Ecommerce Basics: 10 Questions to Ask When Creating an Online Store

If your company sells goods in a brick-and-mortar store but not online, you could be missing out on an incredible revenue-generating opportunity. U.S. online retail sales grew 12.6 percent to $176.2 billion in 2010, and they're expected to reach $278.9 billion by 2015, according to Cambridge, Mass.-based technology and market research company Forrester Research.

Is your business ready to reap some of those online sales? Launching an online store can be challenging for small businesses, which are often short on time, budget and staff. But ecommerce vendors can help you make designing and maintaining an online store relatively simple and affordable.

Here are 10 important questions to ask when creating your company's first online store:

1. How do I start building my online store? 
If you can't afford to hire someone to build a custom online store, don't worry. There are plenty of ecommerce vendors that can help you create one quickly. "They can take the hassle and headache of hard coding, hosting and doing maintenance on a server of your own out of the online store equation," says Julian Barkat, director of ecommerce and online marketing at Eggs to Apples, a Philadelphia digital marketing agency.

Such companies as Bigcommerce, Shopify, Goodsie, Jumpseller andVolusion let you design the overall look, feel and functionality of your online store. They also let you do things such as upload your product catalog, set up customer shopping carts, securely accept payments and handle order fulfillment. These services securely host your online store on their own servers. You can link to your online store from your company's main website.

Ecommerce services such as these usually require some basic initial set-up work on your part. For instance, with Shopify, you choose a storefront layout from a set of templates and customize your fonts, overall color scheme and product image sizes. Shopify users can also upload their own custom brand logos and backgrounds.

Prices for such services range from about $10 to $700 a month, depending largely on the number of products you sell and the amount and types of services provided.

2. How can I best customize the overall look of my online store? 
In most cases, if your company already has a website, your ecommerce site should reflect your existing online look, including your logos and color schemes. If you don't have a business website, choose background and accent colors for your ecommerce site that complement your logo.

Most design templates from ecommerce vendors come with preset theme settings that don't require HTML or CSS knowledge to customize. So, it should be relatively easy to upload your logo and product images and add banners, slideshows and more.

3. What type of payment system should I use? 
Barkat recommends PayPal when you're starting out. That's mainly because the third-party processor is so widely known as a secure system for accepting online payments.

While there aren't any sign-up or fixed monthly charges for PayPal's basic service, Barkat cautions that PayPal's seller fees "can really add up quick." PayPal sellers pay a 2.9 percent transaction fee on the total sale amount, plus a 30-cent fee per transaction.

Authorize.net is another popular payment processing solution that Barkat recommends. The processor charges a $99 set-up fee, plus a $20 monthly fee and 10 cents per transaction.

Still, many shoppers prefer to pay for online purchases with their own credit cards rather than use PayPal or other third-party payment processors. You can obtain a merchant account with each individual credit card company. Many charge fees per transaction ranging from 20 to 50 cents, plus a percentage of the total purchase amount. Some also charge monthly, quarterly and annual fees.

4. How will I handle customer service? 
To respond to customers' concerns efficiently, you may want to choose an ecommerce vendor that gives you access to a reliable customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Most of the major ecommerce vendors offer CRM options, sometimes for an added fee ranging between about $25 and $75 per month.

CRM tools document, streamline and structure the many ways merchants interact with customers in one central place, including customer contact information, recent purchases, complaints and pending orders.

Heather Peterson, founder of Girl Charlee Inc., a Signal Hill, Calif.-based online retailer and wholesaler of vintage and rare knit fabrics, suggests getting a toll-free phone number specifically dedicated to customer service. Another option is to set up a live chat in your online store, she says, but only if you can operate it 24/7, which online shoppers have come to expect.

5. How should I determine shipping costs? 
It's often easier and more accurate to leave exact shipping-cost calculations -- both to you and your customer -- to the carrier you use. The major carriers will calculate shipping costs for you for free, and most major ecommerce vendors allow you to integrate those costs into your store's checkout section.

