Effective Leaders Inspire Peak Performance From Teams
December 6, 2014Executive Summary: This article explores the ideas of leadership and how crucial that quality is in running a private practice, as well as how to use leadership qualities to improve the overall well-being of the organization.
As a Business owner, you are in charge of staffing, profitability, and everything in between. Your challenges include handling client issues, employee issues, and your own business issues, all within the course of a day, every day! With the needs of the business always front and center, how do you ensure that you are setting a course for long-term success?
If business owners are looking to build scalability and sustainability for their businesses, the recognition that they are not just owners but are also leaders for their organizations is a critical shift. As an owner, you are the ultimate decision maker for the practice. Your focus is to ensure that the business survives and grows. As a leader, however, your principal role is to develop structures and processes to ensure that your staff and team grow and develop, which is the greatest investment you can make to ensure a viable and sustainable future. You must create a team that can run the operations while you elevate your thinking to working “on the business,” not just “in the business.” this is the role of a leader!
How can you take action to create a leadership mind-set?
- Understand the altitude and landscape responsibility of an organizational leader.
- Determine the core values that define the organizational culture you want to create.
- Learn about yourself as a leader, including your strengths, blind spots, and needed skills.
- Establish a team of direct reports and create a structured environment of working together.
- Identify a coach, trusted adviser, or peer group to help keep you focused on your growth and development.
Let’s look at each of these action items in more detail:
Understanding the altitude and landscape responsibility of a leader means getting out of the weeds! Stop doing everyone else’s job because you can, and do the work that only you can do! You may need to look at your business model and change it to take advantage of emerging marketplace dynamics. You may need to make a structure or staffing change to create a stronger bench of talent. Your direct reports cannot do this! This is the work of the leader!
Determining the core values that are important is taking a leadership role in defining your culture. Your culture is “how we do things around here,” and it varies among companies. Take the time to consider the behaviors and approaches that you want your employees to demonstrate consistently. If being customer-focused is critical to you, for instance, make it a core value. The best part about establishing a strong foundation with core values is that it provides your organization with a context for how to operate when you are not around and helps create sustainability!
Learning about yourself as a leader is a journey. Start by taking a diagnostic assessment on your leadership profile and identify your work style preferences. Sharing this information with your team will help them understand how you are “hardwired” and help them work more effectively with you. Ask your team for honest feedback on how you can improve and unlock some of their potential to free you up to pursue big picture initiatives. Be brave, and ask your team about your “blind spots,” things we cannot see about ourselves, but everyone else can. This will provide you with a real opportunity for personal and professional growth.
Defining your direct reports as a team, not just a group of colleagues, creates an expectation of working together to solve problems. Working as a team can also help to break down silos. Your goal is to encourage your team to share in the operations and day-to-day decision making to make them less dependent on you and more dependent on each other. Team building is a challenging process, but the first step is “naming your team.”
Before you leap into action, consider this: do you have a coach, trusted adviser, or peer group off of which you can bounce ideas? Or, when you have a challenge, do you have to go through your own personal trial and error to learn the best way forward? Becoming a great leader means surrounding yourself with support that can accelerate your development. Consider working with a coach or peer group to obtain real insights and feedback before you have to make difficult decisions in real life.
Becoming a great leader means surrounding yourself with support that can accelerate your development. Consider working with a coach or peer group to obtain real insights and feedback before you have to make difficult decisions in real life.
Creating a leadership mind-set may not be for everyone, but it is necessary if you want to grow, learn, and create a sustainable and scalable organization!