Q: What do business owners have that employees don’t?
A: The strong personal qualities of a successful leader.
Cultivate these qualities in yourself and watch your business explode with success.
1) Be Self-Directed
As employees, we were so used to being told what to do that it’s often how we think of work: someone tells us what to do and we do it. As a business owners, on the other hand, you have to tell yourself what to do, even though it’s often easier to be lazy.
2) Be Goal-Oriented
Unlike employees, who often trade their time for a paycheck, as a business owner you must constantly work towards goals that are clearly outlined and explained to everyone on the staff. The best way to do this is to write down your goals.
They can be in the form of a business plan, a list of short-term goals posted on the wall of your office, a list of daily tasks hung up in a work area, a print-out of long-term goals that hangs in the break room — whatever — just as long as you and everyone else know exactly what you’re working towards.
These goals must be focused on OUTCOMES. A goal in itself is meaningless unless it produces an outcome. And if you don’t have the outcome in mind when you’re designing the goal, you can never really be sure if the goal was met or not.
3) Keep Your Eye On Long-Term Goals While Completing Short-Term Tasks
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day trials of business ownership. Always keep one eye on the long-term goals, with measurable milestones along the way, and your enthusiasm will stay strong even when things are rough.
4) Be Flexible
Things often will go differently than you expected or planned. Accept this sort of unpredictability and, instead of being frustrated, you’ll enjoy the twists and turns on the road to success.
“The only thing that’s gonna stay the same is change.”
-Richard Butler, songwriter
5) Manage Your Time Effectively
When you’re the boss it’s really easy to get lazy and demand less of yourself than a boss would demand of you. It’s also easy to get off task — checking email, sending jokes to friends, engaging in long, unnecessary phone calls, taking extra long lunches, spending more time “preparing” a task than actually completing it.
One of the most effective ways to stay on task is to make yourself an employee of yourself. That is to say, give yourself specific tasks to complete with specific deadlines.
DO THIS >>> Each day before you leave, make a list of specific tasks that you must complete by the end of the day tomorrow. When you come in the next morning, look over these tasks and immediately start on the most difficult one. Then do the next one, the next, and so on. If you finish early, great! Enjoy the rest of your day without feeling guilty.
6) Be Decisive
When faced with a decision, give it some careful thought, then make a decision and proceed. Don’t put off decisions, and don’t second-guess yourself.
One of the things that separates leaders from followers is the ability to make decisions.
In other words, the difference between a manager and an employee comes down to decision-making skills. Cultivate a feeling of personal confidence and don’t be afraid to make the wrong decision. When appropriate, ask someone for their opinion, then make the decision. This makes the other person feel like they are part of the decision-making process.
Decisions should usually take the form of action plans — things that you or someone else can go and do immediately.
Decisiveness goes hand-in-hand with assertiveness. People need to understand that your decisions aren’t made in a haphazard way and that you’re not going to come back later and change your mind — after they’ve started working on your action plan.
7) Be Courageous
Allow yourself to take calculated risks. Most people are afraid to make decisions because they are afraid to fail. You, on the other hand, shouldn’t be afraid to fail at things in order to discover success.
Whereas most people are afraid to fail even one single time, successful business leaders fail multiple times on their way to success because they forge new paths and take risks.
Don’t be impulsive, but don’t be afraid to take a new road — do something that isn’t 100% guaranteed of success.
Most importantly, make sure you bounce back after failing and strike out on a new route without losing faith in yourself.
8) Maintain an Attitude of Openness and Honesty
Unfortunately, a lot of bosses like to have some sort of mystery to what they do because — often — they don’t do anything! They keep others in the dark, as if they have some kind of special powers that mere mortals wouldn’t understand.
Successful leaders, however, are open and honest about their work. Communicate your goals to employees and team members. Let them know that they are part of the big picture. When people work in the dark, they quickly get frustrated and turn against their boss. This leads to the inevitable feeling among the employees that “we” do all the work and “the boss” doesn’t do anything.
Remember, you’re not the Wizard of Oz. It didn’t work for him, and it has no place in your business.
9) Accept responsibility for mistakes — even when they’re not yours
Let’s say an employee spent 2 hours creating a report and brought it to you, but it was done all wrong. Did they do it on purpose? I doubt it. Instead of going off on the employee for wasting 2 hours, say, “I’m sorry. I don’t think I did a good job of explaining this to you.” Apologize for wasting their time, and it will create a lot of good will.
