Simple Concepts That Improve Business Performance

Common Sense Leadership

Business owners, CEOs, and managers spend enormous amounts of money each year on courses, seminars, books, coaches to help develop and refine good leadership skills. It’s no wonder that in 2019, leadership development was a booming $366 billion industry. Many leaders believe that by making significant investments in leadership development, they will be able to unlock skills and traits that inspire employee engagement.

The truth is that the concepts associated with strong leadership are actually pretty simple, and the advice found in most leadership development resources boils down to two innate qualities (regardless of what is going on in the world around us): common sense and good character. By taking a simple, common sense approach to leadership and demonstrating full commitment to a company’s goals, employees, and customers, leaders can find success in motivating employees and increasing productivity.

The following 4 common sense strategies can be used by all managers to propel a business towards success:

1. Creating Clarity
For employees to drive strong business performance, it’s important they understand what is expected from them at all times. As an effective leader, you should be able to clearly and succinctly communicate your expectations. If you can clearly articulate a specific goal or mission, your employees will be better suited to independently make decisions that align their day to day work with that particular objective.

Employees that are not clear on expectations will quickly become frustrated and unmotivated. Let’s face it, nothing is less inspiring than a vague manager who constantly wavers on goals and plans. In order to successfully set expectations for others, it’s important to be clear on the expectations yourself. Before communicating, take the time needed to establish a long term plan for your organization and the steps needed to reach it. Only then will you be capable of clearly setting expectations for the employees that you depend on to carry out that plan.

2. Mobilizing People
Motivation comes from within and is not something that can simply be forced upon employees. By using common sense tactics and displaying good character, leaders can generate employee motivation and mobilize their workforce. Reinforcing the value employees bring to the organization and the meaningfulness of their work is one simple way to achieve this. Leaders can also call on employees to rise up and meet challenges, and publicly recognize effort and achievements when warranted. By establishing positive relationships and treating people with compassion, kindness, and respect, leaders will find it much easier to mobilize people and generate strong business performance.

3. Building a Culture of Accountability
Building a culture of accountability is a top down exercise that begins with the CEO and is reinforced by senior leaders and managers across the organization. It’s essential that all company leaders demonstrate accountable behaviors. This includes following through on commitments, displaying integrity at all times, and being quick to admit mistakes. When employees consistently see managers demonstrate accountability, they are quick to adopt similar behaviors in their own day to day work. If every manger leads by example, accountability will quickly become the norm across the company.

Accountability should also factor into the recruiting process. In order to build an accountable company culture, managers should hire employees that demonstrate a consistent track record of delivering results and owning mistakes.

4. Moving Toward Results
Motivating people is the only one part of the formula required to achieve strong business performance. Leaders must be simultaneously focused on objectives and results as well. To move a company towards results, leaders must spend a significant amount of time thinking ahead, planning for the future, and mapping out the organizational impacts that occur from every decision that they make. Your business is dependent on your ability to think strategically and make decisions that are in the best interest of your company, employees, and customers.

In order to move your business towards results, a leader must be capable of defining what success looks like and demonstrating that the successful outcome is aligned with the company’s values and mission. However, this process should never happen in a vacuum. A good leader should be surrounded by capable employees who can contribute to the decision-making process, so leaders must be open to feedback and capable of weighing multiple perspectives when making difficult decisions.

Some people say leadership is a lot like dieting: the habits that generate success sound easy on the surface, but can be very difficult in practice. But by remembering that common sense and good character are the foundation for leadership success, CEOs and senior leaders can be better positioned to make right decisions that drive a company towards a path of sustained growth and success.