Leadership - don't avoid doing it

Some of my business owner clients look shifty when leadership comes up in the conversation.  They don’t see themselves as leaders – even though they are.

I explain that leadership doesn’t mean they have to suddenly become Napoleon or Gandhi, but it might help them to understand what leadership looks like and do the things that leadership requires.  The quality of the leadership will to a large extent decide the success of a business.


Google returns over 244 million pages when you search for “leadership books”.  Amazon returns over 60,000 titles.  The subject has been fascinating people for thousands of years.  We all know it when we see it, and recognise when it is absent, but a practical, implementable definition remains elusive.


The development of leadership thinking and research over the last few decades can be summarised as:



  • First, people started by examining leadership traits
    • Leaders were born
    • Certain traits recurred, like intelligence, empathy, confidence
  • However, the traits used varied from leader to leader, from day to day – and possession of all of them didn’t necessarily mean someone was a good leader.  So researchers moved on to analyse leadership behaviours
    • Did good leaders tell or sell their wishes?
    • Did good leaders treat their followers like slaves or like equals?
    • Did good leaders focus on task outcomes or on developing the team and the individuals?
  • Once again, the research failed to come up with any definitive answers.  Latterly, researchers have been working on descriptions of the way effective leaders alter their behaviour in different situations

So, after millennia of trying to answer the question “How can I become a better leader” the scientifically correct but managerially useless answer is “It all depends…”.

So how should you as an SME owner develop your leadership skills?  Well, here is a simple approach:

  • Clarify how things are done by identifying and describing your key processes 
  • Delegate responsibility for each process to an employee - show you trust them
  • Coach and support them to succeed and to take more autonomy

If you’d like to learn more about how to do this them you can find details here.

Adapted from an original article on my website www.nickbettes.co.uk

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