By Scott Nichols

Leadership is probably one of the most difficult, rewarding, scariest and brave characteristics we can have. I believe leadership is in all of us, but some of us are really good at using it and some of us are really bad at it. Whoa, that’s kind of a big statement there. I said that because I have seen people transform into good leaders when they thought they didn’t possess the ability to lead. I believe some are bad at leading because they don’t know how to be a leader. I understand some people are natural-born leaders but the majority of us hate the thought of having to even speak up in a meeting. In my experience, I have come to the conclusion that the number one reason someone is afraid to lead is a lack of confidence – the confidence to public speak (when they have to), the weight of the decisions on their shoulders, and the lack of confidence on an outcome.

One of the most important things I have noticed about great leaders is all the prep work they do. Before they even say a word, they make sure they understand the subject 100% before any action is done.  In my estimates, I have found that leaders will spend up to 90% of their time prepping, researching, and listening to find solutions to problems others can’t. Ten percent of the time is the actual doing of the leadership.

I was driving down the road one day and my son and daughter asked me if I would be afraid to talk in front of 100 people, then it turned into 1,000 people, and so on. I told them I wouldn’t be as long as I knew enough about what I was talking about. I had the honor and privilege to do each of my parent’s eulogies, and before my mom’s funeral, I was asked if I was nervous to speak in front of everyone. I said, I have about 12 hours of work put into writing and practicing a 10-minute speech. I wasn’t nervous, but I was anxious to get up there and tell the world about my mom, and the same held true for my dad.

Leadership is often confused with management. Management is being responsible for tasks, employees, projects, and services inside the boundaries someone has set. To go further into my definition of management, I feel management keeps everything at status quo. They do what is required and nothing more. For instance, let’s say your sales are down for the week and you need to get them back up. Most of us would write an email/note, meet with employees, and try to motivate them to do better. All leadership ideas, right? Maybe not.

True leadership will be looking/studying who is struggling, where they are struggling (lotions, EFTs, sunless, etc.) and why they’re struggling. Find the root cause before you even try and solve the problem. We were struggling this summer for a bit with our sales at some stores. I worked on this for a long time and finally found what our problem was – communication. At some point along the path from myself to our newest employee, we lost the message. We needed to come up with a solution that was going to have long-lasting results. With something such as communications, it’s not a one-time fix.  A lot of times we come up with ideas but run out of energy to execute them by the third or fourth week, and we fail. I knew we needed to build a better internal infrastructure, so I promoted two store managers to regional management and started to have weekly meetings with them. My first initiative was to make sure my vision and goals were made clear to them. In the first week, we saw results with sales and employee morale. We created two positions that not only improved our communications but also gave the company a vision and goals from the owner down to the newest employee.

Leadership is difficult. It’s not always glamorous. I see a lot of people who will rise up to be a leader when there are no consequences, and as soon as something gets difficult, they back off. As we learned from above, leadership is about the amount of work you’re going to put in, so you know what to do and say. Just remember a good leader will prep, research and listen to find solutions that build confidence.