Often in our business we operate as sole proprietors, but some of you are contemplating growth. In support of that you’ll probably add people to grow your business. You might start with a virtual assistant or other contractual arrangements, but at some point in your entrepreneurial journey, you’ll make the decision to grow. Even if you hadn’t thought of yourself as a leader before, you will then.

Effective leadership requires several important skill sets: 1) you must be a clear communicator; 2) much as you do in coaching, you must be able to set clear and measureable goals, and 3) you need to be able to describe how those goals are to be measured so that people on your team will know how to carry them out.

One of the things we did with the group in Alaska was to discover people’s “WHYs.” This helped us better understand how recent problems arose—because people didn’t understand each other’s why. It’s important to make sure individuals are in the right positions for their skill set. It’s important to understand each person’s skill set and why.

Another thing we learned is that it really helps to recognize and understand the capabilities of those working for you and apply that understanding in order to work with them in different ways. You have to change what you do to fit the needs of those who work for you. To be an effective leader, you must be flexible, adapting your style to suit the needs of your organization and those working for you. The person with the most behavioral flexibility has the most influence in the system. Hire the right people, be clear about your expectations, create systems for success and then help your employees succeed.

Leaders also have to be able to think systemically, realizing that doing this here will have an impact there. They need to recognize when something isn’t working and identify ways to fix or improve the situation.

When addressing mistakes, effective leaders make several assumptions:

1. People have the resources they need but may not be using them correctly.
2. Even though they made a mistake, they had positive intentions.
3. When they made a decision, it was the best they could do at the time.
4. If what you’ve been doing doesn’t work, you should do something else.
5. You can learn from your mistakes; they should be considered opportunities for growth.

One thing I heard ages ago and often repeat is about this: “Never fail to learn from a good mistake.” A good leader recognizes that there’s no failure, only feedback. If something doesn’t work, figure out why.

All of these skills are critical for effective leadership. If you don’t have the skills required for good leadership, or if you (or your leadership team) are lacking in specific areas, you need to acquire those skills or bring in someone who already has them.

For example, what makes our work in Alaska possible is that the company’s owner is interested in nurturing leaders from within because the organization has gotten so large. Her willingness to work with them has made it possible for us to do in-depth work. She’s really committed to growing leaders in her company, but it’s not always a smooth process. She’s creating systems of success for her leaders.

Are you ready to lead?

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I like to collect stories about belief change experiences. If you have any interesting ones, let me know or post them below so I can comment on them in subsequent articles or posts.

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P.S. Do you want to share this post? Please do. Just be sure that it remains intact and includes the following bio.

About Terry: Terry Hickey, M.S., is a Certified NLP Professional Coach, Business Trainer and Consultant, a Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the co-owner of NLP Advantage Group. Originator of the Belief Breakthrough Method™, Terry specializes in teaching coaches and entrepreneurs how to rapidly resolve limiting beliefs about wealth and success. His tips and strategies can help you launch yourself into the future you want… NOW. http://terryhickey.com/

Unless you’re living your life in a coma, you cannot avoid regret. You simply can’t have a regret-free life. The question is, which kind of regret suits you best?

There’s the kind of regret that comes from not doing something—regret from inaction, and then there’s the regret that comes from doing something and not having it work out—regret because of the consequences of your actions. Which regret is right for you? Would you rather regret what you HAVE done or what you HAVE NOT done?

The underlying criteria for your actions determine your typical regrets. If you believe that taking risks is necessary for self-growth, then you’re more likely to have regrets for consequences. If you lean towards safely and security, you’re more like to have regrets as a result of not having taken risks.

By making a choice FOR something, you are directly or indirectly choosing NOT to do something else. People want their choices to be anxiety free, and when they aren’t, they often avoid making them. When people avoid making painful decisions, it spills over into all parts of their lives. Once they finally move forward with a decision and deal with the consequences, it’s usually a lot easier than they imagined.

One of my favorite coaching challenges is to ask this: “Which anxiety or regret do you want to work on?” Putting off choosing increases the amount of anxiety we experience. Growth requires that we be able to tolerate more uncertainty. Remember that anxiety is a function of your ability to imagine a future that you don’t want. So to a large degree, anxiety is manageable; if you’re going to live in the future, at least make it a future you would enjoy being in. Imagine a future you do want.

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I like to collect stories about belief change experiences. If you have any interesting ones, let me know or post them below so I can comment on them in subsequent articles or posts.

—

P.S. Do you want to share this post? Please do. Just be sure that it remains intact and includes the following bio.

About Terry: Terry Hickey, M.S., is a Certified NLP Professional Coach, Business Trainer and Consultant, a Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the co-owner of NLP Advantage Group. Originator of the Belief Breakthrough Method™, Terry specializes in teaching coaches and entrepreneurs how to rapidly resolve limiting beliefs about wealth and success. His tips and strategies can help you launch yourself into the future you want… NOW. http://terryhickey.com/