Just like anyone else, a business executive can sometimes need help making the right decisions or improving their work performance. We all have weaknesses that hold us back.
Luckily, there are many business executives and leadership styles. Improving yourself as a business executive is about understanding who you are and where you fit in the world of leadership. It is also about developing the skills needed to be your best.
Know Your Leadership Style
This is an excellent starting point if you don’t know what kind of leader you are. Explore leadership styles, from authoritarian to servant, laissez-faire, visionary, pacesetting, transactional, coaching, democratic, transformational, bureaucratic, directing, charismatic, or situational.
Convey Your Leadership Style
Communicate your leadership to your team. This may involve adapting areas of your style to suit your team, which requires flexibility. Your leadership style will establish expectations for team members regarding work habits and job standards.
Engage in Executive Development
Sign up for executive development. Invest in the time to read, research, and improve your business skills. Avoid weaknesses. As a business executive, you want a well-rounded skillset that will make you a stronger performer for your company.
Find a Coach or Mentor
As a business executive, you cannot seek guidance from your peers, company employees, or individuals with conflicts of interest. Find a coach or mentor from outside your company to seek career advice. This coach or mentor can help you make decisions and unlock your potential.
Master Your Communication Skills
Talk to your team. Be receptive to suggestions on how management can improve and support its team. Listening to what team members say can give you many hints about becoming a business executive.
Study Your Market
Study your industry or market and adapt to changing conditions, needs, and behaviours. Be the most well-educated business executive in your company and in the customer environment you serve. Stay attuned to market shifts and seize emerging opportunities ahead of the competition.
Manage Individuals, Not Results
Many executives are driven by results. However, leadership is more about managing people. Empathize with your team. Learn about them and what they need to feel empowered and grow as leaders. Treat your team with dignity and fairness, and results will follow.
Put the Spotlight on Others
Recognize good work. Let others know you appreciate them privately and publicly. When you share the spotlight, you demonstrate that others’ work matters. This keeps team members motivated to perform, knowing they’re valued.
Accept Mistakes and Challenges
Don’t hide mistakes or brush them under the rug. Admit fault and acknowledge it. If there are challenges, present or past, let your team know and communicate how you will overcome them. No one wants to work for a boss without awareness and entitlement.
Realize When Your Ideas Are Wrong
Ideas and strategies eventually need updating. The strategy you employ may also need to be different. Do not hesitate to realize it, and do not hold on to any particular idea for too long. As a business executive, the best thing you can do is learn and grow. This means evolving ideas and strategies.
Assist When Needed
Don’t let someone else flounder. If you can help them, ask if they need assistance and jump in. Let your team know you’re there for them and not afraid of getting dirty. A hands-on business executive will be much more attractive than one who does not care.
Turn Your Team Members into Leaders
You can be a successful business executive by developing your team members into leaders. Empower your team. Challenge the people who work for you. Motivate them and make them feel more fulfilled by their work. Work as a unit rather than a hierarchy.
Redefine Recruitment
Those you hire should also possess a leadership mindset. A company made up of followers fails. As a business executive, if you are intimidated by hiring leaders, you must overcome this fear. This is because leadership at the individual and group levels will only help your company.
Ethics of Acting in Fairness
Prioritize fairness. Business executives may not know how fair they are, but team members do. Evaluate yourself and consider the following questions:
- Do you consider every aspect and acknowledge every viewpoint when an issue arises?
- Are you honest and transparent in how you interact and make decisions?
- Are you adhering to the guidelines that your workplace provides in your decision-making?
- Do you avoid favouritism or favour certain team members over others?