5 Top Tips for Business Leaders in 2015: Why It's Now Time to Take a Back Seat

By Debbie Fletcher

New year, new start. That should be the motto for your business as you take a back seat for 2015 and delegate to your capable staff. This leaves you more time to search for new team leaders to help you out with the important tasks as well as get yourself organized schedule wise (personally I've had a lot of success with Exec-Appointments, but we all have our favorite sources).

If you’re wondering what you should be focusing your time and attention on for 2015, then take a look at these top tips.

1. Let those around you shine

If you feel like you’ve been taking on too much work and managing every small task, it might be a good idea to take a step back and let someone else shine. Giving your team the opportunity to prove themselves and show off their skills will help everyone in the long run, plus it lets you see who can be trusted with the more important tasks and who will take action when you take a step back.

2. Boost morale

Do they have a good idea for a client? Would they benefit from being able to work more flexible hours and the responsibility to manage their time? Does your office need more team-building exercises or just more fun overall? The atmosphere in your workplace can make a real difference to the standard of tasks completed, as well as improve team relationships.

You might have heard more about the negative side of open-plan offices than the positive. Yes, they can be a little noisier and everyone has different needs when it comes to being comfortable, but open offices also allow people to communicate more easily and see when co-workers are busy. But don’t sit in your own private office, away from the team. Park your computer in the middle, so everyone can see and speak to you when necessary.

If people don’t like the idea of an open-plan office, you could provide noise-canceling headphones for each computer, so they can subtly warn others that they are busy while enjoying a little quiet and even personal music while working. You are never going to please everyone, so go with what you think will work best then combat any issues from there.

3. Keep people informed

Gossiping within a business starts up when the facts aren’t made clear to all, and a little transparency is something your team will appreciate. You don’t need to go into every little detail, but giving them an idea of how the company is doing, response from clients, any issues that need resolving, etc. will keep everyone clued up and feeling trusted. Also, only hold meetings if they are necessary throughout the working day on top of your weekly ‘transparency’ meeting.

4. Use your time wisely

Don’t get caught up organizing someone to come and fix the printer, delegate this task to someone you trust and use that time to organize your schedule properly. It’s also the perfect opportunity to start looking for new business opportunities, pitching out to and meeting with clients, while your team deals with the work already at hand.

Use a task manager, such as Basecamp, and assign to-dos to your team, which you can check have been ticked off by a certain deadline so you are still in the loop.

5. Stop using your email

You might consider typing out an email to a colleague the best way of conveying a message, but nothing beats leaving your desk and going to talk to them face-to-face. Plus, if you are seen moving around the office and talking to people, you’ll be met with more respect and build up confidence in people.

You can always send an email after your conversation to confirm what was said if you really need to. Just don’t be that leader who hides behind their computer screen sending out emails that can easily be taken the wrong way.

Image credit: Flickr/adforce1

Debbie Fletcher is an enthusiastic, experienced writer who has written for a range of difference magazines and news publications.