The secret to maintaining power is to consistently give it away, and that means delegation. Without effective delegation a company simply cannot develop and a leader will spend the majority of his or her time managing rather than leading.

Effective delegation involves the allocation of responsibility to others in such a way that their skills are enhanced. It empowers the employee, increasing their ability to make decisions and contribute to the business' success. For SME's effective delegation improves quality of work, allowing employees who have direct knowledge of processes, products and services to make decisions and complete tasks. Employee motivation is increased and most importantly for SME's, effective delegation frees the 'leader' to focus on the long term objectives of the business and motivating their team.

Next Level can help you firstly by identifying the tasks that need to be delegated. Then we will devise specific processes to effectively delegate these tasks and also create simple reporting mechanisms to allow you to measure effectiveness.

In order to lead you must delegate not 'do'.

Strategic planning can be challenging and complex and like all large organisations, SME's need to establish a strategic framework to work from. This framework consists of: a Vision for the future, a Mission that defines what you are doing, and Values that shape your daily behaviour.

Commercially, a vision clearly defines the purpose of the company and gives it a clear sense of direction in what it intends to achieve. From a vision of what the company aims to achieve will come a 'mission' of how the company intends to get there. A mission is a precise description of the company's key purpose. It is a definition of why the company exists. Values represent the core priorities in the company's culture, including what drives individuals priorities and how they behave on a daily basis.

All successful large organisations have a form of Vision, Mission and Values in place and see them as critical to their future success, why should it be any different for an SME? If everybody knows where the company is going, what it needs to do to get there and how they as individuals must behave along the way then you have very solid foundations for effective leadership.

Next Level can help you clearly define your vision which will in turn lead you to create your mission and values. This process can be quite challenging as for your vision to have any long-term value then it has to have real meaning, and it has to resonate with the people in your organisation. It cannot simply be a well contructed tag line that looks good in a frame or reads well on a marketing piece.

Emotional Capital is based on two simple principles: that emotions like trust, confidence, and inspiration are the most important by-products of good leadership, and that these emotions are important because they create strong relationships between businesses and their customers and employees, which ultimately builds commercial value.

Emotional Intelligence (often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient or EQ) is a term that describes the ability, capacity and skill to identify, asses and manage the emotions of one's self, of others and of groups. Experts now acknowledge that Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the most crucial determinant of success in the workplace. And unlike IQ or other traditional measures of intelligence, EQ can be developed and dramatically increased.

The Emotional Capital Inventory (ECi) is the world's first leadership tool designed to specifically link emotional intelligence directly to leadership skills. The test takes only 10-15 minutes online and based on your responses the ECi provides scores against the 10 emotional intelligence skills critical to effective leadership. In addition you can chose to include a separate 360 report where you can invite a large range of other people, from direct reports to family members, to respond. Once you have your report(s) then we can help you devise specific strategies to help take full advantage of your natural strengths as well as to work on any areas that need development.

Successful leaders around the world have been found to characterise higher levels of Emotional Intelligence (EQ), therefore Emotional Capital can be one of the most important sources of competitive advantage today. Quite simply, improving your Emotional Capital will help you improve your bottom line.