5 Keys to Business Leadership for Small Business

This is a great article on Leadership in small business. It says, small business, however this article definitely is relevant to all forms of leadership within an organization. This divulges back to some of the Theories of Motivation we discussed in class and how they are motivated either externally or internally. Additionally, I believe that your locus of control is a large factor in if you are a leader or not. Chapter 6 discusses "Designing a Motivating Work Environment". I think this is a large factor in being a leader. As a leader it is important to foster an environment that creates motivation for employees. They need to feel empowered and be able to feel that you are supportive. From our book, there are a majority of models and theories that are relative to being a leader. SMART goals are another thing that are important. You want to make sure that your goals are tailored to be successful but also reach new heights. You want your goals to be attainable and realistic. Leaders know how to evaluate employees and set attainable goals for their organizations. The thing I appreciated about this article was that a leader promotes an action step in whatever they do and they lead by example. A leader is always pushing and sharing their vision to make it a reality. Like I said, this article really ties into Theories of Motivation. We see through Maslow's Hierarchy of needs model and the ERG model that people have certain needs that they need to facilitate, and things they need to get in order to be satisfied. Great leaders inspire and motivate employees. They use their personal skills to assess employees or team members and motivate them in a way that best fits to their characteristics. A leader should use their education to realize issues and then assert their skills to team members problem areas. Overall I felt that this was a great article for leaders in the field of business; not just small business owners. Lastly I think that people are very indulged in the Acquired Needs Theory. People have these needs for affiliation, achievement, an power. I believe a leader can assess that and find out where to place the person to deliver value. This theory seems to be on the basis of a need for value in certain instances. Great leaders can create value for teams, ultimately having members buy into the vision and reason they all do what they do to succeed. Great article on leadership, and great way to analyze the article with some of the theories of motivation. http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/smallbusinesslearning/a/leadership1.htm