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Business leadership training.

Business leadership training online course

This is a quick online course titled business leadership training.

Many business leadership courses provide training for specific business segments and situations. This is a condensed version of a broader spectrum of executive leadership skills and how to develop and implement them.

Directional business leadership training
As an executive you are expected to advise and determine the direction of the company, department or business unit. This takes two pieces of information. Where are you now? Where is technology, or the market leading the business? You don’t have to follow the market or market leaders, but your direction must be consistent.

Leadership success factors
Always in control. When it hits the fan, you may not have a solution, or any idea of the direction to take. That’s ok, but don’t let anyone know that. There’s plenty of time to reflect and make a thoughtful decision. At the onset of a crisis take in as much information as you can.
Make informed decisions. Not snap decisions. Field mice make snap decisions about cheese and often end up with a broken neck. Training for a crisis is very difficult because it's hard to simulate. The best approach is to create some hooks for yourself to realize you're in a crisis, and then instantly calm yourself and tell yourself you'll fix the problem.

Micro-management
Micro management has gotten a bad name lately. But let’s set the record straight. There are times when you simply must micro manage people, projects and departments. There is simply no better way to understand the inner workings of an organization or project. You can’t micro manage everything of course, and knowing what to select is more than half the battle.

Making decisions as an individual and shedding the group dynamic.
Effective and highly successful leaders sometimes have to go against the grain.

Chameleon approach.
This is just as it implies. An effective leader will often have to adjust his leadership style to meet the demands or the culture of the group he or she is trying to lead. This is even more important when the executive is assisting a sales effort. Leadership extends to all areas of the business and there are times when a customer or potential deal is so big, the CEO will need to step in and help close the deal. Before walking in to that meeting he had better understand not only the details of the deal, but the details that are driving the potential customer in your direction. He can then enforce those precepts.

So how do you learn all of this?
You need hooks to keep yourself grounded. Business leaders are no different than anyone else. They need to be organized and have internal mechanisms for reminding themselves at every opportunity, to lead. This is what separates the wheat from the chaff. A good leader is in control all of the time. When a meeting becomes contentious, the effective leader squelches it. When no progress is being made, the leader gets in the drivers seat. It’s done the same way in habit is formed, repetition. One of the most effective CEO’s I know has a unique way of doing this. He bought a new watch. It’s not a fancy watch it’s just a watch. But he has attached a thought to that watch. Control When he’s in a meeting and things start to get out of hand, or confusing he glances at his watch. To him, it’s a string around his finger reminding him that he’s the boss, and he needs to stay calm and in control.

Leadership Training module 1.
Micro-management.
Dive right in. Pick the toughest problem you have and fix it yourself. Dig in to the down and dirty details and figure out the problems. Remember, you’re still leading so no snap decisions. This isn’t a one day fix. Micro manage only one problem area. This will help you develop your reputation as a hands on type of executive, and you’ll learn much more than you just details about the specific problem. Businesses tend to develop cultures and habits that pervade the organization. Getting close to the work uncovers some of these bad habits and helps you to change the culture and sharpens leadership skills..

Don’t know where to start? Let’s go through a case study.
We’ll pick sales, because just about every business has a sales department.
When sales are flat the first thing everyone decides to do is increase the marketing budget. Occasionally an executive will add a sales person. So let’s assume for this situation that you’ve already tried that and results were lacking. Because in the real world that’s what always happens.
Let’s offer some real leadership here and we’ll do it by micro managing.
If you can’t measure you can’t manage so let’s start by measuring. We already know sales are done, flat or not meeting expectations. The question is why? This is going to require micro management. You’ll need to meet with the sales managers and the sales people. Did we have a three or four year run rate of success that was tied to a single sales person, single customer, or new product. In other words, what is leading us to believe sales are flat?
We may find the problem here. Lack of new customers, too much targeting of small customers (potentially due to saturation of larger customers) geographic range is saturated, etc. If this is the case make the change, (enlarge geographic territory, target bigger or smaller customers, etc.) if not, let’s move on to the next step.

We know we have a sizable market, why aren’t sales people having success penetrating the market and getting new customers? Is the commission structure rewarding maintaining existing business? Do they not have the tools to find these new customers? Perhaps the managers aren’t tracking the leads properly and we’re missing opportunities to close business. It may be as simple as a training issue. The sales people aren't effectively communicating the benefits of the product.

The bottom line is we want to keep on top of things and stay very close to the sales people and sales managers until sales improve. If this were a production problem, you would start with the production managers and move down the line to assemblers, and technicians.

business leadership training setting goals and direction.

Creating a mission statement.

Business ethics

Business strategy leadership.

Training yourself to make decisions as an individual

Crisis management leadership training .