This article is the fourth in a series covering the essential elements of a successful business. The element discussed in this article is leadership.

Leadership in business can be viewed as consisting of 5 components. These components are; application of knowledge and experience, business consistency, relationships, courage, and decision making.

1. How Well Knowledge And Experience Is Applied

I disagree with the statement that knowledge is power. A much healthier viewpoint is that knowledge and experience become power once they are effectively applied. You can be the most knowledgeable and experienced business person on the planet but if all you do is sit at home watching television then all that knowledge and experience won’t make you a cent.

It is the duty of a leader to ensure that, at every level of the business, appropriate levels of knowledge and experience are present and effectively and consistently applied.

2. Consistency

Most human beings love to stay in their comfort zone and the best way to ensure this is by creating a consistent environment for that person. In business, consistency needs to be applied policy at all levels. This includes every interaction your business has with its customers, staff, management and suppliers.

Once you achieve consistency then you can steer that consistency toward more efficient, effective, win-win relationships.

3. Win-Win Relationships With Owners, Managers, Staff, Clients & Suppliers

Any time two people interact you have a relationship. The quality of that relationship is a major influencing factor on the quantity and quality of future interactions.

These relationships become motivating factors that can greatly influence your level of business profit (or loss).

When you boil motivation down to its essence you discover that people are primarily motivated by their own self interest, particularly in regard to the amount of pleasure they can receive and the degree of pain they can avoid. Business owners, managers, staff, clients, and suppliers are all motivated by their own particular self interests, pleasures and fear of pain.

If you can create ways of profiting from building relationships that help each of these human elements meet their own motivating desires then you have a formula for massive business success.

4. Courage To Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway

We have already looked at the importance of helping your staff, clients and suppliers stay within their particular comfort zones. However this does not apply to the leader. The leader of a successful business must be willing to stretch his or her own comfort zone in order to take the business to greater and greater heights. This requires courage.

There is no courage without fear. If you are not experiencing fear from time to time then you are not pushing yourself far enough out of your comfort zone. Taking your business to greater and greater successes requires periodic stretching of the comfort zone followed by a consolidation period where your comfort zone catches up to your new limits. Once you are comfortable it is the signal to stretch again.

5. Ability To Make Hard Decisions And Stick To Your Plan

The average person avoids decision-making at every possible opportunity, which is a major reason why the average person will never be a successful business owner. Over 2,000 years ago the Roman poet Virgil observed that fortune favors the brave. This motto is as true today as it ever was.

A decision maker determines the course of his own life while those who avoid decisions are the victims of chance. The mathematics of chance tells us that the most likely place that chance will put you is in the average. The probability that chance will place on the top of the business world is extremely remote.

The more difficult the decision the fewer people exist who have the courage to make that decision. Therefore the hard decisions are the ones that present the greatest opportunity to distinguish yourself from the also-rans.

Of course making the decision is only the first step. The successful and respected leader is the one who always follows through on his decisions.

A Call to Action.

How does your business score on the 5 components of strong leadership?

A business is a reflection of its leader. If you want to enhance your business success then you need to continually and consistently enhance your own qualities of personal success. The best time to take the next step on your own success path is now.

Take a few minutes to re-read this article and ask yourself how your business scores on each of these components.

This article is number four in a series on the five elements of a successful business. If you wish to read the full set they are published on my blog at http://www.successblog.jamesdelrojo.com in the December 2006 postings.



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