On the other hand, you may want to consider offering free shipping, at least for orders over a certain amount. If your direct competitors provide free shipping, Peterson suggests that you consider it, too, if you can afford it.

6. How do I create the best product images and descriptions? 
"Online shoppers don't get to see, touch, feel or smell your product," says Barkat, so the next best thing is a crisp, clear product image. While he says you shouldn't entirely cut corners on photography, you don't have to hire a professional to get high-quality images. But you should use "a 16-megapixel DSLR camera, decent lighting and a light box," he advises. A photo lightbox is a tent-like container with several light bulbs aimed at its interior that photography professionals often use to create well-illuminated images of objects.

Peterson says written product descriptions should be short, yet rich with enough interesting details to pique customer interest. "Try to use compelling adjectives and phrases that evoke an emotion when someone reads your description," she says, "without getting too carried away or taking up too much space." In addition to noting the price, you may want to include product uses, dimensions and other defining characteristics.

7. Should I allow customer reviews and social sharing? 
Giving customers the ability to comment on your products and leave ratings can help boost their confidence in your store, Peterson says. Positive reviews and social media shares could lead to more sales, but there's also the risk of negative comments. Several major ecommerce services offer customer review options that allow you to respond to -- or remove -- undesirable comments.

While Peterson hasn't yet enabled customer comments within her online store, she has made it possible for customers to "like" her products on Facebook, "pin" images of them to their Pinterest pages and email images and brief descriptions of them directly from the product listings.

8. How will I start to attract shoppers? 
After your store is up and running, spread the word both online and off. Placing links to your store's web address on your company's main website and in your email newsletter campaigns would be a good start. Peterson also recommends creating Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube accounts representing your online store. Updating your company's social media sites a few times a day can drive traffic to your store by drawing attention to daily deals and other promotions.

It's also advisable to choose an ecommerce vendor that automatically uses search engine optimization (SEO) for your store's content. SEO tactics can give your store a higher ranking in search results on Google, Bing and Yahoo.

9. How should I handle returns? 
Every store has to deal with returned items. Double-check that your ecommerce vendor provides built-in tools that let you quickly and easily replace merchandise or refund purchase prices, restock your inventory and send emails to customers about the status of their return.

10. How can I track the success of my store? 
Try to select an ecommerce vendor that offers free self-service analytics, often driven by Google Analytics, and other reporting tools to help you track your store's performance over time. These can tell you how many people are visiting your store and how often, where they live and how they found you. They can also show you which websites drive the most traffic to your store and which products customers look at and purchase most and least often.

8 Innovative Companies to Watch Out For

There are a lot of exciting things happening in the world of business right now. From innovations in team-communication tools and hiring solutions to customized employee benefits and civil-rights movements, you don't have to do a lot of digging to discover emerging technologies and business models that were previously impossible to achieve or were completely unheard of. At the rate of advancement we're moving at, it's not hard to conceive that we'll be seeing many more new developments in the months and years to come.

Here are eight innovative companies to watch out for:

1. Inventure

Shivani Siroya is the CEO of Inventure, a company that currently operates in eastern Africa, South Africa and India. In these localities, over 2.5 billion people have no credit score, which means banks aren't willing to offer them loans. While working in microfinance and investment banks in emerging markets, Siroya observed that people without any data had nowhere to turn to borrow other than loan sharks, and saw an opportunity to do something about the situation.

Inventure is a mobile app that monitors a borrower's usage, assessing 10,000 indicators to determine their level of responsibility. In the first year, Inventure accepted 50 percent of applications and more than 6,000 loans. The repayment rate has been an impressive 85 percent.

Today, Inventure also offers tools to help people manage their finances, businesses and savings.

