Starting a business automatically puts you in a leadership position, but becoming a truly effective entrepreneur requires you to actively develop your ability to lead. Even though owning a business makes you a leader on paper, it’s the intentional growth of your leadership skills that transforms you into someone who can truly lead a team and scale a business.
Taking leadership classes, attending workshops, reading books, and listening to podcasts are just a few of the ways you can discover and cultivate your inner leadership qualities. You can also identify gaps in your leadership skills so you can work on self-improvement.
Entrepreneurial leadership is a bit different from other forms of leadership. As an entrepreneur, you have to tap into different competencies than a spiritual leader, politician, or cultural icon. But even though your work tasks may look different from these other leaders, there is actually a lot of overlap in leadership skills across all kinds of positions.
As an entrepreneurial leader, your job is to motivate a group of people in the workplace to come together and solve problems, achieve goals, and create growth.
Let’s take at 10 essential qualities that entrepreneurs need to have if they want to be exceptional leaders.
Great communication skills
A strong leader can clearly articulate their ideas, convey their concerns, and motivate others with their communication skills. There are so many stakeholders to communicate with, and entrepreneurs need to adjust their communication methods to meet the needs of the individuals they are in conversation with.
Entrepreneurs need to transition with fluidity from one communication context to another. For example, within a single day, entrepreneurs may need to accomplish the following communication tasks:
- Convey the importance of meeting the month’s goals in a meeting with company leadership
- Appear on a news segment in an interview, informing the general public of an important idea or event
- Send an email update to the whole company with major news and updates
- Reassure a major client who was having service issues with the company, persuading them to stay with the organization
- Give a presentation at a board meeting, full of data
- Collaborate in a planning meeting with a subcommittee
It is crucial for a leader to be able to adapt to a variety of situations like these and many more. You have to be able to avoid ambiguities, resolve conflict, prevent misunderstandings, correct bad info, convey important facts, motivate skeptics, and persuade stakeholders.
If you find that you are not as good at communicating as you want to be, there is plenty of opportunity to grow!
- Take leadership and communication classes from a program like Harvard Business School
- Read leadership communication books–ask your peers and colleagues for recommendations
- Listen to leadership communication podcasts while you commute, work out, or go about your day
Vision for the future
Entrepreneurs are known for their vision, meaning their ability to envision a different future. People who launch companies are usually problem-solvers and innovative thinkers who know exactly where they want to go—and know that it will take hard work to get there.
Sometimes, though, leaders need help clarifying their vision. Many companies have struggled because their leadership is chasing too many exciting ideas to really focus on building a strong foundation. Great leaders, on the other hand, take time to examine their vision for the future and identify all the steps it will take to get from Point A to Point Z.
If you haven’t found your vision for your company, consider an entrepreneurial vision retreat—they can be found all over the country and online. You could also:
- Start journaling
- Hire a consultant or business coach
- Seek guidance from your mentors
Once you have developed a strong vision, you will use your communication skills to share it with your team.
Enthusiastic support of others
Effective leaders are supportive of the people around them.
Even though entrepreneurs are often independent people who can accomplish a lot on their own, they still value the power of community and relationships. Supporting others isn’t just about giving compliments and encouraging your team. It’s about giving people what they need to be successful.
As a leader in the company, an entrepreneur goes out of their way to provide the support that the team needs to achieve their goals. This may include:
- Financial resources
- Flexibility when team members experience life challenges
- Promoting collaboration and teamwork
Another essential factor in supporting others is knowing what to do when someone messes up. Instead of immediately punishing or penalizing the person who made a mistake, a great leader will work with them, figure out what went wrong, and come up with a plan to correct the problem.
Healthy self-confidence
How is your self-confidence lately? If you’ve been feeling any imposter syndrome, it’s time to banish those thoughts! Entrepreneurs build self-confidence over time by learning, experimenting, trying, failing, and succeeding.
Self-confidence isn’t about pretending that you’re perfect or letting your ego take over. It’s about knowing and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses.
