Refocus, Reset and Refresh
When you’ve been running your own business for a while, you know what works, and it’s easy to rely on the skills that got you to where you are. Chances are, you’re comfortable doing things in a certain way, and your team knows what to expect from your leadership style.
Leaders eat last, as the military saying goes. But while focusing on the business and everyone else is sufficient for today, it isn’t an optimal long-term strategy.
While many business owners spend a lot of time planning how to grow and improve their business, far fewer invest the same amount of energy in planning how to make themselves better as business owners and leaders.
At the end of the day, the skills and knowledge that elevated you to where you are today may not suffice for navigating the future. The external business world continues to change. And the long term impact of a Treaty alone will require fresh approaches and a renewed mindset.
The Markers of Success Have Shifted
What defines a successful business owner and leader has also evolved. The traditional notion that employees adapt to the boss’s preferences has shifted. Today, employees seek value in unique ways, necessitating managers to tailor their approach for each team member. While this may seem demanding, when great people are so hard to find, keeping them is imperative in such a competitive job market. It is the leaders who invest energy in refining their techniques and addressing blind spots who tend to get the most from their teams.
In my practice, I work with clients over periods of months and years as they work through waves of success, stability, and occasional failure. Struggling with doing more with less, balancing personal and professional aspirations, and navigating business turbulence are common themes.
But presuming that your years in the bank are enough to see you through is short-sighted. The road to excellent leadership is a long one, occasionally smooth, often marked with potholes, and always under construction.
Great leaders recognise that owning and leading a business necessitates continuous investment and re-design; not just in what you lead but also in how you lead.
Renewable Resources
The wonderful thing about leadership skills is that they are a renewable resource. But only if you regularly take the opportunity to refresh them. Leaders must be open to questioning their approach, viewing the way they lead as strategic, designed, and open to change.
Taking moments for reality checks is imperative – to refocus, reset, and refresh.
For many business leaders, finding time to invest in themselves is challenging. It is hard enough to balance work commitments with life beyond it. Intentional learning rarely falls into the urgent or must-do category. Waiting for it to happen passively misses the opportunity to actively refresh your skills and reinvigorate yourself.
And for the experienced leader it takes courage to acknowledge that there may be a different, more effective way. The process of self-learning and renewal can be unsettling, requiring a deep understanding of oneself, uncovering blind spots, and hearing feedback that might sting.
Yet refreshing your skills doesn’t have to cost the earth or take a lot of time. Leadership experts and Executive Coaches, like myself, share quick tips, podcasts, books, and videos that are easily accessible and mostly free. Details on how to access my free weekly leadership playbook can be found at the end of this piece.
But that’s not all. GFSB members also have access to free talks, practical workshops, and business updates where you can hear from local experts and share experiences with other professionals. As a multicultural country with a diverse range of industries, we have the opportunity here in Gibraltar to learn from different approaches.
Throughout 2024, we’ll be refreshing our learning and education programme even further to bring you more practical and useful learning opportunities to keep you ahead of the game.
But the reality is that for small business leaders, the onus is on you. If you don’t make time to continually improve as a manager and leader, no one else can do it for you.
The more energy you invest in learning how to be a better boss, the more your team will follow suit. As a manager, your behaviour is closely observed and emulated. When you show a personal commitment to learning how to get better at doing your own job, you’ll find that your team do the same. And that can only be good for business.
About the Author:
My bio: I’m Rebecca, an experienced leadership expert focused on enhancing the skills and mindset of leaders. Through executive coaching and workshops, I guide leaders through complex and next level challenges and empower them to cultivate productive, growth-oriented teams.
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