Related: This All-In-One Travel Jacket Is Now One of the 10 Most Funded Projects Ever on Kickstarter

2. Slack

Stewart Butterfield entered a rather competitive field with his collaborative-messaging platform for businesses known as Slack. And yet, it is one of the most recognizable names in the team-chat category today. Interestingly enough, Slack began as an online game project, which is also more or less how Flickr came about.

Slack's powerful feature set is partly what makes it so popular. Although it may appear to be little more than a glorified instant-messaging platform, users can use Slack to share files, stay in sync across every device, integrate with a variety of popular apps and even create notifications for when specific keywords are mentioned in conversation. Most important, it reduces the need for email, something many consider to be a big time sink.

3. Starfighter

Starfighter brings together the most talented engineers in the tech industry and then introduces them to hiring managers. In its own words, "Starfighter is not here to fix the job interview. We're here to destroy it, and replace it with something better."

Founders Thomas Ptacek, Erin Ptacek and Patrick McKenzie intend to achieve this end by deploying CTFs (capture-the-flag games) that are designed specifically to find people with rare and valuable programming skills.

4. Color of Change

Color of Change was founded by James Rucker and Van Jones in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Their goal is to "make government more responsive to the concerns of black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone." They found considerable traction during the Michael Brown and Eric Garner grand-jury decisions -- cases where unarmed black men were killed by white police officers who were not criminally charged.

Color of Change offers a variety of online resources -- images, boycotts, petitions and so on -- so that users can get involved in ongoing campaigns.

5. Gumroad

Gumroad gives creative people an easy way to sell digital, and sometimes physical, goods directly to their fans. Cost-effective and easy to use, the platform is popular among musicians, authors, designers and others with something of value, such as Photoshop templates or ebooks, to offer.

Users can start selling their products immediately, charge a recurring payment with subscription-based products, or even begin taking pre-orders before they officially launch their products. For its expanding feature set and value-adding blog content, Gumroad will continue to be one to watch.

Related: 4 Steps to Innovation Every Leader Needs to Follow

6. Houzz

Looking for home design, decorating and remodeling ideas? Having trouble finding a contractor that you could see yourself working with? That's exactly why Adi Tatarko and her husband started Houzz, a platform you can use to curate design ideas, find pros to work with and even shop for various home-related products.

From curating design ideas to finding trustworthy contractors, trying to remodel your home can be a frustrating experience. This is why Houzz is, and will continue to be, a company to keep an eye on.

7. AnyPerk

Taro Fukuyama and Sunny Tsang co-founded AnyPerk in 2012. Fukuyama launched the company after he discovered that there were startup founders who wanted to hire talented individuals who were already working at places such as Facebook or Google, but couldn't offer them any perks.

AnyPerk allows workers to access a variety of different benefits, such as ski passes, spa treatments, sports tickets and more. The company allows for a more customized perk experience for employees.

8. LINE

The LINE mobile-messaging app launched in March of 2011 and has more than 170 million monthly active users. The platform is so popular in Japan that young people are often seen exchanging their LINE IDs instead of phone numbers.

Their success can be attributed, at least in part, to the application's oversized emoji- or emoticon-style graphics called stickers. LINE is even looking to open up retail locations that sell T-shirts and stuffed animals based on its sticker designs.

Final thoughts

What we can see from the above examples is that innovation often comes from a desire to solve an existing problem. It might be your own problem, or someone else's, but when you discover a need that exists in the world, there is almost certainly an opportunity for you to rise to the occasion and present a solution.

Projects don't always go as planned, but they can provide opportunities to pivot, or to go in another direction. Knowing when to transition into a new undertaking isn't the easiest thing to figure out, but if you're open to the possibilities, you'll eventually hit upon something that connects with people.

The 5 Mistakes Standing Between You and Your First Million

Creating a seven-figure business online was improbable 10 or even just five years ago, but as technology improves globally, there are more seven-figure earners than ever before. The total number of millionaire households reached 9.6 million in 2013, but has topped 10.2 million already in 2015. With the technology, resources, mentorship, research, and information available it’s becoming easier than it has in the past. Sadly, most still won’t reach the seven figure annual mark.

