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6 Leadership Styles That Can Influence Your Business – Which One are You?

The end goal of any for-profit business is to earn a profit. For a charitable organization, it might be to serve a certain number of people. For a political party, it could be to secure a certain number of votes from a specific demographic. The thing that is common for every organization is the need to achieve one, or a few, defined goals/results.

There are countless ways in which that goal can be achieved, and just as many countless variables that have a direct impact on how efficiently an organization is able to achieve those goals. A lot of business owners will stress over their marketing efforts, their outreach programs, or even the skill level of the employees that they hire, but they seldom notice the impact of the managers, team leaders, directors, and other staff in leadership roles. In the world of business, it is the management positions that get the highest salary. Not because they lift the heaviest weights or work the longest hours, but because their work has an impact on the output of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of employees that report to them.

The Importance Of Leadership

If you are leading a team of managerial staff in your business, it is important that you look at how good these individuals are, not in their technical roles, but in their role as a leader. If you are the leader in your organization, you might have great skills in your specific field, but if you don’t have the right leadership qualities, your entire team will pay the price. There comes a point in every entrepreneur’s journey where they have to start hiring professionals. These are individuals who are better at the same things that the founder used to do in the early days of the organization, but even today, they take directions from that same founder. This is the reality of every kind of organization. The person at the very top of the hierarchy isn’t the smartest, sharpest, or most knowledgeable person in the organization, but he or she is the best leader.

The way the leader handles their own work and the way in which they interact with the rest of the team sets the foundation for the entire business. Time and time again you will see examples of companies that went from being small-time businesses to being billion-dollar companies just because they finally got a leader who had the vision to scale operations to that level. Many times you will see examples of entire countries that lost everything they had just because a corrupt leader had the opportunity to head that country for just a few years.

Generally, the work a person does is compensated for according to the number of hours that they put in or the amount of calculable work that they do. For a leader, it is all about the quality of work rather than the quantity of work. With a high-quality leader, the work quality and quantity of the rest of the team will rise. This is why leadership is the most important consideration for any kind of organization. Here is a look at some of the most common styles of leadership that is used today along with their pros and cons.

1. Laissez-faire Leadership

‘Laissez-faire’ is a French term that literally translates to ‘let them do’. As you might think, this is a managerial approach that gives employees freedom, authority, and the space to make their own decisions. It is an approach to leadership in which the leader plays a very passive, background role and lets the employees manage their tasks on their own accord. In some cases, this can be the best way to boost productivity because you let employees explore new techniques and discover what works best for them. In other cases, it can cost the business quite a bit of money. This is an approach that is more common in small business organizations and in organizations where the role of the employees is hard to pin down to a certain role.

Usually, in smaller organizations, a small number of people are doing a lot of different tasks. Oftentimes, one task will be done by different people depending on who is available. In such organizations, there is often a defined goal that needs to be achieved but there is no set process for how that goal will be achieved.

Pros :

It has a high employee retention rate
Gives employees to work and learn at their own pace
Gives employees a lot of creative freedom
Reduces the workload for the manager

Cons:

Employees who lack discipline can easily get sidetracked and tasks can be delayed significantly
Processes are inefficient because everyone is doing things at their own pace and the business suffers
There is no homogeneity in processes because everyone does things in their own way. This can make things rather expensive in terms of both money and time.

2. Democratic Leadership

Just like a democratic political system, democratic leadership aims to take on board the input of all the different stakeholders in a decision before finalizing a strategy. Again, this is an approach that is more commonly found in businesses that give their employees a bit more room and are open to hearing new ideas. In a highly structured environment such as the army or in businesses that have very strictly defined processes and rigid systems, there is no space for a democratic system. However, certain things within the democratic system can actually cause inefficiency and slow things down. For instance, if the majority votes for an option that might not be the most efficient, the management is obliged to follow the solution that got the most votes, and consequently they would be giving up the most efficient solution simply because not enough people voted for it.

Pros:

It helps to make employees feel included
Leaders and management are exposed to fresh and new ideas
It gives a good representation of the thoughts, ideas, and feelings of everyone in the ecosystem

Cons:

It is not always the most efficient when it comes to selecting the right method
It can be time-consuming to get everyone’s opinion
It can be hard to manage this kind of leadership style is very large organizations
It also requires people within the ecosystem to manage their relationships and accept each other’s opinions.

3. Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is a slightly less known form of leadership but it is a concept that has been around for well over a century. The idea behind servant leadership is primarily to create a solid relationship with the team that you are managing. When people are appointed as directors or CEOs or in any other major leadership position, they get a lot of authority through that position. On the contrary, there are some people who have power because they have solid relationships with other members of the organization, even if they don’t have formal authority over these people. The servant-leader strives to have authority rather than power. The Definitive Guide to Servant Leadership goes into detail about how exactly leaders are able to develop this authority. However, the important point is that when it comes to altering the behavior and thoughts of a person, or a team, a person who has power is often far more effective than a person who just has authority.

