As much as we would like to generalize about the ideal essential skills of good leaders, we might be wise to consider that in small firms leadership needs to take on a unique character in that context.
Growing the business means these leaders need to be working on the business as much as in the business. This means developing capacity to free time for working on the business.
Developing capacity involves teaching trusted people in the organization how to
- lead meetings
- make routine exception decisions
- facilitate contract and order fulfillment.
The more people develop capacity to take these on, the more able the firm's leaders can grow the business.