LEAD WELL FOR BETTER BUSINESS

Are you concerned with leading a team? Or are you dealing with a group, business enterprise or office. Then you need to certainly move ahead with reading this article! It's certainly meant for your benefit. Being a leader includes managing people in such a manner as to influence them in the direction of attaining the favored results. It is not a piece of cake to run a business successfully in today's era of competitive market. So, it becomes imperative to lead your workforce as well as organize your own work parallely in an organized manner. This article shall try to give the reader a clear vision for aiming towards being a great leader in order to make his workforce more efficient and get the best results out of them.

• ANALYZE

It will be beneficial if you are a good analyzer.  It is required to analyze the strengths of the subordinates and try to bring out the core potential in them. They should find out what motivates their subordinates and accordingly apply the motivation for the betterment of the organization. The role of good leadership can be firmly understood by the following quote of Lao Tzu —“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves."

• CREATE MORE LEADERS

The following famous quote by Tom Peters is the next most important thing a great leader does, viz.,—"Leaders Don't Create Followers, They Create More." 

      Great leaders always try to bring out the best in their subordinates. They help them in self-improvement. Great leaders always give the best advice regarding polishing their teammates' responsibility skills. 'ResponsibilitySkills' are an imperative of today's business organizations in order to run them successfully. The teammates should be responsible for their own actions. They should understand the consequences of their own actions and act with care and sense of duty towards the organization. They should not only take credit for successful outcomes but also own up to their mistakes. It is a very important soft-skill that must be developed within the team members. 

• REVIEW

To be a great leader one must definitely ensure that his subordinates are doing their work upto the mark. For this he needs to review their work. He needs to check whether they are following his instructions while working to leave no stone unturned for the business/organization to succeed. 

• BE ACCESSIBLE

The leader must be accessible to his subordinates. He must be open to questions and ready to give any advice sought by them. Giving required feedback whenever necessary helps the leader to build team spirit. Additionally, this gives recognition to the work done by the team. It in fact really helps in boosting the confidence of the subordinates and gives them motivation to do better.

• INSPIRE 

Will people take a leader seriously if he is not showing integrity in relation to his own duties towards his organization/ enterprise? Certainly No. Hence, it is very important for a leader in order to be termed as 'Great Leader' to follow some basic principles. He must be passionate towards his work and must show honesty and integrity towards the organization. He must have a trustworthy quality as a human. This would set up a great example before his subordinates. In this way a leader becomes an inspiration or a role model for them. The following quote by John C. Maxwell fully applies to this aspect, viz.—

“Inspiring others to do better work is the accomplishment of a leader.”

• MOTIVATE

A workplace has too much pressure. There are deadlines to meet, scheduled works to perform, etc. The subordinates in such a situation might get demotivated or frustrated. It is not a good approach to show authority by putting subordinates down. Putting them down, yelling at them and being disrespectful would put too much pressure on them and it will negatively affect their work performance. Encouragement is like fuel in the workplace. It is the fuel of motivation to keep the work going. A great leader never forgets to do simple acts of encouragement in order to motivate his subordinates. He will find ways to encourage them in the workplace. The following are the ways in which a great leader can do so.

           1. Reward

 A great leader rewards his subordinates when they showcase excellent performance in their work. In this way he keeps them motivated to continue their good work.

2. Celebrate together

A great leader should enjoy the success of his subordinates. It creates a sense of belonging to a team or group and brings good positivity in the working environment.

3. Constructive Criticism (Feedback Burger Model)

 In a demanding situation like the workplace, the subordinates are under a constant pressure to perform their tasks perfectly leading to performance anxiety. They keep looking for approval on their work  and feel valued when their work is recognized. Therefore, to build confidence among the subordinates it is required to give positive feedback. But, at the same time it is also necessary to highlight their weaknesses in a subtle manner without discouraging them.

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 In such cases a system of 'Feedback Burger' should be applied. It's a representation of the feedback system which closely relates to a burger. Where two tasty outer burger buns represent the positive feedback and the filling in between represents constructive criticism. This sort of creates a balance by leaving no feeling of resentment towards the leader and motivation to fulfill the gaps or drawbacks presented to the subordinates.

• DELEGATE

It is not possible for a leader to single handedly manage every affairs of the organization. If he tries to do so he will mess up everything for himself as well as the organization. 

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Such situations call for the process of delegation, i.e. entrusting some part of the workload to the subordinates. A great leader knows the benefits of doing this . This works well for both the leader and the subordinates in the following manner.

1. Firstly, it lessens the workload of the leader.

2. Secondly, it empowers the subordinates and makes them feel more responsible towards the organization.

3. It prepares them or increases their experience related to important works.

      Also, it is very important for a great leader to put the subordinates in the front line. This would empower them to make decisions without depending upon their seniors or leaders to have a say in every matter. For example, the task of dealing with the customer services of a company. If supposedly, a subordinate is not given power with regard to any matter in relation to customer service. In that case a customer has to wait for a long time to look for the supervisor or manager to resolve his/her problem. Hence, unnecessarily a lot of time is wasted.  This in turn badly affects the reputation of the company. Empowering subordinates by giving them the opportunity to be able to resolve a customer's concern makes them confident as well as experienced. Moreover, it also helps in smooth functioning of the company by spreading responsibilities rather than converging them in one person. This way it helps in building an environment of trust.

      There are various mechanisms for making the work of a leader easier. One example of that is by the help of the technology termed —'Task Mining'.

     Task mining  technology seeks to improve business processes by enabling companies to understand their workflow. This is done by collecting various data like user interaction data, ways of handling processes, identifying mistakes while performing tasks and discovering tasks which can be automated. 

      A  task mining tool makes it easier for workflow optimization for better running of a business or company. The tool can help in time tracking, reduction of time and administrative burdens, insights into workflows, tracking of progress, etc.

      In a competitive market, the goal of a great leader is to keep up with the changing pace of time. So, he must not hesitate in taking advantage of the useful technologies available in current time. By making productive use of technologies and by following the aspects of a good leader one can definitely achieve the desired goals of their dream enterprise.