Article 164 - What type of leader are you?

Do you help your business and team to keep moving forward or holding them back?

​Don’t like the speed with which the business is moving? Check how quickly and pro-actively decisions are being made by the leader(s) of the business. If important decisions are always made late or it takes a very long time for a leader to decide, then such actions or lack thereof would typically set the pace for how quickly things change within the business.

Often, other people or groups may be waiting on a leader to make a decision in order to push things forward, which impacts productivity and puts beneficial and positive outcome of a project or process in jeopardy. So, why not be open and transparent in conversations with business leaders, letting them know that their lack of timely decision-making, proactive approach to problem-solving, can and usually does have a negative impact on the business as well as other business groups involved? Sure, we may not always hear or see an immediate reaction to our feedback, however, as least our constructive feedback and point of view will be heard.

Unfortunately, many people are simply uncomfortable or afraid to express their feedback to a leader, and instead, they choose to keep their opinions to themselves even if it is clear that lack of pro-active approach and urgency in a particular situation does negatively impact the business, revenue, and business’s customers. Who wins in such situation? Nobody, when something could have been resolved quickly and effectively only if we would say something. Now, due to our own internal fears or reservations, we’ve contributed to the negative outcome. So, in this case everyone loses, with biggest negative impact felt by customers.

On the other hand, when leader is pro-active, takes time to  listen to other people, their opinions and concerns, receives and accepts constructive feedback, and acts quickly to not only address but prevent problems and issues from escalating, and understands the importance of quickly and effectively addressing and resolving concerns of employees and customers, then business moves at expected pace, small problems get addressed before they turn into bigger problems, and business’s employees and customers remain happy and loyal to the business and its leader(s).

Do you consider yourself a pro-active individual and leader when it comes to your business, your company, your employees and customers? Or, do you tend to procrastinate when you must make an important business decision(s) and/or take high risk action? Do you help your team to progress, overcome obstacles, and move business forward, or do you hold everyone back and lean towards procrastinating?

It’s important to remember that a leader of the team sets the pace on how quickly the business, it’s employees, and customers achieve their individual goals and objectives. As Lee Iacocca once said: “The speed of the boss, is the speed of the team.” Remember that next time you are faced with having to make an important decision in your place of business and the impact that it can have on internal and external stakeholders.

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I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and hope that you found it to be very useful for you or someone else that you may know. Please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did