Managing directors need to operate with a strategic viewpoint and understand the long-term ambitions and broader business picture. They should spend time talking to employees about improving the business and delegating responsibilities, while also listening to opinions and making people feel valued. Inspiration is also key to success - directors can inspire by offering a new perspective or positive recognition. Being a good example of leadership and judging when to intervene versus leave things can help an organization develop quickly and efficiently.

1. Lorenzo V Tan

2.  Becoming an effective leader can be a complicated
task, but following some simple principles can help
you get the most out of your position and the people
around you. Being a role model to the rest of your
organization can help inspire them to achieve beyond
expectations. There is a thin line between
management and leadership, so I've put together a list
of the key leadership skills for managing directors.

4.  Managing directors need to operate with a strategic
viewpoint. An understanding of the long-term
ambitions of the organization and the broader picture
of the business and the way it operates is essential to
being an effective leader and a good managing
director.

5.  Directors need to allow much of their time to be spent
on talking to employees and peers about ways to
improve the business and continue developing in the
right direction. Delegation of responsibilities is
important here, and outlining a high-level context
will ensure that the management team can take
charge of the process of improving the organization.
Ask strategic questions, and generate answers by
involving the team around you.

7.  Leadership includes a lot of man-management and
communication, and an important element of this is
listening to the people in your organization. Nobody
appreciates a totalitarian managing director who
pushes their weight around, and this would mean that
productivity is more than likely to decrease.

8.  Listening to everybody, and taking their opinions and
observations into account in your leadership helps
your colleagues feel valued, and makes them more
responsive to your ideas when you want to express
them.

10.  Inspiration is key to success. If you can instill
inspiration to your management team and the rest of
your organization, everybody will work that bit
harder to ensure that they are a success. Incentives
aren't always just monetary, and inspiration can be
drawn from offering a new perspective, approaching
a novel way of working or offering positive
recognition for achievements within the company.

11.  Being an example to your team is essential, and
approaching your leadership in the correct way can
be enough to inspire them to make the extra effort.

12.  Sometimes leaders need to intervene with their
management team. Judging when best to intervene
and when best to leave things is a key skill. As a
director, you don't want to micro-manage and you
don't want to make colleagues feel like you're doing
their job for them.

14.  Front-line delivery of products or services are not
things a director should be heavily involved in the
day-to-day, but high-level monitoring is the best
approach to make sure your team is tackling issues in
the correct way. If they're struggling to cope,
intervene.

15.  A clear and detailed objective, communicated
correctly, will help your organization develop quickly
and efficiently. The clarity in aims and objectives will
keep everybody focused on the outcome, and how
their day-to-day tasks contribute to that achievement.
A high-level viewpoint doesn't need to be vague, and
you can initiate specific operational changes to make
sure your strategy is implemented in the best way.