On a bumpy road that doesn’t afford a smooth passage, your journey can be onerous and even fraught with danger. The only factor that can make your journey safe is a good driver. Without a careful person behind the wheel, your travel tale can be more than uncertain. But with a capable driver, there is a high chance that you reach your destination safe and sound.
Your business is akin to this bumpy road, and the leader equates a good driver. If there is good leadership at the helm, businesses stand a better chance of being steered clear of dicey paths. There are multiple factors that contribute to the success though. However, capable leadership plays a pivotal role.
Here is a look at 6 ways leadership impacts business success:
- Sets the tone of matters
No pack is complete without a leader at its center. Without a leader, a team is disoriented because there is no one to mark and monitor essential matters. But what makes a leader so special is the unique flair of leading that is not demonstrated by everybody.
Even though a pack is nothing without a leader yet, the group members don’t appreciate instructions. In such a case, a leader sets the pace of matters by leading by example, which attracts followers.
This helps to set the business on track. It aligns with what Albert Schweitzer advised, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing.” Leading by example is essential. Yet a study showed that only 26% employees agreed that managers embodied the same values that they expected from them.
- Defines the goal
Leadership prevents your employees from running amok by directing them toward a well-defined goal. In fact, the ability to set and achieve goals is considered a master skill of victory.
Great leaders also empower their employees in the right proportion. This is key to ensuring that the S.M.A.R.T goals set by the leader can be achieved. This can be done by the correct balance between flexibility and responsibility afforded to the employees. The Netflix culture deck is an innovative example in this regard.
The style embraced by a good leader helps him achieve goals with minimum hurdles in the way. A Harvard Business Study revealed that people who set clear goals are 10 times more likely to be successful. Despite this, only 36% of organizations exhibit a standard approach to setting goals.
- Enhances employee input
As a rule of thumb, the better the input, the productive the output. Businesses run on this mantra too, and it is not just the capital investment that guarantees good out-turn. Rather employee input makes for a crucial investment. An extraordinary leader proves his worth to the business here.
An exceptional leader is geared toward encouraging the growth of employees. He instills teamwork and fosters it with motivation, recognition, feedback, tokens of appreciation and more. Strong leadership also makes employees feel valued. An engaged workforce, in turn, reaps benefits for the company such as 20% boost in sales and 10% swell in customer ratings.
There are lots of living examples of leaders who put their employees first. A case in point is Howard Schultz, the leading light of Starbucks with his exceptional employee treatment. The year, 1997 saw the killing of 3 company employees in a robbery at the Washington D.C. stores. Without further ado, Schultz flew to Washington and spent a week’s time with his employees.
- Promotes a company culture
Company culture is not just the latest buzzword but the ticket to success. It holds business identity, productivity, and employee retention in its grip along with attracting fresh talent. Good management serves as a catalyst in fostering a good company culture.
A good leader sets the core values of the business and ensures that the employees orbit around it. His behavior reflects the fundamental values and models them so that he can set an example worth following.
Culture is, in fact, the very reason you get to see Zappos making it to the headlines now and then. Resultantly, the company has a low employee turnover rate that stands at 13% only. A quick study of brand’s profile reveals good leadership as the strong element of the brand’s outstanding culture and success.
- Communicates effectively
Just recently when Toyota announced the recall of 2.3 million vehicles, customers went crackers. There were lawsuits and complains buzzing around like a swarm of bees that had lost its queen. The natural solution to tackle such defamation was a skilled PR team.
But that is not the solution that the extraordinary leadership at Toyota opted for. Jim Lentz, Toyota CEO chose to offer a live conversation at Digg, a harshly critical social news site. At the Digg Dialogg, Jim adopted transparency and answered tons of unfiltered customer questions. Shortly after this openness on the part of Toyota, in YouGov’s survey, Toyota stood second to Honda.
The key takeaway here is that leadership took to be more communicative of the setback faced by the company. This expresses the fundamental role that a leader plays in becoming the voice that a business needs for success.
- Solve problems creatively
Extraordinary leaders are known to double the profits. As a matter of fact, good management is the answer to business failure. All this can’t be remotely possible without a leader quickly recovering the business from setbacks.
A magic charm employed by charismatic leadership is creativity. Great leaders string together decision making and problem-solving with creativity. They have a penchant for listening to their employees’ ideas too. Richard Branson, the man behind the Virgin Group advises, “As a leader, you should always be listening. Be visible, note down what you hear and you’ll be surprised how much you learn.”
Creativity also boosts revenue growth. In a survey, 58% of the respondents testified that when creativity was encouraged, their revenues exceeded by 10% from the previous year. The same survey also confirmed that the outnumbering ratio between creative and non-creative companies stood at 1.5 to 1 in market share leadership.
