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Being a leader isn’t just about bringing the business success or managing a team of people, nor is it about being in charge of your own thoughts and feelings. In order to achieve long-term success, you need to combine all of these elements. In this article, we’re taking a look at how you can boost your business growth and become an outstanding leader in 2020:
1. Leading yourself – managing your own thoughts, feelings and actions.
2. Leading others – building successful, high performing teams as well as nurturing individual talent.
3. Leading the business – the business is an entity in its own right and requires careful leadership.
Lastly, effective communication is what links all three of these together. Without the ability to communicate clearly and efficiently, nothing will work. The leadership diamond simplifies this idea.
This looks fairly straightforward at first glance, but getting it right can be a challenge. Leading organisations in the 21st Century is very much like sailing a large, complicated yacht – you need to make a series of micro-adjustments constantly to stay on course and every now and again, you need to change tack completely and do a full 360 degree turn to avoid a severe storm. So, how can today’s leaders achieve this balance?
By meeting all of the demands placed on leaders in 2019, including:
1. Rapidly moving technology
2. Five generations in the workplace
3. Changing expectations of the new generations coming into the workplace
4. The fact that planning any further than three years ahead is probably a waste of time
5. Disruptors changing well established industries almost overnight
And many more…
Rather than ignoring these challenges and taking the easy route, you need to keep up. The key to successful leadership in the 21st Century is self-development, self-awareness and a constant vigilance for new tech and new ways of doing things. You can no longer hide in a bunker and hope that things will just go away. You can longer stand still. If you’re not developing your thinking, your knowledge of the wider world and taking note of global perspectives, then you will be left behind.
Of course, not every business coach or leader has plans to grow and develop their business, and that’s ok. Having a lifestyle business is certainly not a crime and is actually a really great way to have a balanced life, but even a lifestyle business has to move forward and grow in order to survive, even if it’s in a small way. However, if you do plan to grow your business, it’s imperative that you invest in training and development so that you are aware of new technology, effective strategies, and how to be a good leader.
Almost every business in 2019 will use technology in some form or another. They may not base their model on tech, but they’ll need to adopt some kind of tech in order to thrive, even if it’s just using tax digital compliant software (yes, there are still companies out there who use paper books for their accounts!) Nurturing individual talent and team success is an entire blog all on its own as is managing your own thoughts, feelings and actions.
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