Overcoming the 6 Key Challenges in Leadership

Psst!

Are you the best person to be running your business? Honestly, if you were hiring someone to run your business, would it be you? What the heck are you talking about, Marc? I am the boss! Or are you? And that's coming up next on Marc Haine Live. Welcome to this episode of Marc Haine Live. This is where small business owners and entrepreneurs pick up some core skill sets to help them work on their business, not just in their business. I am your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc Haine. And today, I want to talk to you about you as the owner and the steps you need to take to make sure you have the right person running your business. But we'll get to all that in just a moment. In the meantime, do feel free to be part of this conversation. You can go ahead and subscribe to this program. I'd love to make sure you are notified whenever I bring you some fresh content. I hope it's all fresh. And while you're at it, why don't you go ahead and leave a review about this episode? And even more importantly, why don't you share this podcast? If you know somebody who could benefit from the information that we're talking about today, maybe You could share it with them. It'll be so much more valuable when we share the information that we learned. You know, this past week I was talking to a very frustrated business owner. He has 8 employees and says that even though he hired them to take the strain off him, he seems to be working harder now than he ever has. He says that now, he feels like he is doing much more He's working longer hours and he's doing the one thing he didn't know he would have to do. And that was managing his business, which brings me to our Question of the Day. So, how do you know that you are being an effective leader? Do you wake up every day pumped up about what you get to do Today, go ahead and share your thoughts in the comment box. I think this will be a lot of fun and it'll get the conversation started. And feel free to push back as well. I love comments where people will turn around and go, Marc, I don't really agree with you on this. And it starts the conversation. I came across a quote just the other day. It said that there's no such thing as a bad idea because all idea All ideas create conversation. And I thought that was just really a really great quote. So, go ahead and share your thoughts down below. According to the Center for Creative Leadership, there are 6 challenges facing leaders today. The conversation I had this past week showed all those signs of those 6 frustrations. I realized as I was talking to him, that I've heard this story so many times before. This past fall, I took my wife's car in to be serviced. I really like local garages as opposed to going to the dealers. I have nothing against dealers. But I find that their services are overpriced and I don't know who is actually doing the work under the hood. I guess I'm just like really old school. I like to know who my mechanic is. Dealing with my local guy though, my goodness, he is so passionate about cars. It's the reason why he created his business. And a few years ago, he quit his job at a dealer because he didn't find them to be extremely ethical. He found that dealers underpaid their mechanics, overcharged the customers, and so on, all for the profit line. But I will tell you that there are 3 subtle signs that you're going to be paying way too much for car repairs. One is the service guy behind the desk has an admin assistant. An admin assistant! You know it's going to be expensive. How is he going to pay for it? And behind that service guy on the desk, on the wall right behind him is his 3rd award for being Salesman of the Year. Salesman of the Year! My goodness! Shouldn't that go to the people actually selling the cars? How does a— How does the service guy get sales of the year? Because of his upsells. And of course, the 3rd subtle sign that you might be overpaying for your car is when you walk in before they even talk to you about servicing your car, they want to do a credit check. Obviously, it's all in jest. Needless to say though, I do like my local guy. But here's the thing. As much as I trust him to do the work on my car, Many times, he doesn't answer his phone. He's good at calling me to give me updates and so on. But if I have to call him back, I always have to leave him a message. It takes him a little bit longer to do my car because he is a small shop. And people have figured out that he is really magical when it comes to repairing cars. So, people have figured it out. He's that good. But he's not perfect. When I picked up my car, he was behind the desk doing his invoicing. He processed my paperwork. I asked him, why are you sitting behind the desk doing all this work? I said, why don't you hire somebody to do it? He says, I used to have 5 mechanics and I used to have someone doing all the paperwork, he said. But I spent all my time managing and I never got to work on cars. And it really resonated. This conversation really resonated with me because I've heard this exact I've heard the same thing before from a restaurant owner. Not about working on cars but from cooking. He was a chef and he loved to cook. As business owners, there are reasons why we got into our business. A travel agent loves to put packages together and they love doing stuff for people to make sure that people have really great holidays. A chef loves to cook. A florist loves to do Most of us got into our business because we were really great at what we love to do. It's all the other stuff that we have to do that drives us absolutely bonkers. Part of getting over this dilemma though is understanding that there are 6 leadership challenges that plague us. And we will get to that right after this.

