10 Leadership Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Your Small Business
As an entrepreneur who has just started your business, you may want to make everything perfect and push your team and business to greatness. But, it's normal to get overwhelmed with so many things happening at the same time, leading you to make mistakes that sometimes you can't avoid! However, mistakes help you learn and push for greatness. In this BrandON blog, we’ll talk about the most common mistakes that leaders make and why YOU should avoid them when starting your business!
Not Asking for help
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is not delegating business responsibilities. You are not the only human on your team, you have the support of the team to find solutions and make shit happen. Remember, your way is not the ONLY right way to do things. Delegating tasks to different humans in your team lets them get creative, productive, and empowered to complete a task. Not only will this help your team, but it will also make your business run smoothly! Take a deep breath, relax, and understand that delegation helps your business, not hurts it!
Hiring humans who don't share YOUR values
Remember, your team is what will help you take your business to success, so it's key to hire humans who share the same values as your business mission! Hiring humans without getting to know them or without seeing them perform first can lead you to hire the wrong humans, which can hurt your business in the future because they don't feel connected to it! When making an interview, share with them your passion, your business mission, and what you would expect from them. Then decide if those humans can commit to your mission!
Micromanaging
Yes, you are the business owner and you understand your business perfectly. However, that doesn't mean that you can't trust other humans to take over some areas of your business. Trust them to do a great job! Give humans the opportunity to succeed, prove themselves, and be confident in the work they are doing. If you, as their leader, can't trust them, then they will not feel empowered!
Not acknowledging your team’s work
Nothing hurts more a team than a leader who doesn't acknowledge their team's work and milestones. Every human appreciates their job being recognized and receiving positive feedback from their leaders. This inspires them to continue doing a great job! Humans are happier when they feel valued, and this helps with their productivity and strengthens the team! Being a great leader means being aware of your team, recognizing who is performing amazingly, and even rewarding them. Avoid the common mistake of ignoring your team's hard work. This can lead them to not feel they are not valued and their productivity can decrease
Not being clear with team’s role
You are the leader, and you are responsible for clearly communicating your expectations to each team member. Communication is key in every aspect of a human's role and expectations, there will be constant conflict! To make sure you have a good performance and a smooth work system, you need to have clear expectations. If you don't communicate with them, you can't be surprised when they are not doing what they are supposed to.
10 Leadership Mistakes
6. Disorganization
No one hates disorganization more than the humans in your team! Not being organized prevents the work system from running smoothly or your humans from working amazingly. It might be difficult to be organized as you start your new business but this can prevent you from being successful! Creates systems, deadlines, and a place where you can easily find what you need like documents when you need them. Not only will things keep your business organized but your team will be happy!
7. Ignoring feedback
When you are starting your business, the opinions of other humans, including your team and customers are important! You need to learn how to listen without taking it personally in order to make changes that benefit your business instead of hurting it. If you don't concentrate on the areas of opportunities, it's not going to help you in the long-term success of your business. Successful leaders listen and adapt to make changes that benefit the business.
8. Avoiding 1:1 meetings
Having a meeting with your team is important at least once a month. That is the perfect moment where you can talk about the areas of opportunity and the areas where they are doing amazingly! Great leaders set smart goals with their teams and follow up at least once a week to understand the progress in areas that need improvement. There's nothing better than working with a leader who cares for their team. Learn to implement effective communication with your team to achieve greatness!
9. Inconstancy
In order for your business to grow and run smoothly, consistency is key for success in everything you do! If as a leader you show inconsistency in your actions or communication, then your team will think that you don't care! You can hurt the trust your team has in you as a leader because they'll believe that whatever you say today will change tomorrow because of the lack of consistency. If you implement a new rule or system, stick to it until it works.Continue to do it consistently and learn from those experiences!
10. Not investing on your team
As mentioned before, there's nothing better than having your leader recognize your hard work and progress. Investing in your team will not only benefit the business but also the team environment. Help your team be successful by subscribing them to training, leadership seminars, and other programs that can help them in their leadership and of course in their working area! For example, at 787 coffee we took leaders from New york, Puerto rico and Texas to the specialty coffee association expo of 2024 so they could learn more about coffee, meet coffee experts and understand more in depth the world of coffee!
To Summarize:
Running a successful business requires patience, determination, and strong leadership. If this is your first time leading a business, you might not know what type of actions can hurt your business and team. These mistakes are common among many leaders, but strategies that can make your leadership stronger! Be responsible in your leadership, stay committed to pushing your team to greatness, and motivate them. No leader is perfect, but it's important to learn from common mistakes and identify areas of opportunity to work on. Remember, the way you lead impacts your success. Your business's future depends on your ability to lead effectively, so strive for excellence and lead with strength!
Keep pushing for GREATNESS!
Looking for more ways to enhance your business strategies, grow as aleader and personal growth, Let’s Connect.
As a dedicated coffeepreneur, business coach and speaker, I'm here to support you in unlocking your full potential and achieving your goals. Let’s make every week a step closer to your success.
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