With the passage of the Bush cuts, the rising Dow, increasing consumer and business demand and the general euphoria of leaving 2010 behind most small businesses see brighter days ahead. While the business environment will improve small businesses still face the daunting challenges of uncertain demand, increasing competition, a dispirited work force, and limited access to capital. To make 2011 a success business owners and executives must have a realistic and clear plan for profitable growth and slavishly execute against it. As a business leader, are you able to design your actions to execute plans or do you default to the pressures of the market, competition, employees and the historical ways of doing business and execute tasks driven by these short term considerations? Recently I have given quite a bit of thought to what are the fundamental leadership characteristics of leaders who design the successful implementation of a plan. The foremost characteristics are:
- Discipline-will to take the actions to make the plan a reality
- Fortitude-fierce resolve to do what is right in face of sustained resistance to change
- Integrity-cold blooded honesty to face facts, admit mistakes, and make changes
- Accountability-setting and living up to a standard of performance you expect from others
These leadership characteristics are tested every day in business. Your ability to base your leadership style on them means the difference between design or default.
Tobey Choate, Managing Partner
