A successful career doesn’t just require great ideas and a good work ethic -- it also takes the right people. In order to work well with others, you’ll need to become a pro at leadership and management.
In my 18 years of professional experience, I’ve had to learn a lot of things the hard way. As an entrepreneur, I’m still learning day by day. And while I’ve had a blast learning with my peers, I can’t deny that it would have been helpful to know everything ahead of time. Instead, all I can do is share the knowledge I’ve built over nearly two decades of business ownership and management.
I’m putting these tips right into the palms of your hands, so you don't take 20 years to learn them!
1. Never give up.
It’s cliché, but it’s the best tip I can provide. Entrepreneurship isn’t for the weak-willed and the giver-uppers. Rather, it’s for those who believe enough in their abilities, their ideas and the people they’re proud to call their team. Giving up on a project, no matter how big or small, isn’t just a disservice to yourself -- it’s also a disservice to those you lead.
2. The people around you are everything.
An idea is a hundred times harder to execute when you don’t have the right people by your side. Find the best people possible for your project, and once you do, do anything and everything in your power to keep them.
3. Be both a mentor and a protégé.
The best professional relationships are ones that consist of mutual respect and learning. As a leader, it may be your job to expand on your team’s abilities and knowledge; however, you likely have just as much to learn from them as they do from you.
4. Be strong, not meek.
People have a hard time believing in leaders who don’t quite seem to believe in themselves. Even in times of instability, remain confident and positive. Second-guessing your choices and actions won’t just negatively affect your own attitude, but also those of your team.
5. A growing business requires growing people.
Nearly everyone is a work in progress. A positive professional experience not only involves development, but also a positive attitude on growth and learning. Forgive minor mistakes and strive to teach your team, not to shame them for messing up. Offer opportunities for your followers to learn and become better people. Acknowledge that while you may already be a good leader, you can always become a better one.
6. Failing is a reality -- get comfortable with it.
I’ve never heard of a business that didn’t fail at something. Rather than dreading failure, learn to view it as a learning experience and an opportunity for -- yes, you guessed it -- growth. At the very least, don’t let yourself give up on a project (or even an entire business) just because you’ve faced a couple of failures.
7. Managing people through change is the hardest job you’ll have.
Whether it’s through personal change or environmental change, those you lead are going to struggle to adjust. Be patient and understanding, yet firm in your business’s needs. Be flexible, not a doormat. Finding and maintaining this balance will be one of the hardest jobs you’ll ever have.
Read the rest of the story HERE.
1. Focus
“It’s been said that leadership is making important but unpopular decisions. That’s certainly a partial truth, but I think it underscores the importance of focus. To be a good leader, you cannot major in minor things, and you must be less distracted than your competition. To get the few critical things done, you must develop incredible selective ignorance. Otherwise, the trivial will drown you.”
—Tim Ferriss, bestselling author, host of The Tim Ferriss Show
2. Confidence
“A leader instills confidence and ‘followership’ by having a clear vision, showing empathy and being a strong coach. As a female leader, to be recognized I feel I have to show up with swagger and assertiveness, yet always try to maintain my Southern upbringing, which underscores kindness and generosity. The two work well together in gaining respect.”
—Barri Rafferty, CEO, Ketchum North America
3. Transparency
“I’ve never bought into the concept of ‘wearing the mask.’ As a leader, the only way I know how to engender trust and buy-in from my team and with my colleagues is to be 100 percent authentically me—open, sometimes flawed, but always passionate about our work. It has allowed me the freedom to be fully present and consistent. They know what they’re getting at all times. No surprises.”
—Keri Potts, senior director of public relations, ESPN
4. Integrity
“Our employees are a direct reflection of the values we embody as leaders. If we’re playing from a reactive and obsolete playbook of needing to be right instead of doing what’s right, then we limit the full potential of our business and lose quality talent. If you focus on becoming authentic in all your interactions, that will rub off on your business and your culture, and the rest takes care of itself.”
—Gunnar Lovelace, co-CEO and cofounder, Thrive Market
5. Inspiration
“People always say I’m a self-made man. But there is no such thing. Leaders aren’t self-made; they are driven. I arrived in America with no money or any belongings besides my gym bag, but I can’t say I came with nothing: Others gave me great inspiration and fantastic advice, and I was fueled by my beliefs and an internal drive and passion. That’s why I’m always willing to offer motivation—to friends or strangers on Reddit. I know the power of inspiration, and if someone can stand on my shoulders to achieve greatness, I’m more than willing to help them up.”