Pros:

Helps leaders to create a long-lasting impact by altering the thoughts of their followers at a deeper level
It allows leaders to build a very high level of trust with their team and pursue tasks that would otherwise be far too risky
It can change people in ways that monetary benefits or fringe benefits cannot change them

Cons:

It takes time to develop this kind of authority over people
This is more of a trait that is inherent in certain people rather than a skill that leaders can learn
It is difficult to apply this leadership to a large group of people because there are only so many people that a person can interact with at a personal level

4. Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is all about pushing boundaries and exploring new territories. Leaders who take this approach want their employees to get out of their comfort zone and try things that will benefit them at an individual level and eventually also benefit the business. People who have developed businesses and have really taken big strides in entrepreneurship have done so using this strategy. At the end of the day, the business is a team effort, and when everyone is constantly growing and evolving the business also continues to grow and expand.

Pros:

Promotes employee growth and helps a business get a lot more done with the same group of people
It is highly motivating for employees and it is great for up-skilling the workforce
Helps to create a culture of hard work and consistent growth while also developing healthy competition between employees

Cons:

It can be very taxing for employees that aren’t able to keep up with the rate of growth
Can be challenging to implement in environments where there is a significant difference in communication, style, education, or vision between the leader and employees
Employees can start cutting corners just because they are in a rush to reach a new milestone, and they don’t want to develop a bad image of being someone who drags the entire team down

5. Coach-style leadership

This is a slightly more refined version of the transformational leader. The coach-style leader will also want employee development; they will want their team members to grow as individuals, but the way they tackle this problem will be much slower, and the aim will be more long-term. Rather than rushing them to get things done, they will create small milestones and also give them the resources and the support they need to reach that next goal. This is a technique that is used by big businesses to help scale their operations. However, it is still a fantastic technique that smaller businesses can employ in their own capacity. This is great for a leader who doesn’t mind investing in his or her employees and is committed to sticking to them in the long run.

Pros:

Helps develop employee skills which consequently means the leader has very strong relationships with the team
It can generate very high retention rates because the employees feel a deep sense of belonging to the company
Employees are willing to try much harder to achieve their goals because they subconsciously want to impress their coach

Cons:

It can be quite taxing for the business owner because it requires a lot of work, a lot of hours, and requires them to manage a lot of personal relationships
It is a significant investment of time so when an employee packs up and leaves it can be quite a loss for the company
This is something that can take quite some time. Some employees learn faster than others so leaders have to manage things at an individual level

6. Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership is the most common kind of leadership that we see today. Employees are simply awarded for the work they do and nothing more. They are not required to be part of

the ecosystem or do anything that is beyond their scope of work. For certain situations, this can be a highly efficient way of management but in other cases, it can be quite counterproductive. Since it is a straightforward style of management that doesn’t need very deep or complicated relationships between the leader and the employees, it is easy for businesses to use this style.

Pros:

It is very easy to implement for a business and very easy to understand for employees
It helps a business to better manage and forecast their finances as they are only compensating a worker for the work they do. There is no concept of fringe benefits. Everything is clearly structured according to money
For employees that are getting the right compensation and the work is suited to their needs, this can help create long term relationships

Cons:

Most employees will feel quite alienated in such an environment. They are simply putting in the hours to get a paycheck at the end of the month

The quality of work can be low because workers feel disconnected from what they are doing and they are just going through the motions

Employees are very sensitive to price changes and employee retention can be very low

In reality, the best leadership style is one that addresses the needs of the businesses and is able to fulfill the requirements of the employees and the leaders at that particular time. For most businesses, different types of leadership styles will be needed at different times. However, more than just the style that is employed, it is also important for a business leader to understand how efficiently they are implementing a certain strategy. Some people will naturally be better at implementing a certain style, so leaders should focus on implementing styles that they can use best.

A Deep Dive Into Digital Nomad Life: 6 Unspoken Challenges of Digital Nomadism

The life of a digital nomad is pure dream job material for anyone with the travel bug. You can control your income while traveling to see the world’s greatest wonders.

The lifestyle indeed has its perks. But, like any lifestyle, it also has downsides that many aren’t quite as quick to acknowledge. If you’re hovering on the edge of a lifelong road trip, here are six challenges you may not have heard about working as you travel.

