8 Skills You Need To Develop To Become A Better Leader

Mat Bullock • February 9, 2022

Running a business has so many responsibilities, and although leading your employees is just one of them, it’s a major part of running things. Even if your business is small, and consists of just a modest team of people - your leadership is incredibly important if you want things to go smoothly. A good leader can get the most from their team, and the business will be rewarded for it. So what is it that makes for a great leader? There are many qualities that you need to have, and while it would be impossible to have it all down from the start, it’s important that you’re able to learn.

Self-reflection

Before anything else, being a good leader means being able to recognize when you yourself are the person at fault. Realizing and being able to admit to your mistakes is very important, and without that, you’re going to have a hard time maintaining the respect of those who are working under you. If they feel that no matter what, they’re going to get the blame, it gives them less reason to work hard. Not only that, but self-reflection is going to help you grow all of your skills, not just leadership - so it’s the most important of all.

It’s also worth considering that as the leader, you should be leading your employees. That means being a role model, someone who is an example of how they should be in the workplace. If you’re never seen working, or giving work your all, why should they? Showing that you care about this business and that it’s something to be passionate about is a great example of leadership. You can much easier communicate and share your vision of the future if your employees know that it’s something to believe in.

Empathizing

If you’re going to have people work for you, and be able to get more from them as a team - empathy is incredibly important. The people who work for you are more than just employees here to do a job, they’re people with their own problems and needs, and that’s something you need to be able to recognize. Understand when your employees are having troubles that they don’t need to be overwhelmed, or that they might struggle in areas that they don’t excel in.

Being empathetic as a leader doesn’t mean cutting everyone a slack and letting your employees do whatever, but it’s important that know when to not push your employees. It’s a skill that can be hard to learn, as there are many employees with a lot of different needs to consider. Make sure you’re approachable, but still hold the workplace to a good standard for your business.

Being a more open and empathetic leader is something you can apply in many areas of running your business. For example, if your employees are on call or working shifts, you might want to look into how to create an on-call schedule that won’t frustrate employees. Your expectations might not be aligned with employee capability, so learning more about it could benefit you.

Being a good listener also ties in with being an empathetic leader, and if you fail to listen to your employees - it could easily spell trouble for your business. You need to know when your employees can do something, and when they’re going to struggle if you’re going to properly allocate and delegate tasks. If you don’t listen, you might find that deadlines aren’t met, and work isn’t produced to the standard or quality that you were expecting.

Emotional intelligence

As well as being more empathetic, being more emotionally intelligent is something that can benefit every individual in the workplace. As the leader, it is critically important that you can demonstrate high emotional intelligence if you want your employees to do the same. Being able to keep your cool and keep yourself from being frustrated when it would only make matters worse is going to save you from embarrassing yourself. Leaders who aren’t able to hold in their emotions can occasionally cross the line into creating a toxic workplace environment.

Emotional intelligence somewhat falls under self-reflection, as being self-aware plays a huge role in choosing how you act in certain scenarios. Not paying attention to how others might see you will cost you the respect that you should command as a leader.

Failing

Many people who don’t manage to handle failure when they are younger often struggle with it as adults. The idea of failing can be daunting, and sometimes there’s a lot riding on whether or not you succeed. No matter the case, learning how to fail is incredibly important, and it can help you decide on whether or not you should be taking risks with your business. A leader who understands that failure is not always a bad thing will have a much easier time recovering from workplace mistakes, and also be a lot more emotionally intelligent.

Even if there’s a loss in failure, be it missing goals, deadlines, or poor investments, it’s something that you can grow from later on. It’s a lesson for you to learn, and if it didn’t cost you your whole business, that failure proves beneficial to later ventures.

Time management

Time management is something that everyone in a workplace needs to have, and if you’re going to manage a team - time management is a critical skill. If you can’t properly identify and manage your own tasks, how could you do the same for your employees? Knowing your employees will give you a better idea of how long it might take them to complete certain tasks, and make it easier for you to manage their time.

Time management skills can be trained every day, and it’s important that you don’t just try to rush everything when it needs to be done - even if it’s done early. It’s best to make sure you understand what to prioritize, take breaks, and learn the patterns of your productivity. Everyone works at different paces and finding your pace and what works best for you is ultimately going to make it easier to manage everyone else, too.

Being able to better manage your goals will help you significantly when it comes to setting your business realistic goals. If you’ve set yourself goals that are unrealistic, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Sometimes failure isn’t necessary, especially when it’s due to the fault of your own expectations being set far higher than they should be. It’s great to have the ambition to reach further, but everyone has their limits.

