Management

Any business owner, and particularly those with teams of staff, will need to learn the art of leadership to create the conditions in which the organisation can flourish without being entirely dependent on its founder. This means empowering others to do their jobs effectively, trusting their abilities and avoiding the temptation to micro-manage. In turn, this frees up founders or owners to become genuine leaders, able to focus on the strategic direction of the business without becoming consumed by the day-to-day operational activities. There are three main areas on which owners and founders must focus if they are to lead effectively: 1. Strategy. The main role for any leader is to set out the long-term vision for the business. They must be clear about the business plan, identifying opportunities for growth and how this will be achieved. This could be through acquiring other businesses, identifying new markets or sectors to move into, or expanding into new locations.

Every successful business owner or entrepreneur learns that the best route to growth and success is to find and retain employees who are better at running the business than you are. That means the most important part of your recruitment process is identifying those people and persuading them to work for you. But once you have found those people, how do you turn them into a leadership team fit to take the business on to the next phase of its development? Trust your team. You know you need to delegate because there’s not enough time in the day, or night, to do everything you need to as well as it should be done. Trusting colleagues to shoulder some of the burdens of leadership and giving them clear objectives, encouragement and support will help them develop their skills within the leadership team, and allow you learn how to lead a larger business, in part by sharpening your communications and coaching skills.

One of the biggest threats for founders or owners of businesses is that they remain overly involved in the day-to-day operations. While a small firm may initially see the founder managing all elements of the business, including staffing, sales and operations, there will quickly come a point at which this becomes unsustainable. That’s when owners and founders need to step away from running the business, and start leading it. The following provides a breakdown of the two roles, and outlines why it’s important for businesses to evolve to ensure they remain effective. Management. Once a business reaches a certain point, it will need to recruit or develop a management layer. Effective managers will plan and run the activities that are required to contribute to overall business performance. This means organising processes and operations to make sure the business functions as it should, in a manner that is safe and ethically sound.