Becoming Management doesn’t necessarily impart Leadership skills.
Hello again, everyone. I spend a lot of time, both as a professional and as a regular person, hanging around with local business leaders. The top producers and entrepreneurs, from all over the Reno/Sparks/Tahoe area, tend to be a rather social lot. Getting to listen to them talk about Leadership and Management concepts, explaining what they’ve seen work or fail, discussing what kind of solutions they’ve applied to the problems they’ve encountered… Those are some of the best times I can remember.
But, some people who are in Management, by virtue of their experience or expertise in a particular field, still might not have a good working handle on actual Leadership skills. So, I thought today’s blog could be about some of the tips and concepts I’ve picked up on the subject, along the way.
Leadership is about influencing activity and giving clear direction.
As a business professional; the boss, manager, honcho, proprietor et cetera, one of your most critical duties is to influence and direct your people to accomplish collective objectives in a way which makes them work in a more cohesive, coherent manner. All the people in your organization need to be guided, both as a group, and as a group of individuals, to achieve the goals you’ve set for them.
Leadership as a Professional means knowing how to communicate VERY effectively.
Communication is not necessarily about how well you speak. It’s more about how well you listen. You can get anything you want from people, provided you know what it is THEY want. Once your people know that your goals coincide with their goals, and that working to help you meet your goals is the best way for them to meet their own, you have people who will follow your lead into gale-force winds.
So, as the Leader, you’ve got to pay attention to the people you supervise directly. Knowing why they do what they do for you, will help you help them do it better. Here at Front Office Staff, I invest a lot of time working with and communicating directly with the support staff and phone answering personnel, to make sure that we are always on the same page and moving in the same direction.
Business Management and Leadership also means reading. A lot.
It is amazing how much information they hide in books, these days. Some of the best, smartest businesspeople in the world, have put their own thoughts about the nature of Leadership and Management down on paper. When I decided I was going to write this blog, I myself went to a few excellent websites, just to refresh my memory. I always suggest, to anyone who asks me how they can improve a skill, that they read a few books on the subject.
Leadership sometimes means delegating out responsibilities.
Our job here at Front Office Staff Reno, is to provide the local business community with professional phone answering services, at rates which are an obvious savings over hiring a full time receptionist. That is exactly the kind of delegating I’m talking about. Answering your phones in a professional, courteous manner, is really just a small part of what we do, though.
If you would like the opportunity to discuss all of the ways in which our experience and expertise can help your company grow, by all means, contact us today.
Have a great day,
Rena Zatica
10/22/12