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Welcome back! Our conversation today is around how you as a business owner can get back to do what you love to do while running an effective business. As I mentioned, I came across an article written by the Centre for Creative Leadership. And they say that there are 6 areas where leaders are challenged. The very first one is how to drive effectiveness. As business owners and managers, this is the challenge of developing our relevant skills. How do we know that we are doing what we need to be doing when we need to be doing it? I don't know about you but I do know tons and tons of leaders who have issues with time management, with goal setting, with strategic thinking. These are all skills that we need to work on. And I know you're probably watching this saying, but Marc, I don't have 2 seconds to rub together. How can I find time to do that? See, I told you time management. It's a necessary skill. The challenge with this of course is that we are so busy. As I do in my opening every day, I talk about Being too busy to work on your business. We're so busy working in our business. So, part of the challenge, part of the recognition of understanding where we are the most effective is, are you most effective doing the $15 or $18 an hour job? Or are you more effective doing the $30, $40, $50 an hour job? Right? Number 2 is inspiring others. First and foremost, you are a leader. Whether or not you wanted to be a leader when you started your business, you are a leader. And if you have people in your business, your job is to absorb their stress, not be the creation of the stress. It is your job to inspire and motivate your team. Your job to make sure that your people are happy, challenged, and working smart themselves. But all too often, again, as leaders, as business owners, we are So busy doing the work that we forget that we have to be the inspiration behind our employees. I've talked to a lot of micromanagers who say, yes, yes, I inspire my employees all the time. Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that micromanaging is the inspiration. More of an inspiration would be somebody turning around and saying, Let's brainstorm a solution to this problem and let's let you run with it. One of the very first things I do in most kitchens when I was a chef, when I was cooking, was I would go to the junior chefs, to the sous chefs, or I would even go to the cooks, the line cooks. And I say, hey, why don't you guys come up with ideas to create the lunch specials? And it is absolutely amazing how pumped These people get when they're given a little bit of latitude to be creative. Same thing with front desk clerks. Going up to front desk clerks in a hotel if you're a front desk manager and empowering your employees to help you problem solve some core skill sets that are required in order to make sure that your guests are happy. Turning to them and saying, here's a problem that I recognize. And instead of being the one to turn around to the front desk clerks and say, from now on, I want you to do this, this, this, this, and have your little checklist checking off and so on. Maybe you go to them and say, hey, our objective is to do this. How do you think you can help make that happen? What are some effective ways we can do this? And by having them come up, you now inspire them to become moral leaders. If nothing else, they become moral leaders because they are coming up with ideas and sharing ideas. to help you do your job more effectively. And of course, that brings us to number 3, which is developing employees. I hate to say it. But as a leader, this is probably one of your most important jobs. One of the best ways to fulfill the criteria for number 2 to make sure that your employees are happy, challenged, and productive is to make sure that they are trained. Then, have some sort of program to coach them and to mentor them. It doesn't count anymore. This idea of just doing this annual evaluation. I know that if you've watched this podcast before, you've heard me talk about it. This is a real bee in my bonnet. Having somebody work for you for a whole year before you turn around to them and say, hey, here's your evaluation form. Go home, fill it out, Come back and see me and then we'll sit down and discuss how you think you rate compared to how I think you rate. How demeaning is that? As opposed to a regular coaching program where you sit down with your employees once a week or once every couple of weeks, where you create this regular schedule where you're going to check in with them. You'll be able to assign tasks. You'll be able to assign projects. And you'll be able to follow up and create the support and accountability that is So drastically missing in today's workplace. But you could do that. And again, you're probably watching this going, Marc, I have 85 employees. I can't do it all by myself. And you're right. Maybe as the owner, you need to be doing this with your managers. Maybe the managers need to be doing this with their supervisors. Maybe the supervisors need to be doing it with their team. When it comes from the top down, it is so much easier to see things happen and create those levels of accountability. Because then, it also gives you the ability to train your managers and your supervisors on how best to coach the people in their charge, the people that they get to work with every single day. And that comes to number 4, which is this idea of leading your team. Up until now, we've really been talking about the individual, about your role with other individuals, your role as an individual. But what about the team? There are huge challenges with organizations and their team building, team development, and team management. In a past episode, I talked about ways to pinpot— pinpot— to spot challenges between employees who might be feuding. In that episode, I talked about this idea of having to To go a little bit deeper. It's not just about getting them to work effectively. But it's getting them to buy in, to get them— get a deep commitment from them. This is how we instill pride in what we do. We work with them to get them into a position where they can work together. And we are an amplifier to their skills. We're an amplifier for them to work together as part of the cog in the wheel that gets the whole wheel turning. And as long as we can create culture environments where people are having fun, people are engaged, and people can talk openly, then we're just win-win-win straight across the board. I'm hoping that this is making sense and providing some clarity for you. Again, please feel free to drop a comment in the comment box. I do see that I do have one comment. It's nice to see. But go ahead and drop comments in the comment box below, or leave a review about this episode. Am I full of beans or am I on the right track? We will get to challenge number 5 and 6 Right after this.

