You Can Be BORN an Entrepreneur, But Leaders are MADE

Leaders are made after hard work and dedication in the workplace. They reach a pinnacle of success after they’ve put in the hours and made their mark in the company. You can be born entrepreneurial (i.e. from an entrepreneurial family, or background) but you can’t be born a leader.

Leadership requires a certain sense of dedication that few people have and leaders that are born in the workplace, are those that survive the longest.

You might compare Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerberg, who have different approaches to leadership and management. One might be called a leader from hard work, because he’s been through 10 years of failure after finally seeing success. The other might be called a born entrepreneur, who did in 2 years what many can’t do in a lifetime.

Both people have different styles, but one is the clear leader in the industry, the minds of the customers and the internet ecosystem.

You need to have 4 key skills if you want to become a leader and be made into the mould you want to be –

Delegation

To grow a business, a founder must be a successful leader. Leadership is all about delegation and successful management of tasks. As a leader, you can’t do everything by yourself and you must be able to lead your company through thick and thin. While a lot of entrepreneurs don’t want to delegate to their employees, few have the guts to trust their co-workers and develop a working relationship with them.

They can’t do everything by themselves and have an approach that satisfies the working relationship that they have with their employees. You can’t scratch every itch by yourself and delegation is key when it comes to building successful businesses.

Leaders know that time and money are limited, and that the way to go ahead is to walk together instead of running ahead. Greater leaders have been born that change the world, but every day ones change the way that their corporate culture is. They pay attention to their own strengths and weakness and understand where the gaps can be filled up.

Communication

You can’t be a lone wolf and you have to have all the skills necessary to take on the challenging role of a leader. Communication is key here. It's not about chatting up your co-workers or talking down to your employees. It's about knowing what to say and when to say it. You need to say just enough to inspire your employees so that they perform at their peak.

Communication is important when it comes to building a leadership-based model, as it’s the first step to figuring out where what challenges lie.  There is no need for being a lone-wolf, as most leaders tend to seclude themselves into a corner so that they can think better. There are so many managers that failed to take advantage of key situations because their team members weren’t open about communicating with them.

There is a fine line between being strict and stubborn and a leader must be able to understand where that line is for each employee. Then there are team dynamics that change on a regular basis. Through the power of communication, leaders can manage and review all the latest trends and tastes on the ground itself. Taking feedback and reflecting on it helps you to become a better leader in turn.

Inspiration

Entrepreneurs sometimes lack in the inspiration department. This is because they don’t have the right words to use or the right vision for the company. They stumble on multiple areas and aren’t able to fully prepare themselves for what’s about to happen.

They create new avenues of growth, but their team isn’t able to execute because there is no inspiration or inner desire for the company to grow with the founder. When they are passionate enough to start a business, they expect others to feel the same way – which is not case 9 times out of 10.

When CEO of Starbucks came back to his role, he shut down all 7000 stores for a single day to streamline the customer experience and make things better for them. The company was in bad shape and needed a leader to take control rather than an entrepreneur. Shultz understood the responsibility at hand and inspired his staff to do better.

Mentoring

If you find that certain people are displaying stronger signs of leadership and have demonstrated success in the past, then it is your duty to mentor them to higher positions of authority.

You need to be able to mentor employees in tough situations and prepare the next generation of leaders to take rank. When you were an entrepreneur, you were aware of how powerful a mentor can be in your life, and took action towards making sure you found one.

Now that you are a leader, do the same thing for junior executives under your wing.

You want to make sure that they’re doing a good job and the best way to ensure that is to coach them towards leadership roles.

You can start mentoring them after a year of joining in, and its important to catch them early before they get distracted with different roles or offers. From offering training in skill development areas to providing more responsibilities and challenges, you can make a huge difference in their lives and become a truly well-rounded leader.

Conclusion

When it comes to leadership, there are times where you need to be adaptable and other times where you need to be rigid. The rules aren’t always clear and the game shifts from quarter to quarter.

You may have to deal with new staff members who aren’t gelling with the culture in the organization, and other times you may have to steer the ship. When it comes to becoming a leader, you also need empathy to guide your hand.

You need to remember that the people working under you are human beings and a little kindness goes a long way.