly – with the result that staff members felt valued and that their views and opinions were respected.

The good news is that most of these leadership points can be learned or at least improved on considerably through intentional effort – encouraging results that show there is more to being a good leader than just being "born" one...