The Keys To Commanding Respect As A Business Owner

You know that your gender doesn’t have any negative impact on your ability to run a business or lead a team. Nonetheless, there’s no escaping that some employees, associates and clients may underestimate you based on this factor. The best way to overcome those issues is to prove that you’re the boss!

How can you do that? Simply follow the 10 tips below, and you’ll remove any uncertainty in no time.

1. Dress To Impress

Appearances count for a lot business, especially as you look to create a winning first impression. This is the perfect opportunity to establish your authority as a woman in power. Do this well, and you’ll instantly command respect from everyone you ever deal with in business. If nothing else, it should boost your self-confidence and work wonders for your motivation levels.

2. Employ With Equality In Mind

If you want to be treated with equality, it’s imperative that you lead by example. Recruitment is one of the most important challenges in modern business and picking those with the right skills and character is key. Gender, race, and disability should never prevent a winning candidate from landing the job. Besides, a team that creates an inclusive atmosphere can only be good for the brand image.

3. Master Public Speaking

Speaking with authority to the team instantly underlines your place at the top of the business, and can evoke far better responses. Short, sharp team meetings like those by Google are a great starting point. Of course, presentations and speaking at public networking events will help too. If you struggle with those natural skills, there are plenty of courses available online and locally.

4. Be Organized

Nothing plants a seed of doubt into staff and client minds quite like poor organization. Punctuality is a crucial attribute that you must embrace, especially if you want others to do the same. Likewise, knowing that you have all the necessary items for the day of work makes a big difference. In addition to the personal benefits, it’ll put many of the customer or employee fears to bed.

5. Delegate & Communicate

You can only achieve so much with one pair of hands, which is why you hire a team in the first place. Successful delegation to team leaders should pay dividends. Being a tutor and maintaining good communication links with all staff and clients is important too. Fax over IP is one of the best ways to do this. Smartphones are also fantastic devices for mastering those challenges.

6. Show Respect

Actions encourage reciprocal responses in business. So, if you want people to treat you with respect, it’s vital that you do the same. Be trusting enough to slowly increase the employee responsibilities or let them work from home. Do this while also striking up a positive relationship, and there’s no doubt that you’ll see positive reactions from staff and clients alike.   

7. Know What You Want

Running a business in a confused or ambiguous manner won’t do. If you run a production team, are you more concerned about costs or time schedules? Knowing what you want allows you to lead the team with greater authority while they’ll understand the expectations too. Get this right in each department, as well as the company as a whole, for immediate and long-term success.

8. Show Your Personality   

Being approachable is a key element for any successful boss or owner. Meanwhile, you shouldn’t be afraid to make work enjoyable and inject an element of fun from time to time. When people like you as a person, they’ll start to respect you as a women in power. Pay them compliments in return to further embrace that positive spirit. Make people feel happy at work, and it won’t go unnoticed.   

9. Embrace Modern Ideas

To truly show that you deserve respect, you won’t only want to do things well. You’ll also want to stay ahead of the crowd by embracing futuristic strategies. Crowdfunding shows that you are ready to think outside of the box. Influencer marketing underlines your appreciation of the digital age and changing consumer trends. This can encourage everyone to get behind the cause.

#10. Believe In Yourself

It may sound like a cliche, but you cannot expect people to believe in you unless you first learn to believe in yourself. Self-assurance is a wonderful trait and that aura will spread to everyone that connects with you. When you don’t give people any reason to doubt you, even those that actively won’t want to trust a women will have no choice but to accept that you’re the boss.    

[Editor’s note: This post is produced by one of our trusted partners.]