What Makes a Good Business Leader?
A good business leader can make the difference between the success or failure of a company. They can set companies up from scratch and turn them into international brands or take a failing company and give it a new lease of life. You could probably name at least five great business leaders off the top of your head but what do they all have in common? It is likely that they all have similar characteristics, and it is these that make them so great. So, what are the characteristics that make a good business leader?
Inspirational
There is no point in trying to lead if nobody is following you. The best business consultants and leaders need to inspire others to follow them and go the extra mile which could mean the difference between success and failure. The ability to inspire others can help a business overcome any obstacle. A good business leader can do this by setting a good example and handling difficult situations admirably. That way their employees feel inspired to do the best job they can for the business leader.
Passionate
If a business leader isn’t passionate and doesn’t believe wholeheartedly in what they are doing, then why should anyone else? A good leader shows that they are passionate about the company they work for and have the drive and motivation themselves to carry it forward. They might have built the company from the ground up or not come on board until the company was being traded on the stock market. Whatever their point of entry, you can be sure that a good leader will give the impression that they are not going to leave anytime soon because they totally believe in the business in the present and future. This reassures both colleagues and customers and turns a good business into a great one.
Experienced
There is nothing worse than asking a business leader a question and having them not know the answer. They make themselves incompetent, and their reputation is tarnished. It can be embarrassing to watch let alone participate in. A good business leader should be able to answer company and industry questions easily. One thing that most great business leaders do is get relevant qualifications such as an MSC business analytics from Aston University. This gives them the ability to understand and interpret complicated trends and business patterns in a way that they can explain to others. This also helps them gain knowledge that relates to the finer detail, and they are unlikely to be caught out by even the toughest colleagues or journalists.
Good Communicators
A great leader can communicate with everyone from the other members of their board to the office cleaner. It is this charisma that makes them popular and has got them as far as they have gone in business. A good communicator can explain their business strategy to anyone and everyone and motivate them to work with the business leader. You can have a great idea in business but if you can’t explain it in a way that makes it sound like a great idea to other people, it is unlikely to get off the ground.
Decision Makers
A great leader knows that the buck stops with them, and it is up to them to make the final decisions. This is a lot of responsibility, and a great leader needs to keep a clear head and be able to make the right decision under pressure. Once they have made this decision, they have to stick by it and follow it through. Someone who is constantly changeable isn’t going to make a good leader as nobody will ever be sure what they want.
Accountable
Unfortunately, not every business decision is going to be a brilliant one and even great business leaders drop the ball sometimes. However, they know that failure is not about falling; instead, it is about how they recover from the fall. A great business leader will pick themselves back up and change tactics or try something new. They won’t beat themselves up about their failures, but they will remember them and learn from them.
Ability to Delegate
A one-person operation can do everything themselves. However, if the entrepreneur wants to grow their business, they will need to learn the art of delegation. This can be quite a tricky business, especially for someone who has been there from the start. It is impossible to keep an eye on everything that is going on in a business all the time though, especially as it grows. The best business leaders know how to delegate because they have made sure they have surrounded themselves with the best people and trust them to do their jobs well.
Creative and Innovative
It is the ability to think outside of the box and lead from the front that sets great companies apart from good ones. Therefore, great business leaders are those who have the creativity to tackle a problem by thinking about it in a different way to the competition and the innovation to put it into practise. There are few people who can come up with a totally new idea. For example, Mark Zuckerberg did not invent social media although his is one of the best-known platforms in the world. The McDonald brothers did not invent hamburgers, but their restaurants are seen in nearly every city worldwide. Great leaders can take an idea and make it their own.
Empathy Skills
Empathy is something that great leaders are often remembered for. Anyone can be dictatorial, and this usually marks a leader that doesn’t have particularly good people skills. However, a great leader knows how to show empathy and find workable solutions. This often inspires confidence and loyalty in others.
