As a small business owner, the way you lead reflects heavily on the success of your business.
You want your team to react positively to your leadership style, but with so many factors to base your strategy on, it can get complicated, especially if your team begins to question why and how you do things. This is why many small business owners are beginning to rely on their data to help them lead their teams.
Taking this approach is beneficial in more ways than one, but you may be questioning how your numbers can help you lead your team.
We’ll answer your questions below and even share ways you can implement this leadership strategy into your business.
How do Numbers and Leadership Connect?
If you’ve read any of our other blogs, you’ve likely realized the importance of tracking and recording accurate, essential data.
Doing this:
Builds a strong foundation for pulling and using the right reports
Points you to areas where adjustments need to be made so you can improve your business
Gives you an overall read of the financial state of your business
With these solid, accurate numbers you can make leadership decisions knowing you have concrete support. Your better, data-backed decisions will positively impact your business and team members, which leads to more success.
Why You Should Rely on Numbers to Lead
As previously mentioned, relying on your numbers to lead comes with many benefits. You’ll be able to:
Make better decisions
Decision-making becomes easier when you rely on data. It provides a point of reference and form of support when making or justifying a decision. It’s likely your team will question a decision you’ve made at some point or another, and with data you can provide an explanation for why you did what you did.
Improve connection on multiple levels
Connection is a huge benefit of relying on your numbers to lead. Data is a representation of how your customers respond to your team, which connects their work to your customers. From there you’ll see results, which will connect your team to goals and the overall success of the company.
Hold yourself and your team accountable
No matter which way you choose to lead your business, accountability will likely be a top priority. When you lead with data, you and your team know performance is being tracked and used as a tool to measure business growth. Knowing this sparks a desire to work harder to reach goals and benchmarks, considering all eyes are on you and your team.
Ways to Implement Data in Your Leadership
Implementing data into your leadership isn’t as complicated as it may sound. There are just a few things you’ll need to keep in mind to ensure you are using this system effectively.
Collect Meaningful Data
Your data needs to be meaningful. This cannot be stressed enough. With unnecessary data, you’ll be wasting time. So track KPIs that provide insight into areas that will help you reach your business goals. This step is key for making important decisions.
2. Be Knowledgeable
Without a good understanding of the metrics you’re tracking, you’ll have a hard time explaining to your team why they matter. Lead by example. You can’t expect your team to be knowledgeable if you aren’t. Make sure you are actively learning and analyzing your data so you can reinforce its importance with your team. Remember, it starts with you.
3. Have Clear Expectations
Make sure you have specific goals, desired outcomes, and clearly define what you expect your data to accomplish, then share it with your team. This is essential in leading with data. It provides your team an answer to their “why.” When you have solid goals, you can use your data to show your team how their work is helping the business reach those goals.
4. Work With a Trusted Accountant
Working with a trusted accountant ties the prior steps together, and then some. They will make sure you are tracking the right numbers, pulling the right reports, and have a strong strategy in place for implementing changes to improve the financial state of your business. Once your strategy is in place, they will help and even suggest big decisions (based on your data of course) to push your business to the next level.
They will also serve as your go-to data dictionary. Any questions you have, they’ll be able to answer, which will grow your knowledge and help you stay in the loop with all things data, making you the perfect example for your team.
A trusted accounting partner will also work with you to create goals for your business. You’ll be able to share these goals with your team, knowing they are solid and meant to help the business grow.
At SIMPLY Financials PLUS, we know what it takes to lead a business with numbers. We can help you use your data to get your business from where it is now to where you want it to be. Set up a call with us today to learn about the role we can play in growing your business.