People Management Skills
People skills are essential for business owners. In business you have customers, you have suppliers and as you grow you will probably need additional support; whether that is freelancers or employees.
Interpersonal Skills
People skills are often referred to as interpersonal skills or soft skills. They are important for building positive relationships and collaborative teamwork. They are also essential for effective leadership and include communication, delegation and motivation.
Business Communication
Communication is much more about listening than talking. I believe you should use your ears and mouth in the proportion to the number you have, or in other words listen twice as much as you talk. A lot of communication is non verbal and it is important to be aware of this.
Preparedness
Preparation is key to any type of communication, whether it's daily conversations with your team or a big presentation to a client. Remember how important first impressions are and think about how you are viewed by others. A big smile goes a long way.
If you are feeling stressed before a meeting with a client or a team member, make sure you use some relaxation techniques. I remember being delayed on a tube and running late for an important client meeting - my heart was going at a million miles an hour, my hands were sweating. Sound familiar? Yoga briefing got me through.
Improve Listening Skills
As I have said, listening is more important than talking and this often means being comfortable with silence. Give the other person some time to come up with their own ideas but ensure you maintain eye contact and give encouragement by smiling and gestures. Then make sure you show enthusiasm for their ideas.
Effective Delegation
This is not just important when you start employing people, it is relevant when working with a supplier such as a web design agency or any kind of freelance work that you may outsource.
What is delegation?
Delegation is the act of entrusting tasks and authority to others to accomplish specific objectives; fostering productivity, skill development and empowerment within an organisation. It reduces your workload, it develops skills and increases motivation within your team.
Why is delegation important?
There are many reasons why delegation is so important. The effect of poor delegation is very destructive and one of the main reasons along with running out of cash that most small businesses fail. When done properly delegation will free up your time so you can concentrate on the things that only you can do which are related to the more strategic side of the business and the areas that are within your zone of genius; that you love doing.
We have probably all been micromanaged at some point in our career. I know I have, and it is incredibly frustrating; leading in my case to moving on pretty quickly. The issue is often down to a lack of trust, and the unwillingness for any mistakes to be made. However we all make mistakes and they are the greatest source of learning. By not taking any risks and maintaining tight authoritarian control, productivity will be limited, your team will be unwilling to make decisions for themselves, fearing that any failure will be criticised. This will of course lead to poor motivation and will stifle innovation and initiative.
But most importantly you will never be able to grow your business as you simply won't have the time or the team that you need to do so.
Motivation
Motivation is essential for all business owners; and that includes ensuring you remain motivated and then to understand how you motivate others who are essential to your business growth
Self Motivation
Motivation is so important when running a business. It all starts with your own motivation. Make sure you really understand yourself first. Running a business is tough and you will need to be mentally strong, able to handle tough decisions and remain resilient. Knowing your why is key as well as rewarding yourself for all the wins on your journey; however small. We are much harder on ourselves than we would ever be on the people we employ so build a habit of tapping into what keeps you motivated.
Everyone is different including you, especially you because as the owner of your own business you will have a very different approach to its success than anyone else. You will have invested heavily in it both financially and emotionally and these are extremely high motivators. Yet on the flip side you are likely to have challenges to overcome and problems to solve which can have a negative effect on your motivation.
Motivating you team
When building a team, motivation becomes even more important as it leads to positive engagement and productivity. Engaged employees are happy and want to get on with their job while disengaged employees are demotivated and undermine the efforts of their colleagues. Yet the average level of employee engagement worldwide is just 22%
I have learned a lot about motivating people over the years, having been put in supervisory roles from an early age; with no training whatsoever. I made a lot of mistakes, the main one being the assumption that everyone was motivated the same way as me. I only learnt about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs years later and realised that in my early days of management in hospitality, my team were really only interested in getting the money and reaching the end of their day as soon as possible so they could get to the pub!
Eventually, after many years of trial and error I get a job at a great company who invested in leadership training. I learned a lot, but I also realised that I had got quite a lot right. However leadership skills are ongoing. As a leader of your own business, getting the best from your team is essential and your skills can always be improved upon.
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