Off an on for, the next few weeks I will be discussing Leadership. 

Leadership starts from within. The building blocks of good leadership include:

Accountability,

Responsibility,

Empowerment,

Vision,

Delegation,

Ethics,

Tolerance,

Credibility,

Communication…

Among other areas.

 

Let’s start with Accountability. It is very easy to hold others to a high level of accountability, but it’s extremely difficult to hold yourself to that same level. It’s very easy to rationalize or justify your own actions, whether they are overt or covert (sins of commission and omission), while accepting no such thing from others. This is intellectually disingenuous at best and disastrous for your business at its worst

 

(Although out of the Leadership realm, for sole proprietors it’s doubly hard, as everything is hidden from public view… until it shows up in the bottom and then it’s too late. This is especially true of things we hate to do.)

 

A perfect example of this was when I starting my business and cold-calling was a critical action item for me – I hate cold calling – and I would do anything (like rearrange my sock drawer) to fill the time I had identified for cold-calling. At the end of the month I would justify to myself that I was busy doing more critical actions, like rearranging my sock drawer. While at the same time holding my vendors and associates to intolerable levels of accountability.

 

While this was not fatal to my business, I will never know the actual impact on my business’ growth, profitability and cash flow.

 

The long and the short of it is hold no one more accountable than you hold yourself, easier said than done, but nonetheless important as to establishing credibility and therefore a good leadership style.