—Arnold Schwarzenegger, former governor of California
Read This: Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger | Amazon | Indigo.ca | Barnes & Noble
6. Passion
“You must love what you do. In order to be truly successful at something, you must obsess over it and let it consume you. No matter how successful your business might become, you are never satisfied and constantly push to do something bigger, better and greater. You lead by example not because you feel like it’s what you should do, but because it is your way of life.”
—Joe Perez, cofounder, Tastemade
7. Innovation
“In any system with finite resources and infinite expansion of population—like your business, or like all of humanity—innovation is essential for not only success but also survival. The innovators are our leaders. You cannot separate the two. Whether it is by thought, technology or organization, innovation is our only hope to solve our challenges.”
—Aubrey Marcus, founder, Onnit
8. Patience
“Patience is really courage that’s meant to test your commitment to your cause. The path to great things is always tough, but the best leaders understand when to abandon the cause and when to stay the course. If your vision is bold enough, there will be hundreds of reasons why it ‘can’t be done’ and plenty of doubters. A lot of things have to come together—external markets, competition, financing, consumer demand and always a little luck—to pull off something big.”
—Dan Brian, COO, WhipClip
Read the rest of the story HERE.
3-22-2017, Entrepreneur -- Changing leadership is an adjustment process. It’s a period of excitement, growing pains and hope. While earning the trust and loyalty of an entire organization is a challenge, there are five things an incoming leader can do right away to hit the ground running and earn support:
Get to know all levels of staff.
In some situations, new leadership can mean staff changes across the board. But, in most cases, tenured staff are still in place. The new head coach of a sports team can be great, but he has to start with the players the team already has. Focus on earning their trust and respect.
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz is a great example of a new leader who came in and got to know people at all levels. He said that “there was a high level of distrust and disengagement with employees” when he came in. That’s not unusual. When new leadership takes over, some people may be skeptics at first.
Read the rest of the story HERE.
5-1-2017, Entrepreneur.com -- New eras call for new ways of thinking about leadership, and 2017 is ushering in real change in the business world.
Boston Consulting Group recently published an ebook, Transformation: Delivering and Sustaining Breakthrough Performance. The book argues that companies must operate in a state of “always-on transformation,” ready to shift tactics at a moment’s notice.
In BCG's view, transformation isn’t something that happens once every 10 years in response to a crisis. It’s the process by which leaders regularly improve their operating models, culture and business strategies.
This concept of constant transformation may seem daunting, but great leaders understand the power of this approach. Successful companies fail often, learn from their mistakes and pivot quickly. But even small transformations can create momentum. Yes, transformations are challenging and disheartening at times. But that’s where strong leadership comes into play.
When employees see executives and managers exhibit inspirational qualities, they have faith that even turbulent changes are for the best. I know, because I’ve witnessed this many times in my 20 years as a leader in the public relations industry. Despite making my share of mistakes, I’ve gained valuable insights from each of those mistakes and used that knowledge to strengthen my company.
We've won awards and been ranked as one of the top 10 fastest-growing PR firms in the world because we were willing to transform ourselves when the circumstances demanded it. Here are four lessons I've learned about what I call the inspirational factor:
1. When in doubt, ask, "Why not now?"
Too often, leaders hesitate to take risks because they fear negative outcomes. But businesses stagnate if their decision-makers refuse to reach higher.
Author, investor and keynote speaker Amy Jo Martin encourages executives to ask themselves, “Why not now?” when they’re reluctant to take action. Her podcast focuses on this question by encouraging leaders to break down their pessimistic assumptions and spur innovation. She's spoken with business mogul Mark Cuban, #Girlboss Sophia Amoruso and visionary thinker Simon Sinek --- among many others -- to learn how they answered this "why not now?" crucial question and moved forward.
Leading with confidence can inspire people to achieve more than they ever dared. According to author and speaker Denis Waitley, the longer people remain complacent and fearful, the harder they find it to get out of their comfort zones. In short, no one levels up by continuing as they are.
Read the rest of the story HERE.
Entrepreneur -- When an employee quits, you don’t just lose the time, money and effort you invested in that person. According to an article published by Vocoli, you also threaten to overwork the remaining staff and lower the productivity of your team. Further, you then need to allocate more funds towards interviewing potential replacements and training them.
To bypass the headache and hidden costs associated with the departure of an employee, take preventative measures by tweaking your hiring strategy, benefits packages, and culture. Here are four tips on how to reduce employee turnover and improve your company culture.
1. Be selective.
Before even thinking about how to retain your staff members, start by imagining what kind of people you want working for you in the first place. Picking the right talent for the job is imperative to facilitating long-term growth for the employee and stability for the company. But what should we look for in the screening process?
