When you’re running your own business. Just getting your business off the ground can be challenge enough. While you’re skilled at what you do, you very quickly learn that to succeed as an entrepreneur you’re going to need to learn new skills on the job, and fast.

One area where you might previously have lacked experience is in the HR function of your business. It’s not just a matter of hiring and firing people, now you have to develop your leadership skills alongside making sure all the paperwork is in place, through your h1b visa lawyer.

In this blog we take a look at leadership and how to get the best out of your team when you’re new to the role of a leader.

Be Yourself

Putting on an act and assuming the role of leader is going to wear pretty thin very quickly, both for you and for your team.

You might not feel you have developed leadership qualities but you won’t invent them by being someone else.

Instead, take a look at the skills you do have, perhaps you’re funny and put people at ease or maybe you have strong strategic capabilities and your team knows they can always trust your judgement.

Whatever skills you have, start there and learn as you go. Remember that real leadership stems from the example you set your team and not from trying to take a dictatorial role.

Treat Them as Your Best Asset

Because, after all, that’s exactly what they are. That doesn’t mean you need to wrap them up in cotton wool but instead make sure that you give them all the tools they need and the right environment to get the job done to the best of their abilities.

Show how much you respect their home life by setting the example and leaving at a consistently reasonable time each day.

Sure there may be times when you need people to stay later to get something done but make that very much the exception and not the norm. Don’t expect your staff to have to work harder than you do.

You might also want to consider offering a flexible working arrangement where you allow your team work from home days, on either a permanent or flexible basis. This goes a long way in allowing your team to take control of the pattern of their daily working life.

It also goes a long way in inspiring loyalty and hard work to your business, with plenty of studies pointing to the fact workers offered flexible working conditions work harder and are more loyal to the business that offers them that opportunity.

Train Up

Some bosses are scared to offer their staff training that might lead them to either be more qualified than they are or might give them the opportunity to find a promotion to another company. The fact is that better qualified staff are great for business. They are more confident and feel more able to carry out their jobs and your customers know they’re dealing with highly skilled professionals.

Make offers of training a regular part of the appraisal process and set aside budget for your staff’s training needs.

Learn Don’t Punish

Everyone makes mistakes, even you, and there are times when your team members are going to get things wrong. A bad boss is going to punish that team or individual, perhaps by insisting they stay late over the course of a week to sort it out, or by giving them the silent treatment. 

In the long run, this is a tactic that simply doesn’t work. Back your team, even when they do make mistakes. Talk to customers directly and take the responsibility. A team who is too afraid to own up to mistakes may try to hide them causing greater problems later down the line.

Address the problem, find a solution and move on. If the human error is something that gets repeated look to where the problem lies, a lack of training perhaps or a mis-communication.

Take practical steps to find the answer rather than going down the road to a disciplinary in the first instance.

You need to be able to trust your team to reach your specific business goals but they, in turn, need to trust you. Trust you to support them, trust you to train them and to help find solutions when problems occur.

You might not feel you were born to be a leader but this is one role you can learn on the job.

© New To HR