Jewelry owners and managers and employees clearly all have a passion for jewelry or they probably would be working in a different industry. Here are seven tips to a more fulfilling and rewarding approach to leading your business, employees, and customers.

1. Have a vision that guides you when establishing policies and procedures. Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop said, “People I work with are open to leadership that has a vision, but this vision has to be communicated clearly and persuasively and always, always with passion.” Create mental images for employees to better convey your messages about your vision. Ask managers to tell you about the vision of the company. How aligned are their comments with your vision?
2. Deliver your vision with passion. Employees desire managers who share their passion for the company and jewelry. Think of any great leader and the hardships their followers encountered and how their passion kept people focused on the tasks at hand. Passion has an infectious quality. How good are sales associates who do not have a passion for jewelry? How good can managers be without a passion for the company and its products and the success of the employees?
3. Make decisions with rational thought and then convey them with passion. Get people to buy in based on your passion. Be sure to consult others to gain buy-in for the decisions you are about to make.
4. Leaders with passion just build better teams. Start by delegating more and letting the team operate at arm’s length. Delegate to find opportunities to allow employees to buy into the company’s vision. Their passion will rise right along with their buy-in.
5. Passion requires character. Have broad shoulders as a leader and take up the slack when the team is not meeting expectations. Do it with inspiration, confidence, and empathy. Running a business is never about the daily grind, but rather the long haul. In the long run, having a team with a leader who shows his/her passion for the company, products, customers, and employees develop skills that the competition just can’t match.
6. Passion is self-generated. You know what stimuli you need to be a well-motivated and passionate leader. Use passion to reflect your purpose for working in the jewelry industry. One person’s attitude can set the mood for the entire store. Let it be your resounding passion for the business.
7. Be a leader who shows his/her passion for the company, jewelry, customers, and employees.  Change your attitude and show more passion and expect to see yourself become more excited about your work.
8. Jewelry managers can constantly improve their passion as leaders and for their company. On a scale of 1 to 5, how excited are you right now? If it is not a 5, then double-check your goals for today and confirm your trust in your team to get the job done right. Constantly check your attitude. Use your passion to be the leader who is fulfilling his/her life with more happiness. How long will it take you to be recognized for your great attitude and passion for your business? Direction and passion are unbeatable.

Dr. Tim Malone served on the faculty of GIA for several years. Well known for his presentations at industry conferences and events, he now consults jewelry companies on how to offer sustainable competitive advantages, more effective differentiation, and sales, marketing, and merchandising management performance improvement. He can be reached at 760-305-7977 or at netvalue@cox.net.

JCK