Leadership Questions
As a Business owner or M.D. you’ve achieved some success in your business. It’s been challenging, and moving from initial growth to the plateau stage and then moving toward further growth has been scary. To grow further means risk. There is a thrill and satisfaction in challenging yourself, stretching and seeing how much you can achieve. But how do you mitigate that risk?
Knowledge, skill, talent and drive that have got you to where you are now, may not get you any further. There is possibly a missing link somewhere!
The link that progresses you to that next stage of business growth, because you’ve invested, time, energy and money into your business.
You’ve invested time into networking and building new relationships.
What is the missing link that will help you push past the plateau and continue growing at a consistent rate.
Leaders don’t often question themselves enough to enhance their value in their business. Here are 6 questions for you to consider….
My first question…..
Have you a clearly communicated Vision and Strategy for your business and your team?
Having a vision in your head means nothing. The business vision must be clearly articulated and be visible and known by all staff. Otherwise staff will expend their energies in uncoordinated directions.
How well do you staff understand your vision and? Can they see it every day, and live and breathe it? Or is it just a document attached to the wall?
Question 2…..
Are your staff clear on their Key Performance Criteria?
You should have no more than 3 Key Performance Criteria for the business that are critical to achieving your vision. This gives your staff the clarity they need to choose which KPC’s need to be done each week in order achieve their goals. It lets them know what is important, and where they need to spend most of their time.
Question 3…
As a leader where are you spending your time?
Have you ever done a time analysis on yourself to see where you spend most of your time. By doing a time analysis noting what you are working on every 30 minutes for at least a couple of weeks, helps you analyse where your time wastes are!
A great use of time also is called MBWA. ‘’Management by Walking Around. Staff love to see the boss walking the floor, interacting and talking with them. It makes them more engaged and productive. You need to be doing an MBWA at least once a week.
Question 4….
Do you have a mentor helping you?
Most leaders understand they need to mentor their staff, but fail to realise they need to be mentored as well. Being the ‘boss’ can be very lonely. Who can you talk with
to ask those burning questions that you don’t want your staff to know about. Who is detached from the outcome in your business decision-making, and will tell you the truth even though it seems harsh. You may not like what you hear, but it is valuable to know. Without knowing, you can’t grow or change.
Question 5….
Are you a role model?
You are judged by your actions more than your words. Staff know that talk is cheap. They want to see you acting in accordance with your values and the vision you have set for the business. Take a look in the mirror. That is the person to please. If you cheat this person, you may have fooled the world, but not the person in the mirror.
Question 6….
Are you being kind to yourself?
Are you ‘down’ on yourself constantly or do you understand you have strengths and weaknesses and can identify the right action to take? If you make a mistake do you beat yourself up, while taking no pleasure or reward for a job well done. You need to be kind to yourself because every day something will go wrong that you have no control over. If you beat yourself over the head every time something bad happens, you’ll end up with a very sore head and little movement forward!!
How did you rate on the 6 questions?
What will you do to change to ensure positivity replaces negativity?Leadership questions….
