Struggling in CEO Role
07 Apr
Confidence Culture, Entrepreneurship, Grow Your Business, Grow Your Expertise

Good Entrepreneur but a Bad CEO? Here are 5 Reasons You’re Struggling to Step into the CEO Role

As an entrepreneur, you’re creative; you’re innovative, you’re passionate. You take risks, chances, and you’re not afraid to fail. Your social skills are probably better than most other people you know.

But, a great entrepreneur doesn’t automatically equal a successful CEO. 

5 Reasons You’re Struggling as the CEO

Are you a great idea person but unsure about your role as the CEO? Here are five reasons you might find yourself struggling to step into a leadership position.

You Want to Be Overly Involved

Sounds counterintuitive, right? As an entrepreneur, it’s understandable that you want immersion in all of your business’s goings. Still, too much involvement prevents you from fully thriving in your zone of genius and stifles your team.

A good CEO knows how to let their team handle their tasks without micromanaging. Yes, you need to be kept in the know, keep track of your company’s successes and setbacks, and coach your team to the win, but a good CEO knows when — and how — to delegate.

You Don’t Know How to Hire the Right People.

You’ve got the entrepreneurial spirit. You are likely energized by those who are enthusiastic about your business as you are. But, enthusiasm doesn’t necessarily mean a qualified hire.

The most successful CEOs approach hiring their team like playing a chess game: strategically evaluating how each piece could lead to a win.

You Have a 10 Year Plan

Hear this one out. 

It’s crucial to have goals in mind and success on the horizon, but a good CEO knows that being rigidly dedicated to a plan leads to failure. You don’t know what your industry, the market, and your own life will hold in the next ten years.

A CEO destined for success knows how to plan for the future but is adept enough at business to pivot and prevail, no matter what comes.

Your Social Skills Are Fantastic, But Not Your Communication Skills

Entrepreneurs are a creative, intelligent, and inventive bunch, and people are drawn to this type of charisma. But good social skills don’t mean being a great communicator. 

Creative people often spend so much time thinking, creating and being inside their minds that the communication of their ideas and how they want them executed can be lost in translation. The strongest CEOs know when it’s time to hire a business consultant to develop the skills needed to communicate effectively and clearly with their teams.

You Have the Vision, But Not the Strategy

Goals are where you want to be, but the strategy is how you get there. 

You know that being a business owner involves taking some risks, — and maybe breaking some rules — along the way. But, if you don’t have a laser-focused strategy, you’re going to be stuck in the fog somewhere between success and stagnation.

With clarity, intention, and purpose, an entrepreneur can transform into a good CEO. Sometimes, it just takes help from a third-party perspective.

You Can Learn What it Takes to Succeed as a CEO

Coach Allison Todd is the warrior spirit on the front lines with you and the voice that tells you that you can do it. With clarity, a water-tight team, and a dynamic strategy, you can gain the skills and confidence you need to elevate your entrepreneurship into full-on CEO.

scaling your business
18 Jan
Grow Your Expertise, Team Management

How to Be an Excellent Leader of an Excellent Team

There are numerous aspects to building and developing a team. However, the success or failure of your team is heavily reliant on your leadership skills. It is not enough to get the most skilled people in various fields. Without proper leadership and human resource management skills, you might end up wasting your team’s talent.

The team should be greater than the sum of all its members. There are many benefits in synergy, division of labor, specialization, and good old teamwork. However, these benefits would be unattainable if you are a terrible leader.

As an entrepreneur leading your team is part of the job; However, the fact that you are the de facto manager and boss doesn’t mean you should take the job for granted. As a leader, you must make serious efforts to manage the talents and skills of every member of your team.

How to be an excellent leader

How to Be an Excellent Leader of an Excellent Team

Here are a few tips on how to be a good team leader.

1.     Be a good listener

A true leader is someone that listens to more and talks less. He is garnering information from the great minds he has gathered around himself. Therefore a good leader makes informed decisions at all times. He isn’t harmful or argumentative but positive and patient. Teammates find it easy to make their opinions and suggestions known to a good leader. A good leader understands the value and importance of every member of the team. You don’t know everything, therefore do not hesitate to learn from the views and perspectives of your team.

2. Generals aren’t the best soldiers, but the best leaders

A good leader surrounds himself with people smarter and more skilled. A general doesn’t recruit weak soldiers to stroke his ego. A good leader employs talented people who would perform their given roles excellently. It is best to hire people who are better at doing one aspect of your business than every other team member. Synergy is achieved when you employ a wide range of talents that fit and work well together.