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Welcome back! We are talking about the 6 challenges leaders have that need to be conquered if you want to move your business forward. Thus far, we've talked about honing effectiveness, inspiring others, developing employees, and leading teams. Number 5 is probably one of the most challenging for business owners and entrepreneurs. And that's guiding change. You're probably again looking at me and saying, change, change! All I want is a little consistency in my day. Every day change is the vicious dominatrix in my business. Sorry, is that too dramatic? Too dramatic? Roll it back a little bit?

Okay.

There's a huge difference between change and crisis. Yes, every single day as a leader, we have to deal with crisis. But change is actually the strategic evolution of your business. Everything changes. It includes knowing how to mitigate consequences, overcome resistance to strategic initiatives, and your employees' and customers' reaction to change. We've all met people who it's like, why are you messing up with my system? We've been doing like this for 5 years. Why are you changing things? Right? And you have to then go ahead and explain why things change. I mean, if you don't believe that change is really tough, I would go to a diner and ask one of the seniors what would happen if the restaurant took liver and onions off the menu.

Holy!

Get out the noose! They don't like change. And we know this. We know that people don't like change. But We know that death, taxes, and change are certainty in our lives. So, we must get better at guiding change. We must get better at being able to figure out what the objections to any kind of change is going to be because your business is going to evolve. And I mean, this last year, COVID-19. If this hasn't been the big flag waving in the air saying, You have to change your business model. You have to change how you act. You have to change how you care about your people and so on. Nothing's going to do it for you. And lastly, number 6, and that is managing stakeholders. Your business, no matter how small, has a ton of stakeholders. Now, some people say, Marc, what are stakeholders? Well, stakeholders is everybody. It's your employees. It's your suppliers. It's your landlord. It's your Your tenant if you're a landlord yourself. It is everybody who has anything. Your investors. It's anybody who has an interest in your business. It's important because I know like we've been talking about employees right now. We've mentioned the customers. But the subdivision of the word stakeholders is all those people who help support you And I have to mention, it also includes your community and even includes the government. As a business owner and leader, you have to constantly manage your image and your relationships. You have to always be dealing with the politics within these relationships and all the personal agendas. It's up to you to gain the buy-in and support. And likewise, to support and nurture those relationships. You can't just say, oh, I don't want to talk to the government, or I don't want to talk to my supplier and walk away. I can imagine that this is probably a little bit overwhelming. I'm giving you like a fire hose of information right now. But I just think that understanding what these common challenges are can help you face them better. If you understand and go, yes, I can see that. I could see that mitigating change or managing change effectively is a challenge for me. Then, you now are able to then take the steps to fix that. But I have to tell you, the fact that these are common leadership issues means that you are not alone. And even more importantly, these challenges can be overcome. And now that we've actually physically put a name to these challenges, you're well on your way to overcoming them so it doesn't feel so daunting. One of the things that I've done is to help people, to help you go through this is I've created The Audacious Leaders Summit. The link is going to be down below in the show