Leadership skills in the next decade will considerably impact on the success of a business. As Jenny Brent, Leader, People and Organisational Change for the National Australia Bank stated at the ICF conference, change is always going to happen so learning the skills to manage change and understand employees is vital.
The skills of leading a values based business together with being able to select, retain, motivate and empower good staff, continually improve the skills of the staff, being emotionally intelligent, ability to create systems, delegate and communicate effectively are all vitally important to managing change.
I would also add the importance of monitoring and determining the effect of any change on the KPI’s is vital. There are variables within business that constantly change and the ability to understand the impact of a change in a particular variable on a result is important. The more staff employed in a business, the more important the monitoring. A business that is constantly up-to-date with their KPI’s can make vital business decisions. They are alerted that change is on the way and have warnings to change their operations or plan for success moving forward. When there are more staff employed and there is no monitoring of the correct KPI’s, it is amazing how quickly a business can go from being extremely profitable, to running at a loss, and suddenly wonder what has happened to the bank balance.
Just remember that developing leadership skills is a journey and it is not something that you learn overnight by just reading a book. Training, coaching and mentoring plays a vital role in developing leadership skills, as first of all you need the knowledge of how a good leader acts and then quite often it is easy to see ourselves in a different way to how others see us. Awareness is the key. Once you are aware of something, you can work at changing it.
Invest in the leadership ability of yourself and your staff with an accredited management qualification from Pollard Institute or a Moving Forward Business Coach and you will soon be reaping the benefits as you begin to apply these new skills to your existing business model.