The Secret to Effective Leadership

The difference between success and failure as a leader lies in your purpose.

The most successful leaders don’t focus on marketing, operations, and finance. They work to build an army of Evangelists.

The most successful leaders realize that the Evangelists are their primary customer, and they realize that they are responsible for empowering their Evangelists to fight for their organization.

The problem is that Evangelists don’t just walk in off the street. They are magnetically drawn to the most successful leaders, or they are created by successful leaders.

How Can You Become a Successful Leader?

It’s actually incredibly simple. Let’s take a look at a typical small company (this will of course be oversimplified to get the point across).

You have three types of people involved: management, employees, and customers. In a company with a successful leader, you have Leaders, Evangelists, and Ambassadors.

Effective leaders inspire their employees to become Evangelists. Effective leadership without inspiration is like breathing without air.

Now, creating cultural systems that inspire your employees to become passionate Evangelists is a topic for another post of its own (actually more like a book).

There are, however, a couple of concepts that’ll help you on your way:

1. Trust Your Employees

Stop micromanaging! It’s really tough for small business owners to admit that they micromanage, but it’s a huge obstacle to creating a culture of growth among your Evangelists.

When you concentrate on helping your Evangelists grow and managing that culture I just mentioned, you’ll find that your Evangelists are so much more motivated to excel at their job.

2. Care About Your Employees

This goes without saying, but many entrepreneurs just look for “warm bodies” to fill positions.

You should never offer a position to someone who you aren’t 100% committed to supporting.

When you care for your Evangelists it shows in the experience your customers receive (and ultimately in your profits).

These two attitude/habit changes will show up big time in your results. When you embrace these changes – and go out of your way to show it – you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck out of your leadership.