What makes an effective leader?

You truly need a vision for the business and how to get there. You need to have a clearly defined strategy, and you must be confident of your success – no one will follow you if you are too timid.

There are plenty of ways to be an effective leader, but some of the more important lessons include being able to lead by example, be clear about your expectations of staff and the business as a whole, live by your values, be accountable, respect privacy, be prepared to listen to new ideas and be approachable.

One of the hardest lessons new entrepreneurs learn is to keep your emotions in check when making decisions. Your judgement will often be clouded when taking some important first steps, so keep your ego in check and do what’s right for the business – and be passionate at the same time.

Always remember – being a leader doesn’t necessarily mean being liked by everyone. Your job is not to become your employees’ best friend, it is to lead them and the business into success. Take your staff where they don’t necessarily want to go, but must in order to help the business.