Leading the Company

Who or What are you supposed to be leading? Not all levels of leadership’s focus should be directed at leading the people, it sounds crazy, but it is true. Depending on your role in the company or where you are positioned, your leadership may need to focus on a different subject area that does not directly involve people; but instead involves processes, thoughts, analytics, and strategies.

What I’m talking about is leading the company itself. You might ask, why should you want to direct your focus on leading the company, and how should you do this?  

The company’s leadership focuses on different aspects of the company, for example:

• • where the company is now,
  • where it wants to be,
  • and how it will get there. 

You will want to look at where the company is now and analyze what is going on both internally and externally. You will need to ensure that you can define the company and make sure you have built the foundation of how you will get it to where it needs to be. 

If this is done right, the results of leading the company will set the standards for management teams so that they can lead their teams effectively, efficiently, and, more importantly, within the parameters of the company to reach the goals set forth. 

Leadership is about inspiring, encouraging, and ultimately goal achievement. We must remember that a company is an entity, and without actions taken, molding, or feedback, it will not grow, nor change, nor move forward, and will lack set standards and defined goals. Just like a team or group of people, the company should be treated like a living, breathing thing.

When leading the company, the focus changes; one is no longer directly motivating people to achieve a common goal, but instead, we are defining the goals, identifying what is important to the company, and setting the standards so that down the line, leaders can motivate and inspire others to achieve the common goals.

This can be accomplished in multiple ways; the starting point to this leadership attacks the tasks given to the company by analyzing its strengths to identify opportunities on which to capitalize, while acknowledging the it’s weaknesses and improving them.  We must not forget about combating both internal and external threats.  

Additionally, you will need to ensure that your mission, vision, and values are true and accurate to the company. These are reference points and foundations for how and why the company does what it does. They are also guidelines  for strategies, cultures, and the future. 

There are many leadership styles; each type has a purpose, a time to be used, and individuals with particular skills and traits that can execute.   

When discussing leading the company and specifically the points listed above, a strategic leadership style will help to accomplish this. Because leading at this level is about being strategic. Additionally, strategic leadership has a focus at the executive level and a pass-through to the line level. 

Strategic leadership of a company is designed to produce multi-fold results at the business level and can  increase productivity, optimize processes, create a clear understanding of company goals, how to get there, define the company, and identify what is good, where opportunities are, and how to execute. 

By doing this at the company level, the effects will trickle down and set the standards that will allow others to lead the people, encourage them to meet the goals, define the culture, and enable employees to be independent within the company parameters to use their thoughts and ideas to accomplish goals allowing them to execute their roles to get the company where it wants to be.  

You see, the company is the foundation for everything and is the leader for all that it encompasses. The leaders of the people cannot lead to the common goal if the company is not defining, analyzing, finding, and executing opportunities so that others have a direction.