Deborah Sweeney – Three leadership traits you should aspire to follow

Deborah Sweeney, CEO, MyCorporation Business Services Inc.

Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson — the methods they use to run their businesses are so unusual, so against what we typically expect from a CEO, that exposés on their leadership style make for pretty good stories.
But recently, I’ve found it odd that the behaviors of CEOs warrant entire articles. After all, I talk with business owners and managers every day who exhibit what would be considered unconventional traits. More than ever, CEOs are beginning to break the stuffed-suit stereotype for a chance to create a business culture that one day might also be emulated.
Of all the business fads and leadership traits I’ve seen go in and out of style, I am particularly fond of the following three:
Leaders who know when to be led.
It might sound counterintuitive, but people who run businesses have a reputation for being a little thickheaded and stubborn. I’m sure you’ve had a boss in your career that no matter how many times they asked people for advice, they never actually took it. People like having their opinions confirmed. So if the sought-out advice conflicts with that opinion, it tends to get ignored.
And that’s a shame because a real leader should know that there is a time to lead and a time to be led. The managers and employees of a particular department were hired because they brought a certain level of expertise about the department to the business.
When a CEO asks for feedback, they need to actually take what is said into consideration.
Managers and CEOs who give their employees a bit
of breathing room.
Our social media manager likes to let her employees have a bit of downtime while on the clock. For her, it’s important that they have some time to rejuvenate their minds as blogging requires constantly producing new and interesting content.
That downtime can be spent scrolling through Reddit, checking out their Tumblr dashboard, cleaning out their Gmail accounts, whatever they want to do, as long as the time is spent on something that isn’t work.
Typically, having that bit of time helps them break out of routine and ruts that can result in bad writing. The same can be said for those in less creative positions.
For example, someone in sales could get a little too used to saying the same thing over and over again. Suddenly their pitch starts to sound scripted, even if they never had a script to go off of in the first place. Potential clients can pick up on how stiff their speech is, but a quick break away from work to recharge their batteries can help loosen them up.
Leaders who help employees have a life.
There are always things you can do to make your business more profitable — really leaning on your employees to increase their sales, for example, might bring in a little bit more money. But it ends up sacrificing their peace of mind if you push too heavily. Employees will begin to dread coming into work. And when they are at work, they will be a frayed ball of nerves.
In order to achieve long-term success, business owners need to remember that they have to hold onto reliable employees. If businesses have a high turnover rate and are constantly training and retraining people, they’ll never have a chance to grow. Once again, things will stagnate, and that can spell the death of a company when sales inevitably slump.
There are still entrepreneurs who hold onto the old ways, believing that an iron fist and a crazed obsession with perceived profitability will lead them to success. This may be true in the short term. But the resulting turnover and general attitude of their employees will eventually be their downfall.
Deborah Sweeney is the CEO of MyCorporation, an online filing services company that specializes in incorporations and LLCs. Find her online at mycorporation.com and on Twitter @deborahsweeney and @mycorporation.