Why? Learning is not the problem for most people, and lack of information surely isn’t the problem, as there is more than ever before. It’s the lack of real awareness and consistent study of the right information, mixed with inconsistent execution and implementation, that holds back most back. You don’t just listen to something then remember it. You must put those ideas and strategies into consistent practice and repeat those actions until they are habitual and automatic. You must summarize the key ideas, sharpen your perspective, then take more intelligent action. There are a lot of reasons why most won’t reach seven figures, but here are the top five.  

1. Most focus on perfection, not experiments.

Seeking perfection has lost me more than $100,000 the last couple years. By the time a millionaire has tried and tested eight different experiments without focusing on perfection, most people haven’t even gone to market yet. Maybe only two of their experiments worked and were deemed profitable. The point is they weren’t paralyzed by perfection, but were driven by testing.

Test all your crazy ideas. No matter how crazy they sound, try them out. Find out which ones work, then optimize how effective they are. Test all variations of that idea. Find out which variation works best. Ideas are nothing until executed and proven.

Related: 4 Smart Money Habits to Help You Earn Your First Million Dollars

2. Few thoroughly think things through.

“The more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in war”

One of the biggest missed opportunities for entrepreneurs is not preparing for, or pre-determining what, they want. Truly productive people know the result they are after and maintain acute clarity on it. Armed with this awareness, they reverse engineer this big goal into a series of small and actionable steps that they then put into a one or two  page plan of execution. Strategically thinking through your future will prevent mistakes, while increasing your ability to predict. When you’re intentional in all you do, you mitigate against risk and can make more educated decisions. 

Plan your long-term strategies before you plan your tactics. Strategy shows where you plan on going, who you want to be and what types of clients you want to attract. Tactics show how to get all of your strategy accomplished. You don't have a real strategy if it doesn't pass these two tests: that what you're planning to do really matters to your existing and potential customers; and second, it differentiates you from your competition.

3. Most never learn intelligent delegation.

Getting others to do something as well or better than yourself is one of the hardest aspects of leadership, but necessary if you're going to grow the business past the six-figure mark. Before you strategically delegate and build a team you must understand who you are, and what’s most important to you. Once you determine your most important values, put them into writing and operationalize them into company standards. Consistently systemize and internalize those values.

Your team must be value based. If somebody can do something 80 percent as well as you, they should be doing it. When you delegate a task, make sure the person you’ve hired has clear and defined roles. Most entrepreneurs hire very fast, but fire very slow. It should be the opposite. Hire slow, fire fast.

Related: The Critical Lesson of Letting Bad Employees Go

4. Most are making the wrong trades.

Millionaires realize they will never become wealthy trading time for money. It’s OK for awhile when you start, but at some point you have to focus on scaling and leverage. You're fighting an uphill battle if you’re trying to make seven figures trading time for money. You won’t get to seven figures only doing more of made you six figures.

Focus on the power of leverage and how to create consistent income without trading time for money. There are many possibilities -- investment properties, membership sites, angel investing, building an online empire, partnerships, affiliate marketing, different types of programs, etc. Take some time to really analyze if you're maximizing your time. If you are trading time for money, make 100 percent sure it's an intelligent trade. If you want to make more money, become more valuable. It's as simple as that. Entrepreneurs who understand the power of leveraging and scaling their businesses become millionaires by bringing more value to the marketplace than their competitors.

5. Most are ego focused instead of customer centric.

“How do we decide what’s really important to work on? I like to call it the ‘toothbrush test’: do our customers use it as often as you use your toothbrush? I guess that’s twice a day. We use Gmail and YouTube much more than twice a day. Those things are amazing.” 

    — Larry Page, CEO Google 

People care about what your business can do for them. Most entrepreneurs try to sell their experience and expertise. They believe that people want to pay them for what they know, but people don’t. They want to buy a solution or outcome to their problems and desires. They want results. They want to solve their problem and reduce whatever suffering they are going through. They don’t care about you.

