Improve your leadership in 3 easy steps

Our very own expert talks leadership

Being a great leader isn’t easy.

Here, Rachel Clacher, Co-Founder and Director of Moneypenny, shares her top three tips on how to be effective and inspiring in your business…

1. Show you care

I recently attended a presentation which discussed the qualities that staff think make a good leader. Part of the presentation was a study by top academic Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe, who canvassed the opinions of 4,000 employees. The results might surprise you; they certainly did many of the people there. According to the study, the most sought after quality from an employee’s point of view is ‘showing genuine concern for others’. This is something we’re committed to at Moneypenny. It’s not something that comes naturally to everyone, but we have found that it gets the best out of our teams. Spend some time thinking about your management style. Are there any ways you could demonstrate more of an interest in staff welfare? Could you be more attentive or perceptive? The larger you become as an SME, the harder it can be to remain actively involved with every member of your company, so it’s important to instil this philosophy into any managers too.

2. Make everyone feel valued

Whether you’re a small florist or a rapidly expanding digital marketing agency, it’s essential to make each and every member of your team feel valued. We make a conscious effort to do this every day at Moneypenny. From sending our latest recruits a ‘congratulations’ card alongside their contract, to putting an extra £50 note on their desk when they’ve worked extra hard, it’s easy to incorporate small touches into everyday activities. The reason we are passionate about doing this at Moneypenny is because we know we wouldn’t exist without our staff. They really are invaluable to us. I’m sure you feel the same about your team, so consider ways – however small – you can show them how much you think of them.

3. Treat others as you’d like to be treated yourself

At first glance, it can be easy to dismiss this as fluffy or irrelevant, but in truth, it actually has the ability to be a very powerful statement. If we, as business leaders, ask ourselves this question, there is so much that we can learn. Being fair, honest and open is at the heart of everything we do at Moneypenny and we adopt this approach with both our staff and clients. We’re confident this ethos is one of the main reasons we have such high client and employee satisfaction rates. In a nutshell, we think of it as a virtuous circle: we make our employees happy, in turn they make our clients happy, who then tell other businesses how fantastic our service is. This results in us gaining new clients – and this makes us happy! It’s such a simple statement, but it certainly can have a positive impact on everyone.