Motivation

Motivation can be hard to come by when times are tough, but during those times, people will often look to their leader for what to do next. If you can’t be the motivation of your employees, then not much else is going to be either. You need to be able to focus on your goal and remember why it is that you’re striving for it. You then need to pass that motivation onto your employees. Keep the spirits high, and even when business is looking bad, you should make sure to keep up a positive environment in the workplace.

Recognition

It’s not easy to manage a full team of people, and it can be quite time-consuming, especially when you’ve got your own things to be doing. However, it’s important that you recognize when your employees are working hard, so that you may address it in a positive manner. Showing your employees that you’ve seen that they’re working hard and that you appreciate it can be a great way to motivate them to continue their hard work. You’ve seen that they work hard and that their hard work is going to be met with reward.

If employee hard work were to go unnoticed or unmentioned, it’s not the end of the world, but it can be crushing for the employee. Hard work is something that should be celebrated, as it’s often difficult to give work your all with everything else that can happen in your everyday life.

Creativity

Being creative is something that every leader needs, as it allows for you to better think outside of the box. When you’re faced with a problem, lacking creativity is going to limit your options when it comes to a solution. Being creative will help you to think of better ways to handle any situation, and that’s something you can’t afford to miss out on.

Creativity will also help you to create a more agreeable environment for you and your employees while they work. Keeping things strict isn’t going to help to keep the morale high, whereas a more creative mind will have less difficulty finding a good middle ground of positive and professional environments.

Being a good leader can be hard to achieve, especially if you’re not the type of person to who leadership comes naturally. There are leadership courses available to aspiring leaders, and being ready to learn is a great quality if you want to be a strong leader.

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By Mat Bullock • April 8, 2025

Efficiently processing customer payments is one of the most important parts of running a successful online business. You’ll need a robust system in place that is both reliable and safe, and a method for keeping track of payments over the long term, to name just a couple of fundamental requirements. While it might seem like a complicated aspect of your business to get right, the tools and innovative new technologies available today make everything much easier to manage than it was in the past. Today, you’ll learn about how to get things right the first time by understanding the three most important elements, so that you can continue to build strong customer relationships and maintain a great reputation!

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By Mat Bullock • July 24, 2024

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By Mat Bullock • June 5, 2024

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By Mat Bullock • May 1, 2024

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By Mat Bullock • April 3, 2024

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By Mat Bullock • March 12, 2024

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By Mat Bullock • February 23, 2024

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By Mat Bullock • January 10, 2024

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By Mat Bullock • January 10, 2024

Image Credit. Have you just started a catering business, or are you considering doing so? If so, congratulations. But you should be prepared for a lot of work. Running any kind of business involves a great deal of work and sometimes monetary investment. This is especially true of a catering business. But the good news is that catering is one of those ever-expanding industries. Here are some tips to get you started. Your Business Plan First things first, you need a plan for your catering business. Catering is a massive industry, so a plan will narrow down your focus and improve your ability to succeed. Catering businesses can take on all shapes and sizes, so decide early what your catering business will provide to your customers. Do you specialise in party food? A specific cuisine or theme? Are you catering for weddings, business events, or kid’s parties? Do you just deliver the food or do you serve it as well? What’s on the menu? These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself before you can even start cooking. Rules and Licensing One of the most important things to tackle when considering opening a catering business is to make sure that your paperwork is on point. This is true for any business, but when you’re prepping food for people, there are a few extra licenses to explore. Health and safety is the big one. You will need to be licensed to serve food and your kitchen will likely be inspected. Keep a hygienic kitchen to ensure that your business stays solvent and, most importantly, that you don't make anyone sick with your cooking. Equipping Your Kitchen A well-equipped kitchen is the only way to have a successful business in the food industry. It makes sense, as you need to prepare, cook, and deliver all this food and keep it in a safe temperature. So, make sure that you have the catering equipment your business needs in order to succeed and meet your customer’s expectations. The Great Employee Debate As your catering business grows, you will reach the point where you need to consider hiring employees. Dedicated delivery drivers can be helpful, as can extra hands in the kitchen and when serving food. The kind of staff you need depends on your business and your skills. Employees are great for shoring up gaps in skill and helping you to get more work done efficiently. But they are also an added layer of complexity and responsibility. You need to make sure your employees are trained and, ideally, qualified to work in the kitchen. You can train them yourself but, you guessed it, this will take work. The best way to get the most out of your employees is to first hire the right people for the job. From there, make sure that you look after their needs and protect them whenever necessary. If you look after your employees, they will look after you.