Do you really understand at a deep level what your customers want? Those at the seven-figure mark have a monomaniacal focus on this. You must realize that the likelihood of the marketplace responding because you want something is non-existant. It's about them, not you. Your customers are marketing geniuses, so make sure you do your due diligence. Find ways to survey them, or talk to them about their needs, wants, desires, passions, concerns etc.  Customers want a fun and personal journey through all points of engagement. Do you deliever? 

I’ve had several opportunities to get inside the minds of the richest people on the planet. There are timeless lessons we can learn from.  A simple statement, quote or perspective shift can change the game for you. Become aware of what’s holding you back from elevating your business to the next level. Adjust your thinking, actions and strategy in accordance to your new vision.

Lastly, execute flawlessly on tactics above and make sure you’re in it for the long haul. I’m confident that by doing these things you’ll soon see your prospects for a seven-figure business become clearer than they ever have.

6 LEADERSHIP STYLES, AND WHEN YOU SHOULD USE THEM

Taking a team from ordinary to extraordinary means understanding and embracing the difference between management and leadership. According to writer and consultant Peter Drucker, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." 

Manager and leader are two completely different roles, although we often use the terms interchangeably. Managers are facilitators of their team members’ success. They ensure that their people have everything they need to be productive and successful; that they’re well trained, happy and have minimal roadblocks in their path; that they’re being groomed for the next level; that they are recognized for great performance and coached through their challenges.

Conversely, a leader can be anyone on the team who has a particular talent, who is creatively thinking out of the box and has a great idea, who has experience in a certain aspect of the business or project that can prove useful to the manager and the team. A leader leads based on strengths, not titles.

The best managers consistently allow different leaders to emerge and inspire their teammates (and themselves!) to the next level.

When you’re dealing with ongoing challenges and changes, and you’re in uncharted territory with no means of knowing what comes next, no one can be expected to have all the answers or rule the team with an iron fist based solely on the title on their business card. It just doesn’t work for day-to-day operations. Sometimes a project is a long series of obstacles and opportunities coming at you at high speed, and you need every ounce of your collective hearts and minds and skill sets to get through it.

This is why the military style of top-down leadership is never effective in the fast-paced world of adventure racing or, for that matter, our daily lives (which is really one big, long adventure, hopefully!). I truly believe in Tom Peters’s observation that the best leaders don’t create followers; they create more leaders. When we share leadership, we’re all a heck of a lot smarter, more nimble and more capable in the long run, especially when that long run is fraught with unknown and unforeseen challenges.

Change leadership styles

Not only do the greatest teammates allow different leaders to consistently emerge based on their strengths, but also they realize that leadership can and should be situational, depending on the needs of the team. Sometimes a teammate needs a warm hug. Sometimes the team needs a visionary, a new style of coaching, someone to lead the way or even, on occasion, a kick in the bike shorts. For that reason, great leaders choose their leadership style like a golfer chooses his or her club, with a calculated analysis of the matter at hand, the end goal and the best tool for the job.

My favorite study on the subject of kinetic leadership is Daniel Goleman’s Leadership That Gets Results, a landmark 2000 Harvard Business Review study. Goleman and his team completed a three-year study with over 3,000 middle-level managers. Their goal was to uncover specific leadership behaviors and determine their effect on the corporate climate and each leadership style’s effect on bottom-line profitability.

The research discovered that a manager’s leadership style was responsible for 30% of the company’s bottom-line profitability! That’s far too much to ignore. Imagine how much money and effort a company spends on new processes, efficiencies, and cost-cutting methods in an effort to add even one percent to bottom-line profitability, and compare that to simply inspiring managers to be more kinetic with their leadership styles. It’s a no-brainer.

