“Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and action.” Good leaders are thus known to be people with a good attitude that puts them into action and helps them achieve their goals. So are you an entrepreneur, a leader of both?
So let’s take a look at an important aspect of a good Business Level Strategy – Leadership Traits. See also this TEDxLingnan University video where Anna Wong talks about the Feminine Traits That Make A Good Leader:
Who are entrepreneurs and leaders?
Entrepreneurs are defined as people with a set of skills that helps them identify a user’s need and provide solutions for it. Entrepreneurship is a skill that involves innovation, risk, creativity, and strong marketing skills which a business entrepreneur must have to launch a business.
Leaders, on the other hand, are people who not only help implement available resources in an effective manner but also motivate others for accomplishing a common task. It thus goes on to say that all entrepreneurs are not leaders, and all leaders are necessarily not entrepreneurs. However, if an entrepreneur is a good leader also, the success rate of a venture becomes much higher.
Interesting differences between leadership and entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs are often characterized by high levels of energy, creativity, and risk-taking abilities. On the other hand, leaders are characterized by moderate levels of energy, higher patience, and good listening and teaching skills.
An entrepreneur does not have much patience and is not a good listener whereas leaders excel in such an attitude. If we look at some stealth-mode start-ups that have multi-channel customers, we see that different leadership traits are required.
Delegating abilities and networking skills of leaders are often better than those of entrepreneurs, also. This, however, does not mean that entrepreneurs cannot be good leaders. It only means that both entrepreneurs and leaders need to exercise skills depending on the role they are in.
The commonality between the two
Similarities in the two roles exist too. Both leadership and entrepreneurship involve common goals of enterprise success. Moreover, both with their extensive knowledge of the business have decision-making capabilities.
Their leadership qualities must have sparks of authenticity and with better business managing abilities they have the quality to build a better business environment.
A leader in spite of having that driving force also requires strong entrepreneurial skills necessary to give the business a different look and increase organizational performance. An entrepreneur who can motivate others towards a similar vision can become a successful leader.
The Big Guys
Money, fame, and a listing on the top business ranking sites. Well yes, they seem to have it all at a young age. In this article, we bring you snippets about a few different top CEOs of the world and the power of that little idea that fuelled their growth to the top echelons.
Mark Zuckerberg: Synonymous with Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg became one of the richest and most influential CEOs in the world with the success of a little idea. The thought that everyone wants to know something about everyone else served as the trigger. He had simply started to create a network for Harvard students, but little did he know that the idea had global potential.
Matt Mullenweg: This creator of WordPress brought to the world the easiest way to share your thoughts online. Today at the young age of 26, he is the CEO of a business worth over $40 million. Creator of the world’s first free open source web software, Matt Mullenweg understood the art of keeping things simple and he developed the business from an idea of creating a blogging software that was easy to use.
Naveen Selvadurel: Location-based networking was the simple idea that made Naveen Selvadurel the hero behind Foursquare. What started out as a simple idea to help more people explore new things in New York City soon went global. Naveen uses Yoga lessons to release his ideas and expectations and today, this product has helped millions of businesses to better connect with their customers, while helping people connect to the brands they like.
Andrew Mason: This young CEO made local deals more accessible to local customers with the simple idea of online coupons. Groupon was born for the purpose and became a massive hit within the first six months of being launched in Chicago.
The above success stories of Mark Zuckerberg, Matt Mullenweg, Naveen Selvadurel, and Andrew Mason simply go on to prove that age is never a hurdle with CEOs. It is only the worth of the right idea whose time has come that can plunge you into greatness. It is about getting inspired with less. Much less! And if you as an entrepreneur have it in you too, then take the plunge. In a future post, we can take a closer look at business leaders like Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk, for example.
Entrepreneurship
The myriad day-to-day responsibilities of entrepreneurship can have some rough curves and bog you down. Working all alone or feeling negative energies from home and team members, trying to reach difficult goals and overly high ambitions can all drag you down too.
Staying motivated becomes imperative for getting ahead in such difficult times. If you are going through the entrepreneurship blues, here are some ideas to keep you motivated and moving and to push past your boundaries.
Staying fit
Eating a healthy balanced diet, getting in six hours of sleep and regular exercise is more important for entrepreneurs, as they need to invest all the energy they have.
Staying fit helps you to stay alert, keep your calm under stressful situations, and make the most out of any opportunity. If you’ve been putting off exercise because of daily duties, you may want to think twice.
Sharpening focus
The main focus of your life and business should be the core of your enterprise. To ensure that you do not shift or lose focus, it is important to reaffirm it to yourself every day. This is what some say is the psychology of ME and it may also apply to YOU.
Once you shift your focus from the smaller problem to the larger ideas, issues will seem minor and the effort worthwhile. Many experts advise that writing down your career objective on a piece of paper as soon as you get up and before you head to bed can help reaffirm what you want from life.
Selecting networks
The people in your professional and personal life determine your level of motivation too. Select friends carefully and foster a positive environment of encouragement. Be supportive of ideas from colleagues and you can then expect a similar attitude from them too. Encourage positivity at home also.
Success and failure are all determined by mental strength. It is the strength to be able to take the leap of faith and to pick yourself up from every fall. Entrepreneurs are after all people who know the difference between obstacles and opportunity. More importantly, they know how to turn the two to their advantage.