How Helping Others Develop Great Leadership Skills Can Help Your Business

The following is a guest piece by Megan Totka.

We often hear that great leaders are born, not bred. This would imply that you must have leadership in your blood, rather than be able to learn great leadership qualities. While it may be true that some people are natural born leaders, I don’t think it’s necessarily true that great leadership cannot be taught.

On our Chamber blog and website, we focus on the needs of small business owners. Many small businesses are started by people who want to act on a great idea. These people may or may not have previous leadership experience or even possess inherent leadership qualities.

In the case of these business owners, it’s imperative to develop leadership skills, and quickly. Even if your business is a one-man show, it’s still critical to be assertive when it comes to business, and being assertive is absolutely a leadership quality.

If you are involved in a small business, whether it is as the owner, partner, or employee, it’s a great idea to take a few minutes to think about the leadership qualities that you possess and how you can use them to benefit yourself, your company, and those around you.

A few leadership qualities that are important to those who are involved in the small business world:

Integrity – a small business is nearly guaranteed to fail if its leader does not have integrity. Yes, you may be able to skate by in the business world for a short while, or even sometimes a long while, if you are dishonest, but the odds are absolutely not in your favor.

A good leader will do the right thing, even if it’s not going to produce an ideal outcome for themselves or their business. Having integrity in your business dealings will attract people back to your business again and again, and it will also entice them to recommend your business to others.

Dedication – I think this is one of the most important leadership qualities that must be held by anyone in the small business world. Without dedication, your business is going nowhere, and quickly.

Haven’t we all heard stories of entrepreneurs who work 80 hour weeks without paying themselves a salary in order to get their business off of the ground? That’s dedication, and to make a small business successful, it’s absolutely necessary.

Humbleness – while being humble may not be something that you would think of as a great leadership quality right off the bat, it absolutely is. Being able to give credit to others when it’s due and not taking all of the glory for the success of anything that you do in life is important.

People will not be willing to help you out, work for you, or even be able to enjoy your company in a casual setting if you take all of the credit, all of the time. Businesses are not built in a day, and they are certainly not built by just one pair of hands.

So why all of this talk about leadership qualities when the title of this blog is about helping others? The answer is, because it’s important to hone these qualities in yourself before you can help others. And haven’t most of us been taught for quite some time that the best way to learn is by teaching?

As a small business owner in particular, the opportunity to teach others to be great leaders often presents itself. The more great leaders that you can cultivate within your company, the better.

Now, you may be asking why you want to teach everyone that works for you or with you to be a leader. Wouldn’t that make for too many leaders and not enough followers? The answer is no! Helping people to develop the leadership qualities listed above, and many others, will only lead your business to be more successful in the long run.

You want your employees and customers to not be timid; they need to feel like they can present their own ideas and have their input valued. When a person possesses leadership skills, they can share ideas with confidence. They can also take criticism and turn it into a learning experience.

There are many different ways to cultivate leadership skills. Consider meeting with your business associates or employees on a regular basis to talk about different leadership qualities. Not only will this offer a break from the everyday workflow, it can potentially spark discussions and gather ideas that can improve your company.

You can also consider attending and/or sending your employees to leadership conferences or seminars. Sometimes getting an outside point of view is a great way to learn more about yourself and qualities that are inherent to you.

As I discussed in my previous guest piece, leadership in a small business is absolutely critical. Take some time to begin to cultivate leadership qualities in those that surround you, and I can guarantee that you and your business will reap the benefits.

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.

10 comments on “How Helping Others Develop Great Leadership Skills Can Help Your Business

  1. Leadership is getting diluted to a degree, especially in small businesses since people are on over load, thus do not take time out like you suggest to engage with their people. Unfortunately a sad observation of what I am witnessing.

    1. Hi Jim,

      I think this will definitely be a key challenge for small businesses if they want to grow, both in profitability and market share. As so many recent studies have shown people don't leave jobs because of the work, but because of their boss.

      So I do believe an inevitable tipping point will be reached where businesses of all sizes will need to shift their focus to developing leadership compentencies if they are to remain competitive in this increasingly global market.

  2. Dear Tanveer you are the world best writer, and motivater in my opinion. May Allah give you more power to share your knowledge and experience with all who need and make best use from it to build career ahead.

    1. Thanks Saiyed; that's very kind of you to say.

      I'm glad you're enjoying the insights and guidance I share on my site and I do hope to continue to be of assistance to help people become better leaders for those they serve.

      Thanks again for the kind words.

  3. I believe humility is often the most forgotten ingredient. Thanks for sharing!

  4. Hey Tanveer, I am Suyog, I found your blog while searching for small businessman leadership skills. Your blogs is interesting. I think you have covered most of those points which are needful for me.
    Thanks bro.

  5. I agree with you 100% that in order to be able to help/mentor others on how to develop and increase their leadership skills that one must first focus on their own personal leadership capabilities. I think many people believe they are natural born leaders only because it seems like a great "type A" trait to have, but in all reality that just isnt the case. When you possess those three traits you mentioned above it is very easy to see the leader in people. A real leader knows when its time to lead and when its time to follow so I dont think that you can ever create too many leaders. All in all great post and in my opinion being humble is definitely key when it comes to being a leader and having the ability to teach others!

  6. Hi Tanveer
    A very good article , I have been involved in a start up business a while ago and the owner was not a very honest man and well as you can imagine , the business never got going and it all closed down .. i saw the writing on the wall early on and left before i was affected by it

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