3. Be a source of inspiration

Another tip on being a good leader is to be a source of inspiration. Sometimes it is not all about money and benefits. As a team leader, you must paint a vivid picture of your business’s future and how your employees fit in. The best employees are those who have seen their goals and objectives and are focused on achieving it. Inspired employees are the best and most driven teammates.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a team must be made up of the right parts that fit together and an excellent leader. The combination of skill, synergy, and leadership is what would make your team productive and your business successful.

19 Oct
Productivity, Team Management

Transforming Feelings Into Energy: Emotional Intelligence & Leadership

Emotions are like energy. They can’t be destroyed only transformed. Attempts at killing an emotion or burying a strong feeling always lead to disaster.

If you are dissatisfied with a member of your team’s productivity or actions. The best course of action is to have a private discussion with him or her.

Sometimes we avoid the difficult task of saying the painful truths to our workers to maintain peace. However, this is bound to cause huge problems.

When you are angered or saddened by someone’s actions, your emotions are bound to leak out no matter how much you try to hide it.

A dull feeling of anger or disappointment can grow and fester into animosity and acrimony until it explodes into a flaming disaster.

How to Deal with emotions

The best way to deal with emotions in your business is to identify them, address them, and transform them accordingly. With a high level of emotional intelligence, you would find yourself doing this with ease and flawlessly.

Done effectively, feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment would be addressed and transformed into useful energy and vibes that would push your team and company forward.

A large part of this team-wise involves conflict resolution and keeping the team in sync and harmony.

However, it is essential to note that before you can lead your team emotionally. You must be able to control your feelings intelligently. As a leader, you must be a force of direction and order, not an agent of further chaos.

You must be competent at processing and handling your personal feelings as an individual. Before processing and fixing the emotional problems of your team.

This is most important when you are a party in the conflict. It would require even greater will and intelligence to keep your emotions in check as you play the role of mediator and second party simultaneously.

Conclusion

Your level of emotional intelligence determines how much you can control and process your emotional state. This reflects on your team and determines the general vibe and energy flowing within the workspace. As a leader you aren’t just leading your team’s productivity you are also leading the emotional ambiance of your team.

If you need more help in growing your business, check out this amazing guide:

The Confidence to Be the Brand

Transforming Feelings Into Energy: Emotional Intelligence & Leadership


types of perfect leadership styles
08 Mar
Grow Your Business, Grow Your Expertise, Productivity

The Perfect Leader

About the perfect leader, there is no perfect leader. Perfect meaning without fault of defect as per Merriam and Webster. Leadership is not about perfection.  It’s about the entire experience including communication, results, relationships and more.  Even still, there are certain instances when your own actions get in your way. As such, its important to be aware of the barriers to your almost perfect leadership.  These are the things weighing down you and your success.

What are your growth barriers and how can we fix them? Before moving your business forward, take an audit of your leadership style and its effectiveness. Identify outdated business processes, things that no longer align, inconsistent efforts, work processes full of waste…. anything that defeats creativity and pauses productivity.

Barriers to Leadership Growth

The EGO

Being the leader in charge does not mean you are the only one with the capacity to lead. It is your job to enable your team to work to the best of their capabilities with confidence they will achieve results. Make your leadership transferable and repeatable. At best, let it be modeled by everyone in the company to help nurture a culture of accountability.  It is not about you but rather the effect you have on others.  Do they model your methods and/or leadership? Do they work hard at developing their own leadership style?

Change-phobic.

When an aversion to change shows up in leadership it can be a growth barrier.  This type of leader hates changes even if it means more sound results. However, an almost perfect leader requires constant change. Today’s businesses are caught up in a highly dynamic digital structure brought by technology and the Internet. Having an open mindset will allow a high degree of creativity and technological advance to sustain your business.

Fixed Methodology.

The idea of sameness is, indeed, effective as it upholds certain company standards and policies. However, it curtails innovation and flexibility. It allows no room for mistakes and often, puts a lot of creative thinkers in a tightly locked box. Innovation and creativity is the essence of great leadership. To be most effective, it’s essential to consistently discover ways to improve your business practices. The more your process evolves with the changing time, the more productive your results.

Risk Averse.

Many leaders delve into cost-cutting and risk management leading to opportunities lost. Instead of concentrating on the “risks” and “costs”, it is more important to shift concentration on how much ROI. Don’t get me wrong, you can’t spend without caution.  But your focus should be on what you will accomplish with said dollars you spend. This gives more leeway to stretch your team capabilities.

So, which habit do you continue to manifest today? Share your thoughts with me by writing to [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you.