We’ve all heard the saying, “some are born leaders, some achieve leadership”. OK maybe that was greatness, but you get the point. Leadership qualities are not innate as many would have us believe. Through enough practice and hard work, anything can be learnt, and if you have the drive to lead your workforce to glorious success then I’m here to give you the great news; you can!

Your employees are the cogs of a well-oiled machine, and this may sound sickeningly cliché, (and generally offensive to employees all over the world), but it is true as long as you believe it is as a leader. Treat each one with importance and respect, and guide them and mold them into efficient and passionate hard workers; this can be the secret sauce to the success of your business. Here’s some free and priceless advice on how to lead your army of happy workers:

Passion, Creativity and Vision

While not the same thing, the three are closely related. Any great business is a child of passion. Your passion comes from within and helps drive you to nurture a little fledgling of an idea into a fully functioning business through your creativity. This eventually translates into your company’s vision, which drives all future projects you might take on. This vision must be broad enough to be able to take changing times into account. Basic money-making goals don’t count; that’s the purpose of any business. Your business must stand for much more; something your workforce can share and will feel the same kind of passion for; something which will help drive their creativity into full gear so they will not just do their jobs but will make your work their life.

Delegation

Having a vision is well and great, but if you can’t realize you need others to fulfill it, you’re doomed. There should be a job for everyone and everyone should do their job.  The difficult task of finding the right man for the job falls to you, though. Also, you need to be able to trust this right man once you find him, otherwise the well-oiled machine will not be so well-oiled anymore. If you spend too much time micro-managing, you won’t have enough time to be the awesome leader you are.

Team building

This does not mean everyone needs to be isolated to their jobs. Teamwork is as important to a successful business and you are the one who can inspire this in your workforce. People are generally unorganized and tend to not like each other very much. You need to be the one to give them a common ground to build upon and to provide enough rules to keep them in check but not so many as to suffocate and restrict their creative capabilities.

Communication

Any great leader must be able to articulate their ideas into simple instructions. You might have a great vision but your employees cant share it if they, well, don’t get it. So communication is key. But what is more importance is communication, period. Again, delegation does not mean isolation. The worst thing you can do is lock yourself up in your big shot office with its own floor and the breathtaking panoramic view. Yes, it sounds lovely, but just to keep you from throwing yourself from the window of the said office, try to be closer to your employees and really get to know them. Know how they work, when they work, why they work, and try to find ways to motivate them better and to make sure they don’t feel like just another empty suit in a huge corporation. Don’t just make them work for you, but with you, so they can share ownership of the product and can feel pride in their work, instead of just feeling used.

Positivity and confidence

Bad things will always happen; your sales might take a plunge, there might be a shipwreck somewhere destroying millions worth of raw-material, or you know, you might step in gum, but they important thing is to always see that silver lining, or at least make your employees see it, even if you can’t. Keeping the morale of your workers up is imperative, for panic and stress do not make for a creative or a productive environment. Have a sense of humor about these things, if someone makes a small mistake don’t lose your head (you can fire them if they make a bigger one but maybe in private), and try to re-assure everyone that you will make it through the hardest of times.

It is also important to keep a calm and cool exterior and to radiate confidence no matter what you do. Over-confidence, no. But a certain amount that tells your employees you know what you are doing, and you are in control will help them find the confidence to make quick decisions and take chances to bring you better results as-well. If nothing else, it will add to your charm as a sexy, successful self-made entrepreneur.

Intuition and instincts

If we could have a penny for every time we’ve heard of the importance of innovation in a start-up, well, we probably wouldn’t need a start-up anymore. So I won’t go into that, but what I will reiterate is the importance of intuition and instincts when running an innovative business. You cannot follow textbook guidelines, and are usually making up rules as you go, and while day-to-day tasks can be organized to a certain degree, when roadblocks come along you need to go with your instincts to help guide your team through. In many cases you need to improvise and break a few rules to make things work, and as a good leader you must never be afraid to do what needs to be done (unless that involves breaking the law, maybe).

It’s certainly not rocket science in theory, but in practice these are skills that can become quite difficult to acquire. Hard work and determination can help you lead your workforce successfully and can turn your startup into a successful business.