by Wendy Dessler
Putting the right people in place is a key part of achieving small business success. As a business owner, hiring people who can lead your company into the future is essential.
While businesses spend millions of dollars a year on leadership development, nearly 71 percent of business owners feel like the leaders they have in place don’t have what it takes to lead their organization into the future.
Having great leaders can make or break your company. The leadership you have in place should inspire and motivate other employees.
The following are some of the things you need to focus on when attempting to develop great leaders.
Develop a Leadership Engagement Program
When hiring a new member of management, you will need to focus on putting through a rigorous and informative onboarding process. This process needs to focus on teaching a new team member what you expect from them and provide them with information regarding the management style you like to use. Informing a new member of management about what is expected of them can help to eliminate confusion.
Allowing the existing members of your leadership team to mentor a new hire is a great idea. With their help, you can get a new hire in gear and ready to work in no time at all.
Provide Your Leaders WIth the Right Tools
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a small business owner is failing to provide your workforce with state of the art tools. Forcing members of your management team to work with outdated technology can lead to them getting frustrated and possibly seeking out a new job.
With the right tools, things like employee scheduling and performance tracking will be much easier. For years, businesses owners have used https://www.humanity.com for their employee scheduling needs. This program is both easy to use and very effective.
The money you invest in updating the technology used by your leaders will definitely pay off in the long run. The right software will help team members work smarter, not harder.
Make Sure You Are Developing the Right People
Let’s face it, not everyone is cut out to be a leader. Learning how to spot a person with true leadership potential is something you will need to do as a business owner. Wasting time and resources on a person that has no interest in leading your company into the future can create a lot of problems.
Some business owners have a hard time discerning between high-performing and high-value employees. A high-performing employee is a person that is doing great in their existing role with your company. This does not always mean they are ready for more responsibility or a management position. Conducting one on one employee evaluations on a regular basis is a great way to figure out which team members are ready to take the reins and lead your company.
Always Promote From Within
Hiring outsiders to come in and lead your existing team can create a lot of problems. You need to let your existing employees try their hand at management positions before you go looking for a hired gun. Showing your team that you believe in promoting from within can motivate and inspire them. The last thing you want is to lose valued employees due to bad hiring practices.
If you see that an employee has aspirations to become a leader, you need to give them an opportunity to shine. Promoting from within allows you to avoid lengthy training and onboarding.
While choosing the right people to lead your company is no easy task, it is well worth the effort you invest. Trying to handle every aspect of running your business alone will generally lead to lots of problems. This is why relinquishing a bit of control is necessary when trying to grow your company.