Challenge #1: Keeping a steady flow of income

As a digital nomad, you’re typically working as a freelancer. If you haven’t yet developed a consistent base of clients who keep you working inside ongoing projects, you might find it challenging to find new work often enough. Before you set out on your journey, you should ensure you either have a solid client base or a reliable remote job.

Challenge #2: Staying connected to your home base

Living as a digital nomad takes you away from everything that feels familiar. You’ll live far away from your home country and your friends or family members. You can read the news and watch television from your home country to stay connected, but the homesickness is often greater than people expect. That’s why you should also strive to stay connected to friends and family by using tools such as Skype, Zoom, or WhatsApp.

If you’re a fan of the old-fashioned snail mail, you don’t have to give up on your postcard hobby just because you’ll be far from home. You can purchase a digital mailbox from a reliable provider like iPostal1 and keep continuous tabs on essential deliveries. These digital mailboxes use a smartphone app to let you know when anything is in your box and send pictures to your liking.

Challenge #3: Accessing quality Wi-Fi connections

Different locations sometimes make it challenging to find a quality Wi-Fi connection to buckle down with and do your work. It’s frustrating to waste precious work time searching for a decent connection strong enough for remote work purposes. Stay productive by researching quality Wi-Fi connections before arriving at each location, or invest in a portable Wi-Fi hotspot.

Challenge #4: Managing paperwork in different countries

The rules and regulations in different countries can make it a headache and a half to manage banking, taxes, and other paperwork. For example, you might have questions about opening a bank account as a foreigner. Do the proper research, so you never run into the red tape clothesline while you’re traveling.

Challenge #5: Maintaining work/life balance

When you work as a digital nomad, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of traveling and forget about taking care of yourself. Your health matters. Make sure to eat right and exercise regularly. Sleep at least six hours a night so that your brain can keep working productively during the day.

If you find yourself feeling burned out from working and traveling too much, take a break. Consider returning home to your native country for an extended period. Use that time to enjoy some rest and relaxation in familiar surroundings before heading out on another adventure.

Challenge #6: Travel disruptions

Natural disasters or political unrest can sometimes disrupt your travel plans. The best way to avoid dealing with unnecessary worry is by keeping informed about potential problems before heading out on each trip.

Wrap up

The digital nomad life has never been closer within your reach. If you’ve researched the challenges and you’re not scared away from the high-flying travel life, then digital nomadism might be the work-life balance for you.

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Top 8 Tips to Unlock Full Potential of Your Business

Running a successful enterprise is not a matter of chance. Sure, luck can help give you a boost, while an unlucky turn of events might slightly slow you down but there’s a pretty good reason why some businesses make it and others don’t. It all comes down to the reliability and sustainability of an enterprise. It’s also about creating a business that can thrive in the long run by making systemic changes that will make it more efficient. With all of this in mind, here are the top eight tips to help unlock the full potential of your enterprise.

1. Hire the right people

The first thing you need to understand is that you can’t do it all on your own. This is why it’s such a high priority that you actually make a great team. This consists of two things. First, you need to hire the right people. Second, you need to recognize employee types that you don’t want anywhere near your enterprise. Just because someone has an impressive CV, this doesn’t mean that they’re a great cultural fit for your organization. Also, even if someone delivers decent personal results, this doesn’t mean that they don’t have a negative effect on the rest of your team. Emotional vampires and backstabbers are not necessarily underachievers.

2. Delegate tasks

Another thing you need to know is how to delegate tasks in a fair and efficient way. You see, some tasks are simpler than others. Other tasks might be boring, repetitive or even numbing, which is why some of your employees prefer to avoid them. Then again, some tasks provide unique learning experiences, which is why they’re so popular with your staff. Some of your employees are better at certain tasks, so putting them in charge of those might result in a better outcome. At the very least, it would get things done quicker, which is why it’s a better use of your resources. Learning how to properly delegate tasks will take a strategy, as well as an in-depth understanding of your business.

3. Outsource

Tasks like HR, customer support and IT support are essential for the prosperity of your business but they take a specialist’s approach and they don’t have to be handled in-house. Focusing on core tasks and outsourcing everything else is the most efficient way to improve the productivity of your business. First of all, the specialist agencies that you decide to outsource to are bound to do a better job than your new, in-house team. Second, by outsourcing, you’re simplifying the infrastructure of your business, which means that you can focus on those tasks that actually generate profit.

4. Invest in education

By educating your employees, you’re actually investing in the overall productivity of your team. In other words, spending money in order to send people on specialist courses is actually standing to either make or save money in the future. Think about it, paying in order to train an employee as a specialist means that you don’t have to bring in an outside specialist. This would be a pretty expensive hiring process and a great end result is never guaranteed. To make the long story short, this is an investment and like any other investment, it has an ROI that you can count on.