When it comes to customers, this is pretty much a no brainer. Never blame an employee for a mistake. It’s YOUR business and YOU are the boss. Take responsibility for correcting the mistake until the situation is rectifed.
10) Give credit for success — even when you can take the credit yourself
Remain humble and always remember that the people in your organization contribute to every success you have.
11) Be a teacher!
Always look for opportunities to educate employees, customers, and even competitors — without being preachy or condescending.
12) Ask for help when you need it
Some people think asking for help is a sign of weakness. Screw that. A good leader shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help, instruction, or explanation. You can’t make informed decisions until you know all the facts!
Don’t be afraid to not know something.
When you ask for help, you show people that you have faith in them. It’s also a sign that you’ve done a good job of delegating responsibilities. Avoid asking for help and you’ll just continue down a spiral of ignorance.
13) Have a Predictable Mood
Don’t you hate those people who seem to be in a different mood every time you see them? You never know which “version” of them you’re going to meet — the happy one, the depressed one, the angry one, the lazy one.
Those at the top often believe they have the luxury of inconsistency because no one can tell them what to do — therefore they don’t face any consequences.
They’re dead wrong!
Inconsistent and unpredictable behavior lead to distrust, low employee morale, and loss of customers/clients. The effects may not be immediately obvious, but like a virus, they slip in quietly and destroy an organization.
Instead, be the most level-headed person in the company. Gain a reputation for being “cool under pressure.”
Then, instead of fearing you, people will respect you.
14) Manage emotional people without getting emotional
This goes along with maintaining a level mood. Employees, partners, customers, clients, suppliers, landlords — and anyone else who’s having a bad day — will come to you with problems that have them all bent out of shape. Most people can’t control their emotions when they’re upset about something. It’s caused by frustration and a feeling of helplessness — the inability to solve a problem by themselves.
In situations like this, you need to be like a Buddhist monk — calm, rational, and comforting. Be tolerant of people’s emotional response to their problem, then ease their suffering by taking on the responsibility of solving the problem.
Good leaders resolve conflicts before they grow out of control. Bad leaders are afraid of conflict and allow it to fester until it explodes and causes everyone to get emotional.
15) Don’t be “one of the boys”
One of the most difficult aspects of being a leader is separating yourself from the rest of the group. No matter how friendly you are, there will always be an invisible line between the manager and the employees. Some managers have a hard time with this and try to compensate by being “one of the boys” — constantly trying to fit in with the group and always reminding them that he is just like them.
But you’re not one of them.
No matter how hard you try, your employees will never forget that you’re the boss. In fact, they need to know that someone is in charge! It’s reassuring for them to know that someone holds them responsible for their actions, that someone expects their success, that someone more level-headed/mature/intelligent/motivated/whatever — is captaining the ship. When you try to be one of the boys you rob your employees of that much-need reassurance.
As a result, tasks don’t get completed. Employees lose focus. Goals start to become more and more distant.
One of the burdens you take on when you start your own business is the burden of leadership.
Accept that the invisible line exists. Be friendly and a team player, but don’t cross the line. Have good relationships without having intimate friendships.
16) Delegate tasks and responsibilities without micro-managing
Bill Gates says that a manager must “define success.” Let people know exactly what you consider success and show them how they can reach it. Delegate tasks without micro-managing and they will do them without you having to stay on their backs all the time.
Ideally, this would create a situation in which employees learn to do their individual jobs better than you could do them yourself, thereby leveraging their skills and knowledge to make your business more successful than you could possibly make it on your own.
17) Roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty
Some people think a good manager should know how to do the job of everyone under their supervision. I don’t agree with that.
It is, however, important that those in management positions are willing to “get their hands dirty” every once in a while by doing the “grunt work” — the boring, challenging, or repetitive tasks that you ask your employees to do every day. This goes a long way to defusing any resentment that workers naturally have for bosses. It’s one more way to earn respect.
Tell me what you think!
I’m sure you can think of a million other leadership qualities that a business owner needs. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below and let me know what I left out!
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Just because the Executive Summary is important and you know that investors go to it first doesn’t mean that you should squeeze half of your business plan into it. A good Executive Summary runs 1, maybe 2 pages — THAT’S IT!
