Over the years as CEO of SACS Consulting, I have learned that one of the most important things I can do to help my company and my employees is to be a good leader. I steer the ship and my employees take their cues from me. I have spent a long time finding out what my patterns of leadership are, and how they may affect my business.

As a business owner you also have patterns that may keeping your business from growing to its full potential. By that I mean that you may be stuck in certain ways of handling issues that are actually working against you. Strong leadership means taking a good, honest look at yourself, including how you mentally deal with stressors, employees and business challenges. For example, do you tend to have negative thoughts or behaviors? Are your communication skills working for or against you? I have learned that there are ways to determine your thoughts, behaviors and patterns, and there are many easy ways to help change them so that they don’t have a negative impact on your business

The road to success begins with you, so here are some suggestions that may help:

•  Develop self-awareness. Learn to recognize and to understand your leadership traits. This includes your behaviors, personality, leadership style, anxieties and emotions. It also includes your ability to learn and to adapt to new ways of doing things. Train yourself to notice any strong or negative behaviors so you can work on them. By doing this you will be better able to strengthen your leadership style, which in turn will make you a more effective leader.
• Develop compassion and gratitude. Learn to really hear your employees or customers when they speak. By doing this, they will feel like they have been heard and it will build trust and strengthen your relationships with them. Say “thank you” and see the rewards that simple phrase brings.
• Demonstrate respect and integrity. Be honest and trustworthy. When employees or customers feel respected, it fosters trust and builds a strong workplace culture. Learn to show them that you care and are making an effort to value their viewpoints.
• Communicate your vision for the future. This will help others to understand the direction you are going, as well as motivating employees to feel engaged, trusted and inspired to work harder to achieve your and their goals.
• Learn to let go and to collaborate. We live in a global economy so collaborating with others and not in a silo develops innovation and engagement. It also fosters learning and teamwork. This is an important aspect of a good leader.
• Develop resilience. This will help you to respond to any challenges that may arise. It sends a clear message that you are strong enough to overcome these challenges. Everyone wants to feel secure and having a strong leader that can and will handle issues in a timely and fair manner goes a long way to building employee trust and increasing performance.

 Becoming a good leader takes introspective work and integrity. It’s part of a journey to success. With a little self-awareness and some solid leadership skills you can shape and grow your business and develop a strong workplace culture.

President, SACS Consulting & Investigative Services, Speaker, Trainer, Corporate Security Expert Timothy A. Dimoff, CPP, president of SACS Consulting & Investigative Services, Inc., is a speaker, trainer and author and a leading authority in high-risk workplace and human resource security and crime issues. He is a Certified Protection Professional; a certified legal expert in corporate security procedures and training; a member of the Ohio and International Narcotic Associations; the Ohio and National Societies for Human Resource Managers; and the American Society for Industrial Security. He holds a B.S. in Sociology, with an emphasis in criminology, from Dennison University. Contact him at info@sacsconsulting.com.