5. Groom for leadership

Preparing some of your employees in order to become leaders with the help of a mentoring system or specialized executive coaching is definitely the right way to go. First of all, it future-proofs your enterprise by ensuring that all of its future leaders (or at least most of them) come from the ranks. Second, it provides you with an opportunity to reward some of your employees for their loyalty to the company, as well as their outstanding service. In other words, it also serves as a great motivator. As such, it boosts your company’s hiring appeal.

6. Have 1-on-1 conversations with your employees

In order to learn what it is that your employees really want from your business, you need to learn how to talk to them. The easiest way to start is through a 1-on-1 approach. Some people dream of advancing in your company. Others want to learn new skills in order to make a more impressive CV and gain some work experience. Sure, while the latter sound like a waste of your time, the truth is that the majority of people aren’t there forever. How much effort they make while they’re with you is what matters the most. If you manage to figure out what they want, you’ll get a chance to create a win-win scenario.

7. Learn how to say no

The next thing you should keep in mind is that learning how to say no to a client might just be one of the most important things in the business world. Accepting a job that you can’t complete will make you overwork your team, lower the quality of your overall work, miss a deadline and ruin your reputation. Sure, saying no to a client never feels good and a lot of people believe that it will earn them some bad karma. They believe that saying no to this one client will be a memory that will haunt them if their workload dries up later on. The truth is that this is never the case and you need to learn how to be more confident in your enterprise.

8. Manage your cash flow better

Spending cash on unnecessary purchases, tying up your capital by buying one year’s worth of supplies when you can get by with three months’ worth are common beginner’s mistakes. You see, cash and money are not always the same type of resources. Account receivables are real money and real income but you can’t use them to compensate your supplier, pay salaries to your employees or pay the lease for your office. Sure, you can sell some of these invoices but this is not necessarily a great idea, seeing as how you stand to lose a bit of your profit in the process. So, being frugal with your cash reserves is the way to go.

In the end, the majority of these tips are there to ensure that your business provides consistent results over the course of months and years. The main thing about unlocking the full potential of your business is consistency. This way, your successes will never depend on luck and it will be much easier for you to project your future growth.

Eric Dalius offers various lifelines to jumpstart a failing enterprise

The majority of the people dread the thought of failure. However, it is crucial to understand that mistakes are sometimes unavoidable when you are running a business. Your main concern should be to look for a strategy for coming out of the problem. Sometimes the reason for your losses can be a lack of performance or a low sales strategy. It is essential to find out the cause and work to resolve the issue accordingly. In the competitive world of business, one needs to strive hard to achieve success. Therefore, you must incorporate a few measures to bring back your failing business.

Eric Dalius suggests a few strategies that you can incorporate to bring your business back to life

Some strategies that can bring back a failed business:

Make a careful analysis of your position

When you visit a doctor, he first analyzes your condition by making a diagnosis. Similarly, when you see that your business is declining, it is time for you to pause and evaluate your firm’s status. Make a list of things that are not right. Only then will you be able to make amends.

Reconsider your policies

After you have carefully reviewed your company’s situation, it is time to rethink and re-evaluate all the policies that did not work. Instead of giving up, you can always renew your thoughts and restart in a better way. The key to a prosperous business is the determination to keep striving at the time of failure. Sometimes changing the techniques also does not help to breathe new life into your business. In such cases, you may consider pivoting as an option, says Eric Dalius.

Pay attention to your personnel

The most crucial aspect of your enterprise is the performance of your employees. When the firm is running under losses, it is vital to shift your focus towards your personnel. Sometimes, lack of interest and motivation results in poor performance of the workmen. The proprietor must carefully analyze the personnel and find out what is causing the poor performance. You may also have to shuffle the employees and assign them different tasks.

Unhand your nervousness and self-esteem

One of the most crucial things to do for reviving a failing business is to admit your mistakes. Believing in your preconceived notions on work patterns is the cause of an unexpected pitfall. Instead of blaming your shortfalls on others, it is essential for business owners to be humble and strive to re-boost their firm through different techniques. Many business owners hesitate to assign tasks to the employees and feel that they can take up the entire burden. They take pride in their capabilities, thereby resulting in a huge downfall. Protecting your self-esteem and being apprehensive of other’s work will fail your organization. Hence, proprietors must assign tasks to their employees without dreading failure.

Try not to lose the grip on your passion

It is the spirit of the business owners that gave birth to the business. Thus, you must use the same devotion towards the organization to act as fuel for reigniting the dying spark.

An enterprise is successful only through the enthusiasm and dedication of the owner. For surviving any pitfall, it is necessary to reconsider and rebuild your ways.