Leaders aren’t only born, they can be created.
Maybe you were the shy, fat kid who got picked on in school, which made your confidence take a nosedive.
Look, I get it. I was that fat kid.
But if you’re still letting the past control your present, and impact how you view your self-confidence, stop it.
The past is in the past, and the you today is so much stronger and wiser than the fat kid who got used as a punching bag.
Find your inner confidence and build on it. Because a great leader is confident in his or her abilities.
One of the main things separating you from being an amateur entrepreneur and a professional entrepreneur is your leadership skill.
I take a lot of pride in the work I do. I take pride in the fact that I grab the reins and control my life, my health, my relationships, and my business.
By taking control, I became a better leader. I became someone my team and my clients could rely on to be the frontman they need to build success.
You can have the greatest business of all time, but if you don’t have a clue about how to step up to the plate and take charge of your work, your team, your responsibilities…your business ain’t gonna last.
You have the power to be a confident leader and take your business to the highest level with three things: be decisive, be a good communicator, and stop reacting, start responding.
Be Decisive
Many of us are afraid to make a decision because we fear that it will be the wrong decision.
So what happens? You end up not making a decision at all, which then puts you at a halt on your road to success.
As an entrepreneur, you’re going to have a lot of things to juggle. For me, my days consist of live Facebook shows, podcasts, responding to emails, speaking at events, coaching clients, and so on.
And of course, before any of that I have my “Magic Time” where I do the work and create the vision for my businesses’ massive leaps in growth.
If I didn’t make fast decisions, I wouldn’t get a whole lot done.
If I sat around overthinking things, opportunities to help more people and make more money would start drying up.
Don’t let decisions be stop signs. Keep moving, no matter what.
If you make a bad decision, take action and course correct. From every bad decision you make, you learn something from it that will push you to improve and do better.
Do you think the greatest business owners in history made the right decision every time? Of course not. They made decisions, and then responded accordingly.
Heck, I’ve made some hilariously bad decisions in my own businesses, like letting my old assistant with 0 sales experience take my sales calls, but every time I learned something.
And quite honestly, that knowledge is way more valuable to me than if I had read about it or heard about it from someone else, because now I have a gut-level, emotional reason not to make each of those mistakes again.
If you’re someone who has a hard time just trying to decide which shirt to wear in the morning, then here’s what you need to do: start making small decisions fast.
Stop puttering around with where to eat, what shoes to wear, or what movie to see. Just make a damn decision, and make it fast.
Keep practicing making fast decisions so that you can incorporate this mentality into your professional life.
Trust me, making fast decisions will allow your business to constantly evolve and grow. If you’re not moving, you’re standing still.
Alright, that sounds pretty obvious. But if you’re not taking any steps –– whether they be steps forward or steps backward –– then there’s no room for change or improvement.
If you make a bad decision, make a fast course correction and move forward.
Be A Good Communicator
Good communication is key when it comes to being a great leader. It’s how you let your team know exactly what you expect them to bring to the table.
But beyond that, effective communication allows you to course correct before you react.
If something goes wrong, say your trainer was rude to a prospective client and it lost you the sale, your first instinct is probably to emotionally react.
That’s not how a leader handles the situation.
A leader takes this opportunity to explain to that trainer what went wrong, and how they should perform going forward in order to avoid making this mistake again (respond!).
A good leader also knows that if you want your team to perform to your standards, you need to practice what you preach.
Who’s going to respect a leader who cracks the whip on everyone else, but slacks off in their own responsibilities?
Be on top of yourself first. Create a positive, encouraging environment to keep your team motivated. Most of all, communicate to them how much you value them.
No one wants to work for someone who makes them feel unappreciated.
Your team is the backbone of your business. They handle the day to day tasks that need to get done but don’t scale your business—which is YOUR responsibility.
Make your team members feel loved and appreciated by building morale.
I do this by taking time each Monday morning to write my team a message to inspire them to keep striving for the best.
I do a fun “name that tune” game at the HQ and give the winner a gift card.
I make myself available to my team for any questions or concerns they have by having an open door policy.
Remember, if your team doesn’t respect you, and isn’t backing you up 100%, you’re not leading from the front, man.
Stop Reacting, Start Responding
Going back to what I was saying earlier, a good leader doesn’t react to a situation, they respond.
It’s natural to react emotionally, I’ll be the first to admit that. I used to be the guy who would send an angry text message when something went wrong.
Finally, I manned up, took a step back and thought to myself, “Did this person mean to screw up?”
Most likely, the answer is no. So I decided to step up and be a good coach to my team by saying “Listen, here’s what went wrong, here’s how you could do it differently, show me you understand”.
Great. Everyone’s on the same page. Now you can move forward.
When you react emotionally, the person on the receiving end shuts down. They feel like they’re being attacked, and automatically go into defense mode.
It’s like when you were a kid and brought home bad grades. While your parents are yelling at you, all you’re thinking about is what excuse you can use.
“Mom, the test was too hard. Dad, I studied all night I don’t know what happened. I had to babysit the night before and I was too tired to study”.
If you’re in defense mode, you’re not in a position to listen to anyone, right? You’re so busy trying to defend yourself that you don’t hear the coaching the other person is trying to give you.
When you respond to a situation, you’re not thinking with your feelings. You’re taking a moment to compose your thoughts before opening your mouth and potentially ruining the relationship you’ve built with your team.
I’ve had to have these tough talks before with members of my team who were slacking off, and I’ll continue to have them to keep the good morale I’ve created among my team.
If you want to grow your business and maximize its potential, then you need to be the great leader your team needs. Be decisive in your decisions, communicate openly and honestly with your team and clients, and start responding to situations instead of reacting.
Committed to your success,
Bedros