Shift your thinking

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do.

Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz

Being an entrepreneur often requires you to be a leader as well. You started out all by yourself, but your product or service is selling so well that you’ve had to expand and bring on more people to help. It’s still your company, but now you have a group of people who need to be managed and developed. They need to feel important, be heard and share in the success. While many entrepreneurs are leaders, it often requires two different skill sets to do both. As an entrepreneur you’ve only had to focus on your ideas, your decisions and your successes. A leader has to focus on everybody’s ideas, decisions and successes.

Don’t doubt yourself. First, think of what you are capable of doing. Next, find that intrinsic motivation to do it. Finally, do it with a positive attitude. In other words, lead by doing; lead by example. To help you, we’ve compiled a few tips to help you grow and be successful as an organization and company, instead of just as an individual.

1. Take time out of every day to focus on your employees. Use this time to look over their production, gauge their level of satisfaction with you and the company and get to know each person individually.
2. Delegate, evaluate and praise. It is important that you share your workload with your employees. That’s why you hired them, isn’t it? After you delegate an assignment, make sure you follow up with the employee often and give ample praise when a job is well done.
3. Communicate often and be as transparent as possible. Those who work with you need to know that the business is moving in a positive direction. Nobody performs well if they are always worried about possibly being out of a job next week. Have meetings regularly and make sure you are communicating clearly with all of your employees.
4. Create a healthy work environment. If you are kind to your employees and serve them, they will respect you as a leader and believe in your ideas as an entrepreneur.

Being a successful entrepreneur and being a good leader go together. Shift your thinking as needed. Remind yourself that you have the ability to succeed. Remind your team of the same thing. Then you will see that not only are you growing as an individual but also your organization is growing as a whole.