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    How do I learn to become a better leader?

    When it comes to well-known leadership quotes, the message often strikes a consistent tone – learning to be a better leader comes from learning more about yourself. In asking the question, “How do I learn to become a better leader?” you’re already heading in the right direction, and there are plenty of resources to help you on your way.

    Ways to help you deal with it:

    Action plan

    Assessing your own strengths and weaknesses

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : High
    Knowing your strengths and weaknesses creates an opportunity for you – and your business – to grow. Our five-point plan will get you started.

    ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

    • We explain why each step is important
    • Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

    Action plan

    Encouraging employees to provide feedback

    Effort : High
    Impact : High
    Getting honest feedback from employees is important if you want to develop as a leader and run your business or department effectively.

    Action plan

    Improving your accountability as a leader

    Effort : High
    Impact : High
    Implementing a system to hold yourself accountable ensures you’re making progress, rather than simply flitting between tasks.

    Action plan

    Creating a roadmap to evolve as a leader

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : High
    Being proactive about the steps you need to take to develop as a leader means you can support your company’s growth. Follow our five-step plan to create a roadmap for your development.

    Action plan

    Create an environment to improve leadership

    Effort : High
    Impact : Medium
    Recognising that there’s always room for you to develop is the first step to improving as a leader; the next step is to create the right environment.

    Action plan

    Creating a culture of effective communication

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : High
    Follow this action plan to establish clear lines of communication in the workplace and encourage better collaboration across your team.

    Action plan

    Building trust in your employees

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : High
    Use our action plan to help gain the confidence to delegate tasks to employees and build your trust in their abilities.

    Action plan

    Applying external learnings to your business

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : Medium
    It’s vital to scrutinise the advice you receive and decide what’s suitable before you apply external learnings to your business.

    Guide

    An introduction to learning to become a better leader

    Leadership is more fluid and malleable than previously imagined. There are all kinds of leaders and no one specific leadership type. We can all learn to be strong leaders by accentuating our own unique talents and identities.

    GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

    • Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
    • Filled with real-world stories
    • Achievable steps every business can take

    Other support that's available

    Become a better leader

    Become a better leader

    Being in a leadership position doesn’t make you a leader. This article from the Harvard Business Review looks at the skills you’ll need to become a better leader, starting with introspection.

    Understanding leadership types

    Understanding leadership types

    Business News Daily breaks down the nine most common leadership types and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

    How other businesses have tackled something similar

    Emma Heathcote-James, Little Soap Company

    Real business story

    How one accidental business leader learnt to successfully guide her company

    When Little Soap Company became a high street brand, CEO Emma Heathcote-Jones became an accidental business leader and had to learn to lead fast..
    Pete Fraser - Harbour Lights

    Real business story

    A hands-off approach to leadership empowers staff to make decisions and innovate

    Employees that are empowered to make decisions are more productive, loyal and happier. That's exactly what Pete Fraser has done at his restaurant, Harbour Lights..
    Bruce Gray - Left Handed Giant

    Real business story

    Delegation empowers staff and allows business leaders to focus on growth

    Giving staff autonomy and accountability has been pivotal in the growth of Left Handed Giant, a Bristol-based beer brewing business..

    The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

    What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

    Select a topic

    Digital

    How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business?

    Leadership & Strategy

    How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs?

    People & Team

    How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I reduce employee turnover? How can I run a better appraisals process? How can I keep my best members of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How should I performance manage my staff?

    Planning

    How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I know when to scale up my business? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to invest in my business? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals?

    Sales & Growth

    How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How can I identify new customers to target? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I build a network to support my business? How do I benchmark my business against competitors? How can we develop new products and services?
    All