5 Ways to Become the Leader Your Team Deserves

5 Ways to Become the Leader Your Team Deserves

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By Jerry Mooney

Running a small business, or attempting to manage any sort of team in a business context, can be a tricky challenge. One moment you’re reading the ultimate how to from http://theprauthority.com/how-to-write-a-white-paper/ to come up with new marketting strategies, the next you’re involved in a budget dispute. There are a lot of considerations to be made, ranging from how best to drive your team to meet their targets, manage the different egos and personalities involves, and how to stay sane in the process.

All too often business leaders can fall into the trap of losing the support of their staff through heavy-handed tactics and outbursts of temper. There’s much which is as virtually guaranteed to stifle the effective running of a team, than having those team members resent you for your role.

There are, however, certain principles which you can adhere to, which can make all the difference in creating a harmonious working environment and allowing you to manage your staff to the best of your ability.

Here are a few of those principles.

Be a leader not a boss

Every leader will have to order people around at some point or another, but it’s important to remember that there is a real and tangible difference between being a “boss” and being a “leader”, at least in the way that people will respond to you.

To put it simply, a boss is someone who stands detached from a situation and commands his worker bees to carry out his bidding. When they fail to do as instructed, or to achieve the results that had been hoped for, the boss will often rain fury and punishment upon those unfortunate worker bees.

A leader, on the other hand, is someone who is “down in the trenches” with his team. Of course, your role will be different from that of your team members, but as much as possible, it’s important to show them that you are engaged with the tasks they’re being set to undertake, and are pulling your weight.

A leader leads by example. He isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, and he doesn’t speak down to those under him. Instead, he adopts the mindset that he is working with them, not dominating them.

The shift may seem subtle at first, but it makes all the difference in staff morale and performance, not to mention your own sense of wellbeing.

Prioritize job security for your staff

In these uncertain times, many people have fly-by-night working arrangements, and this can lead to a great sense of insecurity and stress.

When someone doesn’t know if he’ll be in the same job this time next week, he’s naturally less committed to giving his all to the company and seeing it thrives due to his participation.

One of the best ways of boosting employee morale is by giving them a sense of job security. While this is easier said than done, it can include steps such as not over-recruiting, setting reasonable contract terms, and finding alternatives to mass redundancies if things don’t work out as planned.

Promote the free exchange of ideas in the office

Often, creativity in a business is stifled because people feel threatened or embarrassed to express their ideas openly. The more of a framework you can create for the relaxed, open discussion of ideas, the more creative your team will be, and the better they’ll feel about their role in the company.

Consider brainstorming meetings where no pressure is put on staff to have “good” ideas. Rather, simply encourage everyone to express any ideas openly, and then filter and build on them as a group until they become “good” ideas.

Communicate your instructions and ideas calmly

Team leaders and small business owners are often under a lot of stress. This can sometimes manifest itself in dismissive, aggressive, and rude behaviour towards your subordinates.

Allowing your temper to get the better of you is one of the easiest ways of losing authority and morale in the workplace. Even when you have to reprimand or penalise someone, do it in a calm and measured manner. You need to present the image of a cool, collected, and reasonable leader, regardless of how irritated you may be feeling inside.

Clamp down on office bullying and mean-spirited gossip

A toxic office environment may not be your fault directly, but it is your responsibility to put an end to it at the earliest possible opportunity.

If you become aware that some of your staff feel bullied, or unhappy, in the office due to a culture of backbiting, mean-spirited gossip, and office politics, you absolutely must investigate the issue and do your best to implement policies which will reduce the toxicity of the environment.

Team cohesion and cooperation will be terrible if everyone in the office resents each other and is constantly on guard.

Small Business Legal Risks and How to Reduce Them

Small Business Legal Risks and How to Reduce Them

 

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By Nigel Hilton

As a small business owner, you are subject to numerous risks and threats to your company. The last thing that you need is to be at the centre of a legal storm, but this is exactly what could happen unless you take the right measures to reduce these risks. Though the individual threats vary from company to company, there are a few common themes running throughout. Let’s look at a few of these in more detail here.

Employment Issues

Some of the most common issues centre on employees, particularly ones who have become disgruntled or otherwise upset by your way of doing things. Employees have a lot of protection when it comes to the law, and you want to ensure that your company is fully up to speed with all of these issues. You may need to contact an employment attorney or in some circumstances a probation lawyer nearby. Issues around hiring and firing are often the big ones that employers get into difficulty about.

Discrimination and Harassment

Discrimination and harassment are two very common workplace problems, and you need to be taking steps to reduce these issues wherever you see them. One of the best ways of reducing this risk is by speaking one to one with your employees on a regular basis, asking them about whether or not they have witnessed any incidents. Having an HR professional working at the company can really help you out or you can outsource this particular task.

Immigration Audits

Proper background checks are important for all employees as the last thing you need to happen is to get into hot water of employing people illegally. Not only will you be hit with penalties, you could end up losing vital members of your workforce. Again, recruitment is an area that can be dealt with by HR so this is another reason to turn to them.

Copyright and Patent Problems

If you have created and sell your own product, you need to ensure that you have the proper copyright and patent so you aren’t at risk of a lawsuit. Realistically, this should all be taken care of during the product development phase of your business. Similarly, you should ensure that you have all the proper licensing for the materials that you distribute including image rights etc.

Dissatisfied Customers

If you needed another reason for keeping your customers satisfied, the risk of a lawsuit is quite a motivating one! Class action lawsuits are a threat if you sell faulty products, services or make false promises. To combat this, you should be speaking to your customers on a regular basis, finding out if they have any issues or ways in which you can improve the level of service that you are providing for them. Anything you can do to deal with problems before they escalate to going to court can only be a good thing!

Protect your business against legal risks as a company by taking preventative measures and speaking to professionals when needed.    

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