Developing leaders must always be one of the critical priorities of any organization. This reduces conflict and drama within the organization and the process and helps the business achieve its objectives quickly.
Let’s quickly look at the four critical leadership skills that can benefit a business.
1. Setting One’s Priorities Straight
A leader should always be able to see clearly what is most important for the company or its team members.
Sometimes, primarily when people work in a high-growth atmosphere, it is easy to get buried in distractions and lose sight of your most urgent tasks and objectives.
A good leader, however, always begins with the end in mind, stays super aware of the moment’s priorities and desired outcomes, and communicates them clearly to the team.
2. Creating a High Level of Engagement
This is directly related to the skill mentioned above. A good leader never tries to micromanage. Instead, once she has made the priorities clear to her people, she gives the team freedom and space to figure out how to accomplish the desired goals.
In other words, a good leader leverages his team’s brainpower and skills to complete the tasks. This frees up the leader’s time, creates a high level of involvement and engagement within the group, and instills a sense of responsibility.
3. Engage in Critical Discussion and Debate
While most leaders want to foster a positive and friendly atmosphere within their teams, this does not mean they shy away from engaging in critical discussions and debates.
A senior leader possesses valuable experience and skills. If leaders do not engage in debate and discussions, they are potentially depriving employees of giving feedback and improving the company and its growth potential.
Yes, having critical debate sessions may sometimes give rise to conflicts. However, a good leader will know how to deal professionally with such situations.
4. Develop Talents and Fill Gaps Through Coaching
Today, we live in an age where upskilling has become a prime necessity regardless of one’s profession. And a true leader must always stay aware of this and set proper development and learning goals for his team members to help them advance in their careers and add more value to the organization.
A good leader will thus be able to identify the talent gaps in their team members in line with the specific requirements of the company and will seek external support (in the form of business coaches or consultants, for example) when necessary.
This may incur extra costs upfront, but eventually, the company will profit from it since it will not need to bring in recruits to fill senior positions.
Importance of Leadership for Small and Family Businesses
As mentioned, the above leadership skills will benefit all businesses, regardless of their size, growth potential, and future ambitions.
However, some of these skills are especially relevant for small and family businesses.
Upskilling and reskilling, for example, become highly important and valuable for small businesses that can only afford to hire new employees for some of the senior roles.
And once their current employees can take up leadership roles, they become significant assets to the company.
When it comes to family businesses, on the other hand, the very nature of these enterprises dictates that some family members take up essential leadership roles within the organization.
Once these family members take up their appointed roles, they must be able to fulfill their responsibilities competently, not hindering the enterprise’s growth in any manner.
William Smith and Double Iron Consulting
William Smith, the founder, and CEO of Double Iron Consulting, is as good a man as any to understand the importance of proper leadership development and succession planning for family-owned small- and medium-sized businesses.
The former CEO of Royal Cup Coffee & Tea (a multi-generational company that began its journey back in 1896), William Smith, came up through the ranks and was primed for his eventual leadership of the company from a very early age.
And once he was at the helm of the operations, he helped Royal Cup grow, thanks to several successful projects taken on during his executive leadership.
These include finishing a large-scale manufacturing expansion project and a strategic rebranding project that consolidated the Royal Cup Coffee & Tea brands into four core brand signatures: Prideland, ROAR, H.C. Valentine, and Royal Cup Signature.
Double Iron Consulting: Succession Planning & Leadership Development Services
Now that William Smith has moved on from all of the responsibilities of Royal Cup management, he has devoted himself entirely, through Double Iron Consulting, to helping family and small businesses thrive by providing core services like strategic planning, internal alignment, succession planning, and leadership development.
Leadership Development
Through proactive training and coaching, Double Iron Consulting helps its clients maximize their strengths and fill talent gaps so they can grow rapidly and realize their ambitions.
The leadership services of Double Iron Consulting focus on the capacity, competencies, skills, and behaviors at all levels of the organization and are based on leadership principles like:
- Financial acumen
- Servant leadership
- Communication with clarity and conviction and
- Leading from the front, back, and shoulder-to-shoulder
Succession Planning
As for the succession planning framework of the consultancy, it involves, among other things:
- Strategic assessment of short & long-term objectives of the business
- Reviewing the current succession planning implementation of a company
- Identifying the vital roles of both family and non-family leaders
- Identifying experience and/or talent gaps within the current or planned family leaders and coaching the latter to effect gap minimization
- Crafting plans for guiding and documenting the transition
To learn more about the services offered by Double Iron Consultancy, visit the company’s official website.
