On Leadership, Community Bonding, and Business Success

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By Soulaima Gourani

Setting up and running a successful business is not easy. There are two traits that many people lack, but are required in order to achieve success, effort and determination. Great leadership is another major factor that is needed for corporate success, and it is when you combine all these factors when running a business/organization that you will be able to increase your revenue streams and influence in the community/market you operate in.

Many people, however, have a misconstrued view of leadership. Many believe that leadership entails overseeing the operations of an organization and coming up with the best strategies to future-proof the organization, but there is much more to leadership than this.

As the leader of an organization, you head a team of workers whose primary objective is to ensure that the organization delivers on its objectives and goals as such. Therefore, you must inspire and motive those working for you. Many people, however, overlook this aspect of leadership, instead of resorting to threats of dismissal to get the workers to perform their duties. This is not the best strategy since it relies on fear to get the workers to perform and fear is usually not the best motivator. It may get the job done for a while, but you cannot use it to spur corporate success for long.

Workers are the face of any organization and having them operate in an environment of fear is not suitable for business since it curtails their freedom and ability to interact with the clients in the best viable way.

The best thing would be to inspire and encourage them to do more and to give more. To err is human and when your employees make a mistake, be gentle when disciplining them. This shows that you care and it will push them to give their best to the benefit of the organization.

Another factor that is needed for corporate success is a strong corporate-community bond. The community a business operates in provides it with labor and a market for their goods and services, and it is only with a robust corporate-community bond that the company will prosper.

Corporations can organize community outreach programs such as planting trees in community gardens or visiting children homes where the workers and the leadership of an organization get to interact with the members of the community. Such activities create an emotional connection with the community members, and this is important for sustainability.

Organizations will have to spend money on such activities, but the ROI from such ventures is usually very high. This is because a strong corporate/community bond reinforces a company’s identity in the community and this helps bring in more customers to the business. Community outreach programs also show that the organization cares about the people and places that support the business and this helps create a positive impact on the community members.

As mentioned earlier, running an organization is not without its challenges, and it is how you deal with these challenges that will determine whether you will be successful or not. One of the biggest problems that corporates struggle with is the fear of change. Change is one of the most constant things on the planet and when you don’t embrace it, you risk stunting the growth of your business. Circumstances change and new technologies are invented and it is up to the business leadership to evaluate its operations to see what it needs to do to adapt to the new changes.

About Soulaima: Soulaima is the founder of Tradeconductor.com – World peace through trade and CEO of GETcapitalaid.com. Soulaima is a motivational speaker and philanthropist. Soulaima is an advisor to major companies on customer loyalty, strategic networking and change management and employee motivation and future of business (how to design sustainable products that provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health and environment). She has worked as an advisor/ and speaker for clients, e.g., Samsung, DuPont, LEGO, McKinsey, DELL, Microsoft, Stanford University, BMW, Cisco, and many more. Soulaima continues to be a sought-after public speaker and motivational leader. She advises American leaders, entrepreneurs, companies in areas such as strategy, management, and leadership. For more information on Soulaima, please visit www.soulaima.com.