{"id":598855,"date":"2023-01-18T15:52:53","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T21:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/18\/secrets-to-improve-your-small-business-leadership-skills\/"},"modified":"2023-01-18T15:52:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T21:52:53","slug":"secrets-to-improve-your-small-business-leadership-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/18\/secrets-to-improve-your-small-business-leadership-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Secrets to Improve Your Small Business Leadership Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" data-ezsrc=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y40Y5o6Uhzo\" width=\"853\" height=\"505\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><span data-mce-type=bookmark style=display:inline-block;width:0;overflow:hidden;line-height:0 class=mce_SELRES_start>?<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Take a look at the most <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\/2022\/12\/becoming-a-better-small-business-leader.html\">successful businesses<\/a> around the world and leadership tops the list of the reasons why they are successful. And this applies to businesses of all sizes, including solopreneurs who are going at it alone.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you are responsible just for yourself or others, knowing what makes a great leader will serve you and the people that work for you well into the future.<\/p>\n<p>In this episode of Small Biz in :15, Paula Jenkins, founder and CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/lfsconsult.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LFS Consulting<\/a>, identifies the traits of good leadership and how you can achieve them.<\/p>\n<p>This is the edited transcript of the interview of the latest episode of Small Biz in :15. You can watch the full interview in the player above.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Who_is_the_Best_Kind_of_Leader\"><\/span>Who is the Best Kind of Leader?<span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Jenkins says, \u201cThe best kind of leaders raise their hand and say, I need help. Let me just say that one more time. The best kind of leaders are the ones who raise their hands and say they need help.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And for some of us, it takes us a little bit longer to do that. And I think that\u2019s really hard. But the moment you do and you start recognizing, wow, the help that comes is really helping me, that\u2019s the game changer in your business. And it\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"How_Does_This_Apply_to_Small_Businesses\"><\/span>How Does This Apply to Small Businesses?<span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Shawn Hessinger:<\/strong> <strong>A lot of small business owners, and particularly solopreneurs may not think of themselves as leaders because they know their thing, they know their niche or whatever they\u2019re getting into. So, I\u2019m wondering, why is leadership important in small business? Like, why is it important for you to think about this initially?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula Jenkins: Yeah, it\u2019s a great question so often because we don\u2019t think about it. We don\u2019t understand the correlation between our success and how to sustain our business.\u00a0And that\u2019s where the leadership part comes in, is how you lead your business, how you lead the finances of your business, how you lead your social media. I think a lot of times we think of that leadership piece as a person. It\u2019s a team, it\u2019s a group, it\u2019s an organization.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The leadership piece is also just how you run the business, how you show up, how you lead your brand, and how you lead your product or your service. So that leadership piece is critical because you do want to make sure that you show up in a way that\u2019s going to sustain your business and grow your business.<\/p>\n<p>So, whether you have a team or not, that isn\u2019t the part that matters. What matters is you understand that how you lead, how you show up, that\u2019s the part. No matter what the size of the business, that\u2019s the part that matters.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Defining_Leadership\"><\/span>Defining Leadership<span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Shawn Hessinger:<\/strong> <strong>What would you say is a good definition of leadership?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula Jenkins:<\/strong> <strong>Leadership is about influencing that\u2019s what it\u2019s about and whether that is guiding people or thoughts, whatever you want to call their actions, their behaviors. Leadership is truly about the influence that you have on someone, somebody, some team. That\u2019s really what it comes down to.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We could have lots of other words that we can add in, but at the end of the day, you are influencing somebody, period. And so, for me, leadership is influencing or guiding other people when it comes to their actions when it comes to their behaviors. That to me is leadership.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"What_Does_a_Leader_Look_Like\"><\/span>What Does a Leader Look Like?<span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Shawn Hessinger:<\/strong> <strong>When you think about leaders, maybe a lot of people have a vision in their head of what a leader is supposed to be like. When we talk about leadership there are different types and styles of leadership, aren\u2019t there?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula Jenkins: Yes, there are. I call myself a servant leader. That to me is who I am and how I show up. And it\u2019s really important for me to show up as a servant leader when I am leading. It is not about me, it is about others. It\u2019s about meeting people where they are. It is about really making sure that the work gets done. But it\u2019s never about me, never has been about me.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Then you also have other leaders where it may be very transactional, but it is about getting it done. And in some cases, you may need that.<\/p>\n<p>I will tell you, I have not spent the time to say here\u2019s the five or the eight or the nine or the ten, because there are so many different kinds [leadership]. I think the key is recognizing who you are and where you are.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Figuring_Out_the_Kind_of_Leader_You_Are\"><\/span>Figuring Out the Kind of Leader You Are<span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Shawn Hessinger:<\/strong> <strong>I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s discovering the kind I am or if it\u2019s deciding what I want to be. How do I go about doing that? I mean, how do I go about figuring out what kind of leader I am?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula Jenkins: It will take time. I think it is the environment you are put in. I think it is the situation that you\u2019re put in, the people that you are leaving and leading, the people that are surrounding you and what is needed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A lot of times what we don\u2019t understand is depending upon the situation, the environment, and people\u2019s personalities, you have to show up in a different way. And that doesn\u2019t mean again, I\u2019m always talking about it\u2019s not about good, bad or indifferent. It is what is needed at the time.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"What_are_the_Qualities_of_a_Leader\"><\/span>What are the Qualities of a Leader?<span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Shawn Hessinger:<\/strong> <strong>You also see when you look up what are the elements of leadership, and people look at those lists and they say, gee, I don\u2019t have those personality types, or I\u2019m worried, I don\u2019t have those personality types. But do we really know? What are some of the things that might indicate that you\u2019re a good leader?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula Jenkins: Well, here\u2019s what I will tell you. For me, everything begins and ends with communication. So when I immediately think about leadership it is honestly we have to start with how we communicate. Now some of us are really great communicators, some of us have work to do and some of us are not as good. I recognize that. But communication is key.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How we communicate with our teams, with our people, and with our investors, all that is important. That one to me is the most important element. But there are others. Yes, it\u2019s how you care, it\u2019s empathy. We have to be able to be empathetic. I\u2019m also really big on emotional intelligence and understanding, our self-awareness and self-regulation, our motivation, all those types of things. But I will always say it absolutely starts with how we communicate.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Biggest_Takeaway\"><\/span>Biggest Takeaway<span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Jenkins says, \u201cI am really big on feedback and I think it\u2019s really important to ask for it. I don\u2019t shy away from it. I\u2019ve said for years, probably decades, if you don\u2019t tell me what I\u2019m doing well I may not continue doing it, if you don\u2019t tell me what I\u2019m not doing so well, I might continue to do it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>So part of it is also understanding what\u2019s working in the environment that you\u2019re leaning, what\u2019s working for the people that you\u2019re leading. That is an important piece of leadership. And so how we find out who we are, we can ask. That\u2019s not a bad thing. It\u2019s not a bad thing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>For the latest, follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/sbt.me\/goonb\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Google News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><span>More in: <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\/tag\/small-biz-in-15\" rel=\"tag\">Small Biz in 15<\/a><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\/2023\/01\/leadership-skills.html\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Michael Guta<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>?Take a look at the most successful businesses around the world and leadership tops the list of the reasons why they are successful. And this applies to businesses of all sizes, including solopreneurs who are going at it alone.Whether you are responsible just for yourself or others, knowing what makes a great leader will serve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":598856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22124,756],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-598855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-improve","8":"category-secrets"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}