To build self-confidence, try these strategies:
- Engage in daily affirmations (especially affirmations designed specifically for entrepreneurs)
- Practice gratitude to keep yourself humble
- Listen to TED Talks on the topic of self-confidence
Readiness to share success with others
Great leaders don’t make it all about themselves.
When an entrepreneur’s team succeeds at something, they should celebrate the entire team. Leaders are only one part of the full picture of corporate success. By giving credit to everyone who contributed to the organization’s success, you can build confidence, strengthen morale, and create a better place to work.
That positivity turns into more growth for your company! Happy employees, after all, are better ones.
Involvement with others
Inspiring, effective leaders don’t block themselves off from the rest of the company. They don’t hide in the office, unwilling to engage with other people.
Rather, strong leaders interact with others, walk around the office or sales floor or factory floor, and talk with the people in their organization. Make sure that you are willing to talk with entry-level employees who just started, just like you are willing to talk with your leadership colleagues in the office.
Engaging with others in the workplace allows you to understand your own company’s culture, as well as what your employees are struggling with, professionally and personally. That knowledge will help you build a better workplace for everyone.
Desire to build an atmosphere of growth
Great leaders understand that their team’s success is based on whether or not they have an atmosphere poised for growth.
As an entrepreneurial leader, you can actively create opportunities for growth, advancement, and collaboration by fostering an environment where everyone can thrive. This means more than just having an open-door policy where people can share their ideas with you. That’s great, but it’s not enough.
You need to deliberately cultivate a growth-focused workplace.
This may look like:
- Creating forums for idea-sharing and brainstorming
- Providing resources and support for professional development
- Recognizing and rewarding creative problem-solving
- Giving constructive feedback based on encouragement, not punishment
Commitment to honesty
Trust is the foundation of effective leadership.
If your team can’t trust you, you will never see real collaboration and growth. You will certainly never reach the levels of success you can achieve if you are trusted. The question becomes, how do you build trust? How do you demonstrate that you are a trustworthy person of character?
The answer: honesty builds trust. When entrepreneurs lead with transparency and truthfulness, they create an environment where people feel safe enough to take risks, admit mistakes, and suggest new ideas.
To demonstrate your trustworthiness, embrace an attitude of transparency. Share company challenges and successes without hiding behind jargon or industry speak. If you don’t know the answer to an important question, it’s okay to admit that! Instead of pretending to know the answer, demonstrate that you are trustworthy by saying, “I will absolutely find out and let you know.” Then, actually let people know what you found out!
Unwavering perseverance
Entrepreneurs persevere. The entrepreneurial journey is filled with challenges and obstacles, many of which you may have already experienced. Great leaders don’t just survive these challenges—they use them as opportunities to grow and learn.
Perseverance is about staying committed to your vision, even when you are facing significant obstacles. It’s not the same thing as stubbornness. Instead, it’s about maintaining optimism and staying true to your values while reaching for your goals.
Commitment to learning
Great entrepreneurial leaders understand that success depends on continuous growth—both for themselves and their organizations. They don’t accept the idea that they’ve “already made it.” There is always room for learning!
In addition to embracing lifelong learning for themselves, entrepreneurs should create a culture of learning that spreads throughout the company. When your whole team is committed to curiosity, learning, and knowledge, you become one of the most innovative companies in your network.
To promote learning, model the behaviors you want to see. Be curious. Read. Listen to experts and follow great podcasts. Join a mastermind group. Attend workshops and conferences. In other words, create an environment where you—and those around you—always want to find out more about how to improve.
Y Scouts finds extraordinary leaders for your organization
If you are an entrepreneur who is looking for your next like-minded leader to join your organization, Y Scouts can help.
Y Scouts is a leadership search practice that connects purpose-driven organizations with purpose-driven leaders. We believe that the best employer and employee connections start by connecting through a shared purpose.
We serve numerous industries and specialize in finding C-suite leadership. Contact us today to start the process of hiring your next leader!
