How Your Leadership Style Makes or Breaks Your Business

Running a successful business lies in how your employees support your vision, but is your leadership style retaining or chasing them away?

We all want to live successful lives. But how many of us are prepared to put in the hard work to enjoy the lifestyle we envision? While not everyone is meant to start a business, it’s important to put your best foot forward in whatever career or business field you find yourself in. As a business person do you create room for employees to be happy and grow under your leadership style? A 2013 survey conducted by international staffing agency, Kelly Services, found that nearly half of the world’s employees are unhappy in their jobs. This then begs the question do organisations really care about the well-being and health of their staff or are employees merely seen as money making machines for the company? While it might be beyond your control how ethical your employees are there are measures you can put in place to ensure employee retention and satisfaction. One of the best investments you have to capitalise on are your best employees. How employees often perform is mostly dependent on how management leads them. There is a difference between being firm and being a bully and if you find your employees putting in sick leave forms regularly I suggest you panic because not only does it cost you a lot of money but does affect the economy as well. I have personally seen it all when it comes to the bosses I had. Most of them were plain toxic for my well-being and growth. I knew I wouldn’t thrive under their leadership style and it came to a point where I would go to work just for the salary.

I don’t like feeling like I am not an asset to a company. I feel it’s not fair not contributing to a company’s mission and vision statement. But I also think it’s a two-way street. If some bosses really cared about the people who work for them it would show in the employees’ performance at work. I believe there are ways, beyond monetary remuneration you can use, as a leader to attract and retain good employees. It does have everything to do with your leadership style. This is how great leaders invest in their employees:

• They show care and compliment great work performance.
• They include employees in some business decisions and welcome suggestions to grow the company.
• They make their objectives and expectations to their employees very clear, but they are not crappy about it.
• They are transparent and have great communication skills
• They lead by example and don’t expect less than the potential they see in their employees

How has your boss’ leadership style affected your work performance? We’d love to hear from your comments below