Being at the head of a company requires certain skills that not everyone has. However, these are vital to be able to exercise effective leadership and ensure that a team moves forward united and rowing in the same direction.

Some people are practically born with them, either because they are in tune with their character or because they have learned them from an early age following their parents' example. On the other hand, there are others for whom perhaps this is something new, and they are not even aware of which business leadership competencies they should assume and exercise.

A good leader must guide the team, offer confidence, generate enthusiasm, motivate the team, look for solutions, listen to others, and inject the energy that the group needs to obtain the results expected of them.

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In this post, we will address the concepts of business competency and leadership competencies, and then move on to look at some keys that you can apply in your own business.

Concepts of business competence and leadership

Contents

• Concepts of business competence and leadership
• What is business competence?
• What are business leadership competencies?
• Key competencies in business leadership
• Knowing how to delegate
• Organization
• Empathy
• Commitment
• Honesty

When we talk about business competition, we may be referring to two very different concepts:

1. On the one hand, there is the definition that refers to the rivalry, which does not have to be so, between two companies working in the same niche.
2. On the other hand, we have the definition of entrepreneurial competence, which is based on the entrepreneurial skills needed to manage and lead your business.

I would like to make a special point here, because most entrepreneurs see competition as a negative thing. And, in my opinion, having competition can also be a positive thing.

Thanks to business competition, we can detect opportunities, new markets, ways to attract the public, make collaborations or generate mutually beneficial alliances.

Be that as it may, rivalry has never been healthy for a business. My recommendation is that you exercise your competition from an ethical point of view.

What is business competence?

Business competence, seen as I have just mentioned, refers to the set of skills, behaviors and knowledge that a person has to obtain results in his or her company. Thanks to it, decisions can be made and strategies and actions can be carried out that are focused on a clear and precise objective.

These types of skills, behaviors and knowledge make a high-performance team high performance team work under a quality and motivating work environment, knowing the consequences that their work has on the common objective, being responsible for their functions and giving their best to achieve the desired goal.

What are business leadership competencies?

Now that you understand the concept of business competencies, it is time to start learning more about them.

Within this wide range of possibilities, you will be able to find different types of leadership or business management competencies that you can cultivate and apply in your day-to-day work. One possible categorization could be the following:

• Strategic competencies. These are those that are applied to make the processes, operations and activities carried out by the team more efficient in order to achieve results.
• Human competencies. In this case we are talking about business management competencies more focused on offering a correct treatment to each of the members of the group.
• Ethical competencies. And finally, these could be those exercised to ensure good practices and transparency within the company.

Key competencies in business leadership

Let's see now what are those skills that favor the development of a business and that every entrepreneur should learn to give strength to each of the projects launched.

Knowing how to delegate

Some people think that delegating is the same as losing control over certain tasks or responsibilities. However, it is an essential skill for a business to grow. If it is not exercised, it can cause discomfort within the team due to lack of trust, stress due to lack of time of the entrepreneur and low efficiency of the business.

My recommendation is that you choose the best professionals to be part of your team, and place 100% of your trust in them so that you can take care of those aspects that require your attention.

Organization

A good leader must be able to strategically coordinate and plan all the movements that need to be made for the ship to reach its destination. This avoids having two people working on the same task, several people responsible for the same process, waste of resources...

Today there are work management tools and other very useful tools to plan the work of a team, and its responsibilities, as well as each of the projects that are underway. An example could be Basecamp or TribeScale.

Empathy

This is perhaps the business competency that helps great leaders the most. Thanks to it, it is possible to understand how each team member feels and act accordingly. It is essential to inspire and motivate the group and to choose the right speech to address them so as not to harm their productivity and energy.

Commitment

And what is a leader without commitment? Simply a person who does not exercise his or her responsibility, who only limits himself or herself to complying with schedules and little else. The commitment of a leader is demonstrated on a day-to-day basis by accompanying the company in:

• Good times and bad times.
• Efforts to satisfy its customers.
• Obtaining results.
• That each member of your team feels comfortable and indispensable within the group.

Honesty

To finish this list, one of the business leadership competencies that both the leader and the team members must have is honesty. Without values like this, it is impossible to work towards common goals, make decisions together, walk in the same direction or understand that the successes of others are vital to achieve results.

Business competence is a must in order to run a business. If you think you still have some way to go in this area, don't worry... most skills and knowledge can be learned, you just need to take action and invest effort to improve!

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