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Less than half of all employees consider their own company’s leadership to be “high quality.” There are many reasons for this, but poor leadership skills are almost certainly at the top of the list. So what can you do to become a better leader and truly unlock the potential of your cleaning business?

Be Inspiring

When you first start your journey to being a better business leader, you must begin a set of important steps. The first of these is to ensure that everyone working for you knows the journey you expect them to take. To do this, you need to communicate to them the vision of how you expect the business to succeed.

When developing this vision, you should answer the following questions:

  • What needs of the customer am I fulfilling?
  • Can I prove that these needs are real and not assumptions?
  • How will our service change peoples’ lives for the better?
  • What is our unique selling point?
  • How would an optimistic and pessimistic news article describe us when we succeed?
  • How long will this take?

With a solid understanding of these questions and their answers, you can present your vision to your staff to help rally them around your cause.

Next, you will need to begin the process of steering the company towards your vision. To do this, you need to be a good leader by espousing some qualities and encouraging other qualities in your staff. You can sum these up in five “C’s” and three “E’s.”

The 5 “Cs” of You

These traits form the basis for how you can be an effective leader in the long term. By embracing them, you can foster a positive environment of collaboration between you and those working for you. This will create a better workplace for all involved and help facilitate consistent growth.

Credibility

In short, do not lie. At least do not lie in a way that is likely to demotivate people down the line when they find out the truth. Thus, if things are hard, tell people they are but also espouse how things are going to turn out better.

Be aware of your strengths, but also know when to ask for help when you need it.  By asking for help, you can encourage people to trust you more and infuse your staff with a sense of ownership in the journey.

Commitment

Nothing you do as a business owner truly works without commitment and it can be the most difficult trait to have each and every moment of the day You may need to take extra time and effort to focus on the various aspects of your operation. Without micromanaging, you will need to show others that you are overseeing all aspects of your operations and that you do care about your staff and their success.

If you do this right, those around you will show an increased commitment toward doing their part to make the entire operation more successful. They will believe that you are with them, by their side, rather than behind them, driving them on.

Communication

Communication is not only putting forward your own beliefs. It is listening, understanding, and responding to the beliefs of others. By having these skills, you can engage with everyone around you, and they will know that you have their back.

Confidence

As you work, you should conduct yourself in a way that shows sensible and mature confidence. Be decisive and have faith in the decisions you make.

This does not mean that you should act as if you cannot make mistakes. You should instead prepare for the possibility of failure. Some of life’s best lessons come through failure.  When it occurs, act with grace and quickly pivot to improve the situation moving forward.

Creativity

Be open to solutions that may be a bit out of the box.  Perhaps, engage your staff to help brainstorm ideas when faced with a challenge within your operation.  A different viewpoint may be precisely what you need to navigate a specific challenge.  And a collaborative workspace can quickly elevate everyone’s commitment toward achieving your goals.

The 3 “Es” of Your Cleaning Company

These are areas where you should work to ensure your cleaning company is moving forward in the right way. Take time to focus on each aspect as it relates to every facet of your operation.   Wherever possible, incorporate the various strengths of your staff to further facilitate the benefits of a collaborative workspace.

Efficiency

You need to be clear about what your employees can expect and what you expect from them. Look for waste in all aspects of your operation and implement processes to improve efficiency. And efficiency does not always simply mean cutting cost.  An efficient organization is able to consistently hit and surpass their growth goals because the operation is built on a solid foundation that can easily scale over time.

Empowerment

Let your managers and employees know what you want from them clearly and succinctly. Train them to be quipped to handle situations themselves. You should not be handling every issue yourself.  You must learn to delegate (see Lesson 2 on this post) or else your cleaning business will eventually hit a ceiling and growth will stall.   There is only one you and only so many minutes in a day.  Remember, the goal of a cleaning business owner should be to ultimately build your company so that it can be successful without you being in the office each and every day.

Evolution

Some companies attempt to innovate without a clear vision of the ultimate goal. This leads to a lot of waste, and creating initiatives without them actually having a positive impact on your business. Instead, focus on the weaker aspects of your operation and do what you can to improve them.  Be as specific as possible when setting goals.  General goals tend to provide general results.   Specific goals provide tangible results that truly impact your business.

Become the Business Leader You Want to Be

Now you understand more about the skills needed in leadership; you can begin your journey toward becoming a better leader today. Still, the above is not the full story. There is always more you can learn and do to continue to improve.

Not sure where to start?

Improving leadership skills is at the core of the Cleaning Business Fundamentals program.  A company’s potential begins and ends at the top.  The CBF program teaches cleaning business owners how to identify and improve the weaknesses in their leadership skills and how they can lead to weaknesses throughout the entire operation.   Unlock your full potential and join the 100s of mop-free millionaires who have learned how to not only improve their business, but their life as well.


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