A CEO shares 4 strategies for improving your leadership skills

In business, that translates into motivating employees to achieve your company’s goals and mission.

Instilling this motivation in employees, however, is one hundred times harder than anyone thinks.

Running my own business, I’ve realized that leading is much more than just letting people know their responsibilities.

Whether you’re leading an entire company or even just one department, strong leadership is critical to maximizing human talent.

To get the most out of people, I’ve discovered that you need to work on four C’s:

Clarity

In my experience, clarity is important to effectively engage and hold employees accountable. In the past, I’ve made the mistake of assuming responsibilities and expectations were clear only to find out later that the employee had a completely different idea of what I expected. Take something as simple as “regular client communication.” To me, this means proactive outreach to clients on a weekly basis, if not more often. To an employee, however, this can mean monthly communication.

Lesson learned. Clarity is just as important in the little things as the big things. But how do you know that your goals and expectations are clearly communicated? Regardless of the message, it’s important to have the employee provide their own version of the task, expectation or goal to ensure there is no miscommunication. This simple exercise of repeating and rehashing is key to making sure everyone is on the same page.

Commitment

Just like clarity is crucial to seeing eye-to-eye, commitment is crucial to living out the promise you set out during the job interview or that big company speech. It’s not just about being a good role model, but showing commitment to the team itself. It means showing each and every one of your employees that you are committed to their success and have their best interest in mind.

As a leader, being committed often equates to being sacrificial. Yes, that means you’re willing to give up your time to coach your employees, to answer their questions and give them a hand when they need it. It also means teaching them new things and helping them achieve more.

Running a small company that’s still what I consider a startup, it’s hard to find time to really coach and mentor employees. However, I’ve also learned that not taking the time to build up your talent can be detrimental in the long term.

When I first started my company, I was looking for capable people to do their jobs but didn’t take the time to build them up to be the next leaders. This resulted in a lack of leadership when I needed it most, leaving me to carry the burden of always being the leader, ultimately limiting the growth of our company.

While committing yourself to the success of your employees can be difficult, it’s important that you dedicate the time and resources to help your employees succeed.