It drives me nuts when agency leaders talk about leadership as a “soft skill.” It’s as if there’s no relationship between leadership skills and agency business growth.

The truth is quite the opposite.

Last time I checked, our organizations are filled with humans. Leadership is merely about sharing energy and influencing those humans so they can achieve or surpass organizational goals. That’s a soft skill?

Achieving agency business growth objectives is critical for you, and a real test of your leadership effectiveness.

Examples Of How Being A More Effective Leader Helps Fuel Agency Business Growth

When You Become Comfortable Delegating and Empowering. When you delegate to your leadership or management team, you get more of a most precious commodity: Time!  Agency leaders should use this time to focus on two jobs that they must own, or at least lead: Setting long-term strategy, and pursuing new business.

When You Lead From A Place of Confidence. Confidence is attractive. I don’t mean it makes you pretty or handsome, but it literally attracts people to you, like a magnet attracts iron filings in a children’s game many Baby Boomers will remember.  It makes your team members want to follow you, it makes your peers want to collaborate with you, and it makes prospects want to hire you. And confidence is a learnable skill.

When Your Team Knows You Have Their Backs. Team members who feel that their boss supports them are more willing to take educated risks. That’s something agency leaders should want. Why? Because it generates freer creative thinking. It encourages blazing trails, trying different approaches, and using new channels that public relations and communications practitioners have at their fingertips they didn’t have before. All of that leads to results that have a more profound impact on our clients’ success. And that, in turn, attracts prospects, and gives them more reasons to select your agency.

When You Share Your Vision For The Agency’s Future. Sharing your vision is one of the most important things an agency leader can do to build followership and loyalty. What can the agency be? What comes after what comes next? And what will each team members role be in achieving that vision?

That vision should include a description of the kinds of clients with whom you want to partner, who’ll value the agency’s work, and compensate you so that your firm earns a fair profit. When you have that vision of your ideal client firmly in hand, you’ll be more empowered and encouraged to pursue them.

As you’ve become a more effective leader, what impact have you seen on your agency growth? Please leave us a comment.

And if you’d like to explore how I can help you to become a more effective leader, or help you acheive your agency business growth goals, please reach out for a complimentary call.