Anthony Tjan, CEO of venture capital firm Cue Ball, suggests focusing on character instead of skills or pedigree. He writes, “While skills can be learned, it is much harder to cultivate attitude and character. There is no doubt that over time, institutional character and culture is the simple by-product of individual people.”
By hiring individuals with the best chance of being happy performing their duties on the job, you increase the chances of employee retention and cultivating a positive work environment.
2. Offer stellar learning opportunities and benefits.
Once you have the best talent on your team, make sure you can add value to their careers. Offer professional development via conferences, workshops, classes and team-building excursions. Providing relevant out-of-office opportunities for growth will allow your staff to bring fresh ideas and a sense of camaraderie back to home base.
Additionally, make sure your team’s fringe benefits are fair and up-to-date. Towards this end, utilize your human resources department to its fullest capacity by making sure your employees’ benefits packages get reviewed yearly and updated as needed. Also, consider creating personalized perks for the staff to increase morale and promote better company culture.
Read the rest of the story here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248993
Entrepreneur -- Entrepreneurship demands effective leadership. You need to be able to make solid decisions, organize plans, hire teammates and provide direction -- all under the steady pressure of being accountable for all those decisions and actions. To add even more heat, as an entrepreneur, your personal success is often tied directly to the success of your business, meaning every little decision you make could have significant consequences.
Under such pressure, it’s natural to have worries and fears. But fears can intimidate you and obscure your judgment, rendering your decisions less logical and your approach less systematic. If you want to be an effective leader, there are five fears in particular that you’ll need to overcome.
1. Making the wrong decision
As a leader, you’ll be facing decisions on a nearly constant basis. You’ll make major decisions, like choosing your initial partners, and small ones, like whether to continue a proven promotional campaign. Being faced with so many decisions can lead to decision fatigue, a well-known psychological phenomenon that can interfere with your mental health and your ability to make good decisions.
Adding to this is a potentially growing fear that the next decision you make will be the wrong one -- your new hire won’t work out, your marketing campaign won’t be effective, or possibly even bigger, more significant fallout will occur. This fear can make you postpone or delegate your decisions, but don’t let it -- remember that even the best leaders make bad decisions sometimes. Avoiding a decision is always a worse move.
2. Being criticized for your approach
As a leader, you’re going to have your own signature style. You’re going to value some things more than others. For example, you might appreciate a rigid, formal dress code, or you could completely disregard what the people around you are wearing. You could prefer a hands-on style of management or a much more relaxed approach.
There’s no one right or wrong way to lead. If you’re afraid of being criticized for your approach, it could lead you to become the leader you think people might want rather than the leader you naturally are. You’re going to be criticized no matter what by some, and accepted no matter what by others, so pick the style that suits you best, and don’t let the haters interfere with your vision.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254107
Entrepreneur -- You know them. By name. By reputation. They are the living legends, the household names, the superstars. They are the entrepreneurs who have succeeded against all odds and beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. How did they make it? What catapulted them to the pinnacle of success?
Related: A 30-Day Challenge for Entrepreneurs: Tap Into Your Courageous Leadership
Was it some genetic mutation, raw brilliance or freakish bit of luck? It was none of these. Yet it was all of these. And it was something more. Beyond their sizzling hot businesses and flashy personal brands, many entrepreneurs have a depth of character.
They think in ways that few others do. The sayings quoted below encapsulate such thinking. These sayings aren’t inscribed, framed in some museum or attributed to any entrepreneur specifically. Rather, these quotations comprise the mental attitude of an entrepreneur who knows what he or she wants, knows how to get it, and knows that success is going to happen.
If the entrepreneurial ethos could speak, here is what it would say.
1. 'I don’t care what they think.'
Lao Tzu said,
Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.
Successful entrepreneurs know this to be true. It sounds callous to not care what people think, but a healthy disregard for public opinion is essential to doing work that matters.
When entrepreneurs get hung up on how people perceive him, think of them, say about them, write about them and talk about them, they're not on the path toward building an exemplary business. Instead, they are on a path to try to please the crowds.
2. 'I will dream bigger than you ever dared.'
Before a business can be built, a dream must be dreamed.
Dear entrepreneurs: Have a dream and make it a big one.
Good advice. When I myself read the mission of SpaceX, I’m tempted to snicker:
SpaceX . . . was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.
Live on other planets. Seriously? But that’s the kind of convention-defying dreams an entrepreneur must possess. My own dreams are smaller, but they are still dreams. They seemed unlikely when I first dreamed them, but, looking back, I’m glad I dreamed, and dared and did it.
Go ahead. Thumb your nose at convention, and unleash your biggest and most insane dream.
3. 'That’s stupid.'
You’ve got to know when something simply won’t work.
