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Business coach Jackie Cooper looks at the top five habits good leaders need to develop to build resilience and grow – and how you can learn these skills and more on the free Small Business Leadership Programme, being run at DMU.



“We are not too far from January, and with that comes setting new goals and refreshed priorities in and around you and your business. So, although I may be a bit early with ‘New Year New You’, the new year is the time to implement new habits, aspirations, and personal improvement.

“By building on the reflection of the previous year we develop a plan to become better than what has gone before and embrace the change the new year brings. More than ever small businesses must develop resilience and become more sustainable to survive, and if done well, will lead to increased and more efficient productivity.”

Read on if you are potentially interested in becoming a better leader…

1. Strategic Space - Give yourself the strategic space to develop your business. As a small business owner/manager you probably spend a lot of your time working IN your business, create strategic space by diarising time to work ON your business.

2. Communication is a two-way process of sense making and sense giving. Two ears and one mouth and using them accordingly springs to mind. Listen intently to feedback and comments from your customers and staff. Feedback is sometime hard to digest but it is the best communication you can act upon giving you the opportunity to change and improve.

3. Innovation – In the words of management guru Peter Drucker ‘Innovation is the task of endowing human and material resources with new and greater wealth-producing capacity’. It is often the simple product or process change that can turn something from great to fantastic.

4. Self-Reflection – once practiced as a regular activity, the realisation is that of immense positive impact on you as a leader.

5. Company Culture – the vision, mission and values of your company starts inside and radiates out through your brand and employees. Many customer and potential customers buy from companies who have a company culture that aligns with their own beliefs.  

Interested in learning more?

You’ll learn more about developing these habits and how to become a better leader on the free  Small Business Leadership Programme. You’re eligible if:
•    you have line management responsibility in a UK based company with 5-249 employees
•    your company has been trading for at least a year  

The registration process explained – it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3

Visit the website for the
1.    Click the ‘get started’ yellow button
2.    Under regions, select East Midlands
3.    You’ll see two dates for courses run by Leicester Castle Business School on January 7 and 14 – click the dates you prefer

And you’re registered!

We look forward to meeting you online at the Welcome and Induction on either the 7 or 14 January.

Jackie Cooper is programme manager for the Small Business Leadership Programme, a FREE Government-funded programme for leaders of small businesses to survive and thrive in the coming months. It’s part of a £20m package of support for SMEs and scale ups.