Here are the six leadership styles Goleman uncovered among the managers he studied, as well as a brief analysis of the effects of each style on the corporate climate:

1. The pacesetting leader expects and models excellence and self-direction. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be "Do as I do, now." The pacesetting style works best when the team is already motivated and skilled, and the leader needs quick results. Used extensively, however, this style can overwhelm team members and squelch innovation.
   
2. The authoritative leader mobilizes the team toward a common vision and focuses on end goals, leaving the means up to each individual. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be "Come with me." The authoritative style works best when the team needs a new vision because circumstances have changed, or when explicit guidance is not required. Authoritative leaders inspire an entrepreneurial spirit and vibrant enthusiasm for the mission. It is not the best fit when the leader is working with a team of experts who know more than him or her.
   
3. The affiliative leader works to create emotional bonds that bring a feeling of bonding and belonging to the organization. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be "People come first." The affiliative style works best in times of stress, when teammates need to heal from a trauma, or when the team needs to rebuild trust. This style should not be used exclusively, because a sole reliance on praise and nurturing can foster mediocre performance and a lack of direction.
   
4. The coaching leader develops people for the future. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be "Try this." The coaching style works best when the leader wants to help teammates build lasting personal strengths that make them more successful overall. It is least effective when teammates are defiant and unwilling to change or learn, or if the leader lacks proficiency.
   
5. The coercive leader demands immediate compliance. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be "Do what I tell you." The coercive style is most effective in times of crisis, such as in a company turnaround or a takeover attempt, or during an actual emergency like a tornado or a fire. This style can also help control a problem teammate when everything else has failed. However, it should be avoided in almost every other case because it can alienate people and stifle flexibility and inventiveness.
   
6. The democratic leader builds consensus through participation. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be "What do you think?" The democratic style is most effective when the leader needs the team to buy into or have ownership of a decision, plan, or goal, or if he or she is uncertain and needs fresh ideas from qualified teammates. It is not the best choice in an emergency situation, when time is of the essence for another reason or when teammates are not informed enough to offer sufficient guidance to the leader.

Bottom line? If you take two cups of authoritative leadership, one cup of democratic, coaching, and affiliative leadership, and a dash of pacesetting and coercive leadership "to taste," and you lead based on need in a way that elevates and inspires your team, you’ve got an excellent recipe for long-term leadership success with every team in your life.

Being a Leader

Over the past several years, one of the most important contributions psychology has made to the field of business has been in determining the key traits of acknowledged leaders. Psychological tests have been used to determine what characteristics are most commonly noted among successful leaders. This list of characteristics can be used for developmental purposes to help managers gain insight and develop their leadership skills.

The increasing rate of change in the business environment is a major factor in this new emphasis on leadership; whereas in the past, managers were expected to maintain the status quo in order to move ahead, new forces in the marketplace have made it necessary to expand this narrow focus. The new leaders of tomorrow are visionary. They are both learners and teachers. Not only do they foresee paradigm changes in society, but they also have a strong sense of ethics and work to build integrity in their organizations.

Raymond Cattell, a pioneer in the field of personality assessment, developed the Leadership Potential equation in 1954. This equation, which was based on a study of military leaders, is used today to determine the traits which characterize an effective leader. The traits of an effective leader include the following:

