Tough economic times test business leadership skills

Editor’s note: Michelle Stockman works with Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp. to promote entrepreneurship development around the state. Stockman earned a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University-Chicago in communications and fine arts, and earned a master’s in entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University. Her thoughts on business success appear each week on The City Wire.

In recent conversations that have been spurred by various sources, the topic of leadership seems to leak out. Leadership comes from world leaders to social media mavens; politicians to business leaders; and local heroes to household heroes. Leadership has many forms, many faces and many outlets.

In our current recession, business leaders are being tested and vetted for the survival of the fittest. While there are many leadership and management books to help you refine your leadership style, there is no one fix for one person on what type of leader he/she would like or need to be or become.

We’ve all experienced the myriad of managers through our career experiences. Dilbert and other comics make millions off pointing out the various frustrations people have in working with differing leadership styles that may or may not fit your personality. From micro-manager, militant boss, passive manager and the disorganized leader to the know-it all boss, non-communicative manager and workaholic leader; leaders are as different as they are people.

Despite what type of leader you are or wish to be, there are some fundamental issues in the work place that the business leader needs to be aware of when considering their leadership style. Such issues include:

• Creating a healthy work environment amongst all the employees. This includes creating an environment that limits or does not support workplace gossip, encourages communication or open dialog at all levels and limits workplace negativity.

• Not showing favor to specific employees. Let’s face it, you will have one or two favorite employees, but be conscious about encouraging everyone. Showing your allegiance to your favorites will begin putting up barriers with the other employees, which will result in creating a negative environment.

• Be clear about the goals that need to be achieved, deadlines, problems and your expectations for the team as well as employee. Once you have communicated with the employee, give him/her room to do their work. It’s okay to ask for progress reports or have an open door for their questions, but you don’t need to control their every move (if you do, there is another problem to address).

• Understand that employees will bring their personal lives with them to work. Emotions can’t be turned off at the doorway, so work with your employees through difficult times. It is unrealistic to assume that their productivity will be 100% everyday. However, if an employee has a “crisis” everyday, you have another problem to address.

Today’s leaders need to harness and leverage the talents on the team. Learning what your staff’s talents and passions are will give you a roadmap on who is the best for a given job. Don’t limit a task to the person who has the appropriate title to get the work done. Utilize the talents of who would be the best fit for the job.

Stockman can be reached at [email protected]