Few people in your life can be completely truthful and honest. Your friend, sibling or even a business partner may fill this tall order. However, without access to one of them, you may need to explore your leadership and vision for the future in other ways. For instance, you’ve built a successful business. Growth often walked with you as revenue carried your business to new heights. But, leadership growth has slowed, and it has left you asking questions and looking for answers.
You may think maintaining the same strategy will eventually pay off. However, it hasn’t, and it likely will not. You may think customers will come to you because “they know who you are” and your product or service is perfect. With a more crowded competitive set, customers have moved on to other options, and no product is perfect, including yours. Ego has clouded your leadership and resulted in decline. Find a mirror and let’s have a conversation.
Steps to Improving Leadership Growth
Let’s start by cultivating some humility and self-awareness. Your business didn’t get to this point without an openness to new thinking and diverse means of achievement. Many leaders forget the tools that made them and built their businesses. Build a new governance foundation using blocks of a fresh, contemporary perspective.
- Set aside preconceived notions: Just because it was true five years ago does not make it true today. Look for inspiration from other leaders in the commercial AV industry and beyond. Search for leaders who don’t share your view.
- Embrace a growth mindset: Recognize that you don’t know everything and there’s always room for improvement. Be open to learning from everyone, regardless of their position or experience level. Talk with frontline customer service reps, design techs and installers.
- Practice active listening: Truly hear and consider diverse perspectives from employees, customers and advisors. Make sure you understand the core message and the underlying reasoning before responding.
- Seek objective feedback: Actively request honest feedback about your behavior, leadership style and decision-making from trusted colleagues, mentors, or even a coach. Make it safe for others to offer constructive criticism by acknowledging their input and acting on it where appropriate.
- Develop your emotional intelligence: Learn to recognize and manage your own emotions and understand the impact your actions have on others. Don’t hide behind a suit or traditional professionalism. Act with new dynamism and newfound energy.
Create an Action Plan
With a fresh perspective, let’s create an action plan to drive leadership growth. Shifting focus is difficult — often, most difficult — for founders, owners and senior leaders. Ego can be a source of energy or your anchor that hinders your leadership from success. Your anchor may be the reason business is not advancing. As difficult as it may seem, you can change. You can turn around your business. Start with some action items.
- Prioritize company goals over personal recognition: Your business is your legacy. Make decisions based on what’s best for the business and its long-term vision, rather than seeking personal validations or accolades. Stop Googling yourself. Stop watching your videos. Ultimately, your new business perspective will payoff by leaving a vital, healthy organization and a true legacy of success.
- Delegate effectively: Trust your team and empower them by delegating strategy, tasks and responsibilities. This not only frees up your time but also fosters a sense of ownership and accountability within the team.
- Embrace mistakes as learning opportunities: Accept that your leadership has not recently grown the business. Don’t let the fear of being wrong or making errors paralyze you. Accept that mistakes are inevitable and use them as valuable lessons for future growth. Strategic planning is your friend here. It helps you change direction based on honest assessment of results.
How to Strengthen Your Network
So, we have retooled your perspective and repositioned your leadership to better foster growth. Organizational health can ensure that your team understands, shares your vision and is engaged to make it come to fruition. Fostering a positive environment does not involve looking for others to blame; rather, it involves building a team vibe focused on growth and success.
- Build a diverse and supportive network: Surround yourself with advisors, mentors and peers who challenge your thinking and offer different perspectives. Watch for those enabling decline by enabling failed strategies and policies.
- Create rewards for diverse thinking: Build a diverse team with honest rewards and performance recognition. Build a performance culture and avoid a preference culture.
- Promote a culture of open communication and collaboration: Create a work environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas, offering feedback and working together toward common goals. Your thoughtful, data-driven response will fuel performance more than monetary rewards.
- Take responsibility for your actions: Acknowledge your role in both successes and failures. This builds trust and sets a positive example for your team. Don’t just listen to supportive ideas and data points.
With these shifts in your leadership, the mirror is becoming a friend, again. It’s helping you assess each decision with the wisdom of experience, the energy of a new CEO and governance that drives positive outcomes.
Watch for the next article in the Business Builder for Integrator series, which provides advice to blend short-term product strategy with long-term brand strategy.
Ron Pence is an accomplished business executive with CI industry experience.