• Emotional stability: Good leaders must be able to tolerate frustration and stress. Overall, they must be well-adjusted and have the psychological maturity to deal with anything they are required to face.
• Dominance: Leaders are often competitive, decisive and usually enjoy overcoming obstacles. Overall, they are assertive in their thinking style as well as their attitude in dealing with others.
• Enthusiasm: Leaders are usually seen as active, expressive and energetic. They are often very optimistic and open to change. Overall, they are generally quick and alert and tend to be uninhibited.
• Conscientiousness: Leaders are often dominated by a sense of duty and tend to be very exacting in character. They usually have a very high standard of excellence and an inward desire to do their best. They also have a need for order and tend to be very self-disciplined.
• Social boldness: Leaders tend to be spontaneous risk-takers. They are usually socially aggressive and generally thick-skinned. Overall, they are responsive to others and tend to be high in emotional stamina.
• Self-assurance: Self-confidence and resiliency are common traits among leaders. They tend to be free of guilt and have little or no need for approval. They are generally unaffected by prior mistakes or failures.
• Compulsiveness: Leaders are controlled and very precise in their social interactions. Overall, they are very protective of their integrity and reputation and consequently tended to be socially aware and careful, abundant in foresight, and very careful when making decisions or determining specific actions.
• Intuitiveness: Rapid changes in the world today, combined with information overload result in an inability to know everything. In other words, reasoning and logic will not get you through all situations. In fact, more and more leaders are learning the value of using their intuition and trusting their gut when making decisions.
• Empathy: Being able to put yourself in the other person's shoes is a key trait of leaders today. Without empathy, you can't build trust; without trust, you will never be able to get the best effort from your employees.
• Charisma: People usually perceive leaders as larger than life. Charisma plays a large part in this perception. Leaders who have charisma are able to arouse strong emotions in their employees by defining a vision which unites and captivates them. Using this vision, leaders motivate employees to reach toward a future goal by tying the goal to substantial personal rewards and values.

Leaders are rarely (if ever) born. Circumstances and persistence are major components in the developmental process of any leader, so if your goal is to become a leader, work on developing those areas of your personality that you feel are not up to par. For instance, if you have all of the basic traits but do not consider yourself very much of a people person, try taking classes or reading books on empathy. On the other end, if relating to others has always come naturally to you, but you have trouble making logical decisions, try learning about tough-mindedness and how to develop more psychological resistance. Just remember, anyone can do anything they set their mind to.

7 Steps To A Truly Effective Leadership Style

If you’ve ever been led by a Mushroom (everyone’s in the dark), a Seagull (swoops in, squawks and dumps), or a Kipper (two-faced and gutless), you’ll be all too aware of theleadership style you don’t want to be known for.

Fortunately, the simple fact that you are reading this article instantly places you in an elite minority that is actually thinking about what you do want your leadership style to be known for. The vast majority just go to work and get on with it, in whatever style comes to them by default.

While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing (there will always be certain strengths to your default style), failing to actively develop your leadership style will deny you full range and maximum effectiveness. And it means that certain situations will be a lot harder to handle.

Style and Substance

The substance of what you do—the result you deliver—is pretty fundamental in today’s economy. But working on the way that you do it is what will launch you into a different sphere of success altogether—even if you already count yourself as pretty successful.

The leadership style you choose to use (and yes, to a great extent, it is an active choice you can make) has a direct impact on the result you achieve. It is what makes you memorable to others and fulfilled within yourself.

Redefining What’s “Best”

So what can you do to develop your own leadership style into one that will be highly prized? Here are seven steps to selecting the best leadership style, with tips for putting those steps into action.

1. Be Bold

Boldness is an essential for leading upwards. To grab the attention of your bosses, you need to swallow a bold pill and confidently make your point with as little padding as possible.

Few would describe industrialist Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways among others, as a great communicator. But a great visionary—absolutely. His boldness can be breathtaking. And most of it stems from not giving a damn about what others might think of him.

“Have a bit of personality,” advises Karen Bosher, Head of Stores for the Mothercare Group’s Southern UK region. “Courage fueled by a high degree of integrity and a dose of good judgment should give you the confidence to stand out.”

“Be proud to apologize—I’ve found that shift in mindset really frees me up to challenge, take risks, and dare to make mistakes,” she adds.

• Review where you’ve been holding back in your leadership. What elements of your personality could you allow to shine through more? Where could you be bolder?
• For one week, at the end of each day, make a list of 3 to 5 things that worked well about your style of leadership. Actively use them more the following week.

