How can you lead by example as a small business owner?

To ensure clear comprehension and lasting recollection of your objectives, it's imperative to engage in continuous dialogues about your goals. These conversations, although concise after the initial ones, remain essential for reinforcing understanding.

Transparent Goal-Setting 🎯 Lead with clarity by sharing your goals and the reasons behind them. Explain how each target aligns with your business's mission and vision, turning goals into a roadmap for success. Discuss your progress openly and celebrate milestones as a team. This approach not only sets clear expectations but also shows your commitment to transparency and strategic alignment. Your team's understanding of the 'why' can significantly boost engagement and collective effort towards these shared objectives.

Lead by example is crucial, regardless of the business size. It is essential to maintain a clear vision, establish goals, devise a strategy, and consistently act in alignment with your values. If one does not act aligned with the pro-claimed values that is still leading by example (but negatively impacting the organisation and its culture).

Accountability Through Feedback 🔄 Embrace accountability by actively seeking and responding to team feedback. This practice showcases your commitment to improvement and honesty. Admitting mistakes and making adjustments demonstrates reliability, encouraging your team to follow suit. By fostering an environment where feedback is valued and acted upon, you instill a culture of responsibility and continuous development. 🛠️

1. Great leaders I have heard of have one thing in common, they are decision makers and most importantly they have the guts to take accountability, especially when decisions go south. 2. Never put blame on others for your mistakes, step up and have the guts to take accountability for your actions, learn from it and grow. 3. No one is perfect, neither are you. Provide yourself room to make mistakes, but learn from it and never repeat same mistakes. 4. This goes the other way as well, this should be applicable to everyone in the team. 5. When you follow what you preach, it increases your value as a reliable leader and people will start respecting you. Respect is always earned not demanded.

Hold your self accountable and give through that an example to others of self-reflection. This way they learn to evaluate their behaviour and results. This means that actions are evaluated on the spot, not afterwards when fixing mistakes and poor choices will cost a lot!

Open-Door Communication 🗣️🚪 Lead communication by example with unscheduled check-ins. These spur impromptu dialogue, signaling you’re approachable and value everyone’s input. Such interactions encourage a communicative culture beyond formal settings, building trust and collaboration. Be available, listen actively, and nurture a team that feels heard and respected. 🤝

Effective communication is the lifeblood of strong leadership. It's about clarity in conveying messages, but also about active listening, engaging in meaningful dialogue, and providing constructive feedback. By demonstrating these communication skills, you establish an environment of transparency and trust. Moreover, adapt your communication style to different audiences, ensuring that your message is not only heard but also understood. Through effective communication, you avert political misunderstandings and create a platform for collaborative problem-solving and innovation.

Use open ended questions and work with "why". Get people to identify root causes and through that not just to fix surfacing problem but to improve processes. The 3 most important things to do are: Listening Listening Listening

In the realm of small business ownership, being flexible and adaptable is paramount. When you model flexibility and adaptability, you not only demonstrate resilience and creativity, but you also create a culture where innovation and problem-solving are encouraged. Your team will see your openness to new ideas and your willingness to adjust to changing circumstances, which can inspire them to do the same. Being flexible and adaptable as a leader sends a powerful message that you are proactive and ready to navigate the ever-changing business landscape.

I call it being nimble, not flexible. Things will NOT always go as planned. As entrepreneurs, one of the most critical skills to have is the ability to pivot. And quickly.

Being “Small” is also a superpower, one that’s not afforded by giant corporations and brands. Small means you’re more agile, open to criticism and able to pivot far easier and faster. And in today’s world, “Agility” is critically important. So if you’re able to pivot faster, able to stay resilient in failures, fail fast and learn and keep biting at those giants for your market share, your growth is guaranteed. Stay creative, positive and build in your strength. Just be careful to not make the same mistake twice.

Learning is the way to ensure future. There are several areas you need to learn of: 1. yourself 2. your industry 3. other industries in order to find exceptional competitive advantage 4. your people. Spend time on all of these. Just for 5 minutes a day for reflection will give you a huge competitive advantage in a year!

A small business owner who practices exemplary leadership must be a lifelong learner and grower. It establishes a benchmark for continuous learning and personal development for your group. First of all, it exhibits a growth mindset and a dedication to excellence. When members of your team see that you are committed to learning new things, it inspires them to follow suit. This fosters an environment of ongoing development within the company. Furthermore, you can make wise decisions if you keep up with best practices and industry trends. It demonstrates to your team that you are knowledgeable and able to handle the constantly shifting business environment.

As a small business owner, you are both a Manager and a Leader. Employees learn from their leader, in some cases not from their manager! Continuous learning fuels growth but requires the challenging process of unlearning outdated habits, strategies, and knowledge. The cycle should be a perpetual learn-unlearn-relearn. In business, the value lies not just in perfecting routines but in the willingness to learn, unlearn, and relearn, especially for those open to new experiences. The advantage of being small is the agility to unlearn swiftly, turning the size into an opportunity for rapid adaptation. Embracing this iterative cycle is key for small businesses seeking to thrive in a dynamic environment.

When people are in the trenches with you, showing your appreciation for what they are helping you build and what it means is key. Appreciation looks different to each and every person and it is critical to understand what is important to each of them.

1. Showing appreciation may seem like a small gesture, but it will go a long way. Just try saying Thank you, Good job, etc and see it for yourself. 2. Employees are backbone of your company, who are working with you towards your dreams and goals. 3. Show some appreciation and recognition to the hard work, achievements and efforts to the team where it's due. 4. You are paying salary for their time, you aren't doing charity. But, giving regular bonuses and appraisals shows that you value your team members genuinely. 5. Providing health insurance to team members and their family shows that you care for their well being, ask them to take regular breaks from work, respect their personal boundaries instead of insisting to work more.

Keep in mind what is motivating your audience and stakeholders; are they intrinsically or extrinsically valuing you and your corporation as this can be a great foundation to understand how you can further show appreciation and recognition.

When we're talking about leading by example, the big question to ask ourselves is "what example are we trying to set... and for whom?" Many entrepreneurs want to make the world a better place in some way. So, to that end, the example to be set is for society. Small business owners must first and foremost stay true to their values, be good human beings, be trustworthy, be authentic, be transparent, and be kind. Small business owners have an incredible opportunity to make an impact on how business is done, to make it more humane. Yes, we can and should strive to make money but the way we define success can be broader than that, using the criteria listed above. In this way, entrepreneurs can inspire people in their communities to do good.

As a small business owner, lead by example for a thriving culture and success: 1. Motivation: Inspire with dedication and passion, motivating your team. 2. Active Listening: Value input from employees and customers, showing openness to feedback. 3. Leveraging Smart People: Recognize that you've hired talented individuals for a reason. Trust your team and empower them to excel in their respective roles. Delegate tasks and responsibilities according to their strengths, and encourage collaboration. By leveraging the expertise of your team, you can collectively achieve more and drive the business forward. In summary, lead with passion, embrace feedback, and empower your skilled team for a dynamic and positive work environment.

I think this article raises some really good points but it misses a big one, the best way to inspire others within your business is to develop expertise in their field and show them that you're knowledgeable in their craft. Obviously this isn't feasible with every skill but having a lot of diverse skillsets is definitely gonna help a lot when it comes to leading my example and just being an entrepreneur in general.