notes. The Audacious Leaders Summit is where you can get concrete strategies to overcome each one of these leadership challenges. I don't mean to make this a sales pitch. But I feel the frustration of business owners all over. And so, what I've done is I've rallied people from all like subject matter experts from all over the world. People who've actually been on this podcast To come out and present. I do know that as a business owner, a lot of times it does feel like we are pushing mountains. But if COVID has done anything at all, it has taught us that we are resilient. And as an audacious leader, you are still here. You are still learning. You are still looking for resources to help you move forward and out of crisis. So, over those 2 days and a half, it's going to be June 11th, 12th, and 13th. During the Audacious Leaders Summit, I'm bringing together subject matter experts. As I mentioned, some of them have appeared on this podcast and they're from all over the world. And I handpicked them because their insights and their strategies can help you overcome these challenges. As an Audacious VIP, you will have an opportunity to network with other audacious leaders and to participate in virtual meet and greets with our subject matter experts. And have full access to all the sessions, all the recordings so you can go back and review the learning. Even review it with the people in your charge, your managers, your supervisors. The Audacious Leader Summit is centered on helping you overcome the 6 Universal Leadership Challenges. As we saw, there are 6 Universal Leadership Challenges. And I just want to blow through them just really quickly. So, if you're taking notes, you can play this back and forth. But there are 6 universal leadership challenges. Number 1, how to drive effectiveness. Number 2, how to motivate and inspire other people. Number 3, developing your employees. Number 4, developing your team. Number 5, guiding and managing change. And of course, number 6 is managing your stakeholders. The upcoming Audacious Leaders Summit will give you the tools and strategies to help you overcome these strategies, as does this podcast. This podcast was developed specifically for those leaders who have never been trained in leadership. And so, I encourage you to go through the library of the 52 other episodes because I've been doing this for a year now. And it's done with the singular purpose of being able to move you from, I didn't know something about this. But now, I know I don't know it. So now, I can uncover more resources to learn, to become more effective. But if you can't wait, on our very next episode next week, we will dig deep into the 4 key strategies you need to address these challenges and get back to what you actually love doing in your business. Ah, thank you so much! Somebody gave me a virtual hug. Ah, thank you! But why don't you let me know if this was of value to you? As always, my offer stands. If you would like 30 minutes of my time to brainstorm your business with you and your team, please feel free to book yourself on my online calendar down below. I'm willing to give you a 30-minute discovery call, a 30-minute free discovery call where we can dig deep into whatever your angst is. I do encourage you to do this with you and your team. Just being the single owner, just saying, I have all these problems. One of the very first questions I will ask you is, where's your team? Where are they? So, as a manager, you bring your leaders on, your managers on the call and we have open and honest discussions. And then, we can brainstorm all sorts of stuff. The link will be down below. It's the one that's marked meetme.so/MarcHaine. As always, I am at your service. And if you haven't done so yet, why don't you go ahead and subscribe to this feed? That'll give you the first dibs when I bring you the content to help you work on your business, Not just in your business because I know how frustrated it can feel. My name is Marc Haine. I hope you stay safe, stay healthy, and dare to be the exception.