2. Be Strengths-Savvy

Daniel Goleman, the pioneer of Emotional Intelligence (EQ), conducted in-depth research on leadership style across the top two percent of leaders in 500 global firms and identified several broad styles of leadership (visionary, affiliative, coaching, democratic, directive and pace-setting).

Get to know your signature leadership style inside-out. Heighten your awareness of what you’re good at, and consciously play to your natural strengths as much as possible.

• Ask five colleagues what they consider to be the strengths of your leadership style.
• Buy a copy of Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, and take the online StrengthsFinder test it contains to identify your signature leadership themes.

3. Stretch Your Leadership Style

Alongside playing to your strengths, actively work to stretch into the leadership style(s) you find harder.

Goleman’s EQ research findings in a nutshell: the most successful leaders can consciously draw on and seamlessly integrate all leadership styles, dependent on the situation. One size definitely does not fit all.

Masculine working environments tend to spawn quite a directive and pace-setting style. If this is not your natural approach, but is required within your job, find ways to blend your natural style with your “stretch style” so you’re not putting on an act.

Dr. Samantha Collins, Aspire CEO and Founder, recently trained to be part of the Save The Children emergency relief team, and found that her natural coaching/affiliative style was not enough in moments of crisis.

“I needed to be incredibly directive and punchy—forceful, even,” she reflects. “But what worked best for me was to give clear directions in as human and humorous a way as I could, so that the job got done more effectively but I didn’t feel I was selling out on myself.”

Blend with your team’s leadership strengths to best advantage. “The best leaders are not well rounded…[but] the best teams are,” says Tom Rath of Gallup, which has surveyed over 3 million people on the topic of leadership style and strengths.

• Identify your leadership style stretch areas, and find ways to authentically blend them with your natural style.
• Review the blend of strengths in your team or organization. Who on your team has strengths that particularly complement your own leadership style, and how could you use these better?

4. Be “Going Somewhere”

Call it being visionary, call it setting direction, call it having a compelling point—creating hope for the future and helping people see the way forward is one of the top four basic needs of followers, according to Gallup’s latest research.

Recent studies by the Hay Group concur that to be a great leader, alongside being trustworthy, you simply must be able to communicate a vision of where you and others need to go. Not only will this inspire confidence downwards, among your team, it will also increase your impact upwards, among your bosses.

• Build your external network and read widely. You need a solid grasp of what’s happening outside your organization or department in order to create a bigger-picture vision.
• Draft and communicate. It doesn’t have to be perfectly worded from the start. You won’t be considered visionary unless you get the word out.

5. Be Follower-Focused

The best leaders are human and socially conscious. Recognizing the contribution of others and giving the team room to innovate is the best way to lead into a more resilient future.

• Consider “Why should my team be led by me?” Notice what you already bring them, and what they need more of from you to bring out their best.
• Ask yourself, “What can I give my team today?”

6. Be Balanced

Strive for sustainable thought and action. The “do it and be damned with the consequences” approach may still be going on around you, but great leaders know that it won’t wash long term.

• Ask yourself, “What might the unintended impact of my/our action be?”
• Balance yourself. Prioritize the things outside work that keep you sane by creating “golden time” in your calendar that can’t be touched.

7. Be True to You

Google GOOGL -1.37% lists 8.5 million web pages that all claim to have “the best” chocolate cake recipe. Presumably each is somebody’s favorite!

Like chocolate cake, there’s no such thing as “the best” leadership style in isolation. What there is, however, is the best leadership style for you, for a given situation. So give up trying to be something that you are not.

If you’re not being authentic, people will see straight through you. Genuine passion and pride create a fast-track to building connection and trust. Integrity, authenticity and walking your talk are the cornerstones to building great internal and external relationships.

The most valuable thing you have to offer is yourself. Whatever your leadership style is, it is uniquely yours. Own it, have confidence in it, trust that it’s not about becoming something completely different. None of the previous six steps will work without this …

• If it doesn’t feel right — it’s probably not. Find your own way and stick to it, with confidence!