Building a business entails a maelstrom of massive change and rapid movement. If you decide to labor over every decision and analyze every move, you’re going to be stuck. Sometimes, you need to label an idea, a plan, a strategy or a decision as “stupid,” and move on.
Steve Jobs once told competitor George Bodenheimer,
Your phone is the dumbest f**king idea I have ever heard.
Jobs wasn’t afraid of ticking people off, and calling a spade a spade. You can be more nuanced in your speech, but you have to be clear in your mind about what’s going to work and what’s not.
Read the rest here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/251737
Ignore the resume, focus on problem-solving skills and offer remote options as well as performance-based incentives. A team member who feels valued will do whatever it takes to get the job done.
9-21-2016, Entrepreneur.com -- Growing a startup in today's competitive industries isn't easy -- especially for a bootstrapped solo founder building and managing a small team.
Your team is not disposable. In fact, its makeup is one of the most important things to get right. If you assemble a motivated team full of the right people doing the right things, you drastically increase your chance of success.
I know because it worked for me. In less than three years, I grew my startup more than 2,300 percent using these management hacks.
1. Don’t look at resumes.
Whether I’m hiring an employee, advisor or freelancer, I strictly follow my no-resume rule. I find resumes to be bloated and exaggerated. I don’t want to read how great applicants say they are. I want to interact with them and decide for myself if it’s true.
Instead of asking for a resume, I ask applicants to tell me about themselves. I ask follow-up questions and stress I’m not asking for a list of their accomplishments. I want to know about them. Yes, personally.
Then, like an FBI behavioral analyst, I make a judgment based on less-traditional facts. It’s not as hard as you might think. One very easy test: Ask an applicant to complete a task designed to showcase the important problem-solving skills needed for the position at hand.
I've been a Rubik's Cube freak my entire life. My fastest time isn't record-breaking, but 30 seconds isn't too shabby, either. I love handing an applicant a Rubik’s Cube and telling him or her to “do whatever it takes to solve it.” My directions are just vague enough to encourage interpretation. I hope candidates hunt down a solution online or do something other than just sit there and struggle with it. The moment they take out a smartphone to search for a resource, I'm won over.
Related: 4 Ways to Make Sure You Aren't Hiring the Wrong People for Your Startup
2. Always share the pie.
Paying people what they're worth is the baseline. Combined with consistent incentives to do more, sharing the pie has dramatically improved my company's bottom line.
Regular incentives go a long way. If all team members are getting some percentage of the upside, they'll be driven to keep working toward increased revenue. Extra performance pay is a solid start, but realize that yearly bonuses don't have the same impact as a more timely reward.
Sharing equity is another strong move. You don’t have to give away the farm -- just a few points here and there gets the job done. Avoid offering equity-only compensation to employees who are used to getting a fixed salary. Even if you can convince them to try the new model, you put them in an uncomfortable position if they need to return to a regular paycheck. They might opt to leave the company rather than initiate an awkward conversation.
Most startups love to blame team members for failures big and small. It's easier on a founder's ego than the reality: The leader always is accountable. If you picked the wrong team members to do the wrong job or chose the wrong people to manage them, then it's still your fault.
Assuming you made reasonably good hires to start, poor employee performance typically lies with an ineffective leader, lackluster motivation tools or both.
Read the rest of the story HERE.
Forbes, 6-26-2016 -- Everybody has a favourite book, a tome that has been a source of inspiration or influence, and entrepreneurs are no different, except that their top reads tend to be business books that have often helped guide them through their start-up journey.
Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends & Influence People’, Jim Collins’ ‘Good to Great’, and The E-Myth Revisited Michael E. Gerber, are among the most popular, if not the most predictable titles adorning a founder’s bookshelf, but many others have proved equally insightful and impactful in shaping the business lives of some successful entrepreneurs.
Nikki Hollier gave up a successful career in IT to go it alone with her garden design business Styling Homes and Gardens, and the book that helped her through the transition is ‘The Breakthrough Experience’ by John Demartini.
She says: “It helped define my business by clarifying my thoughts, ambitions and values, but mainly it helped me to deal with the emotional side of being my own boss after being in the corporate world of IT for 20 years, and to handle the highs and lows and understand the balance between the two.”
Hollier, who became an award-winning garden designer within a year of starting up, had faced a dilemma familiar to many entrepreneurs; should she remain in IT and use her skills, or follow her heart and passion for creativity?
“There is a section in the book that helps define your values, which helped me clarify the direction I needed to take,” she says. “The book also talks about balance; there are a lot of highs and lows and it helped me take everything in my stride, for example, when something amazing happens not to get over excited and equally when something dreadful happens not to become doom and gloom. I’m on a more even keel.”
Read the rest of the story HERE.
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