Leaders are made, not born. And Roebuck (2004) defines entrepreneurial leadership as someone who can organise a group of people to achieve a common goal using proactive entrepreneurial behaviour. It entails optimising risk, seizing opportunities through innovation, assuming personal accountability, and effectively navigating dynamic environments to benefit the organisation.
To succeed in business, one must develop Entrepreneurial leadership qualities. And in this article, we’ll explore 3 common attributes of E-leadership that you can develop to harness your business growth.
1. Authenticity
Authenticity is a style of leadership that focuses on trust, transparency, and ethical practices in the company and industry, as well as being supportive of open and candid discussions in the workplace. It also encourages the mutual sharing of information, knowledge, and expertise between one another during conversations and decision-making meetings.
Authenticity sounds excellent, but it is challenging to pull it off if you have the wrong attitudes in the team. However, a good leader must purvey authenticity, which 86% of customers (internal and external) say attracts them to a brand.
If the business owner and his team exude authenticity, their collective behaviour can result in a greater degree of motivation, engagement with customers, and enthusiasm. All those factors are success indicators that you, as the Entrepreneurial Leader, fully participate in the art of being authentic with your employees and customers.
Authenticity leadership style is a relatively recent concept, so there could be numerous ways to show your clients and employees that you are practising what you preach.
Customers want to see in your brand presence and social media interactions that you care more about them than your profits. They want to believe you’re looking for a long-lasting relationship built on trust and mutual respect rather than seeing them as a mere invoice number.
2. Communication
Entrepreneurial leaders need high-level communication skills.
- If you communicated the wrong message, you would land yourself in a harassment lawsuit or answering to a Fair work ombudsperson.
- If you fail to communicate assertively and effectively, you start observing workplace tardiness and low productivity and having to repeat information twice to get your points across.
- If you cannot balance emotional and logical arguments with your customers, you’ll start losing them.
To be an effective communicator, you need to develop a Sales Mindset that consists of these attributes: –
- To persuade and influence someone to take positive action.
- To communicate scarcity
- To “Not Give a Damn” to the Timewasters
- To be humorous
A sales mindset is one of the leadership skills that can lead to a better workspace atmosphere, fewer mistakes, and getting things done.
As a business owner, you must improve your communication skills to ensure growth and success in your chosen field, but it also helps to create a more open and vibrant working environment. Excellent communication ensures everyone can collaborate and grow with a common goal.
3. Flexibility
“Be Like Water – Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water”. – Bruce Lee.
Entrepreneurial leadership must involve flexibility. It means that it is okay to change your mind and accept that answers to a problem can change over time, as long as it is not at the expense of others – otherwise, it will be deemed as a “bait and switch”, which is unethical behaviour in business.
To be a successful entrepreneur, you must embrace flexibility. That’s become even more evident with the pandemic shutdown.
A great leader knows and understands how important it is to have flexibility about where and how they and their team can work. To anchor this attribute, you need to develop a strategic vision: what you want to be and why.
Attend the Business Growth Workshop to learn how to perform Strategic Planning
One of the ways to test your flexibility is to start hiring staff who is willing to work from home.
Remote work has made it easier than ever to support that flexibility while adapting to the changing economic climate in the industry.
There were more than four million people working from home during the pandemic years, and it proved that it could work as long as you incorporate performance and productivity protocols in place. Flexibility is key to why 76% of employees may be willing to stay with their current employer.
Flexibility is ever more critical for an excellent leader to retain a great team of dedicated employees while recruiting new staff members who can support your growth and success.
4. High Stress Tolerance
Research indicates that a significant majority, specifically over 76%, of business owners undergo persistent stress within their businesses. However, based on my personal observations, I believe that this estimate may be conservative, as the proportion of business owners experiencing stress levels that hinder their business performance could potentially reach as high as 95%.
One of the ways to develop high-stress tolerance is mindset. And to be successful in business for the long haul, maintaining a healthy mental attitude towards life is crucial for your well-being.
Here are a few outlooks in life that one can adopt to improve one’s stress tolerance level.
- That everything is going to be okay
- Everything is transient/ impermanent, and we should be grateful for the present moment
- Nothing last forever
- Be grateful for what we have. Read about how to start your day with Gratitude here.
- Everyone we come across is either here to enlighten us or awaken us to something about ourselves, the world around us, or our journey in life.
By cultivating a set of reminders on a daily basis, you will strengthen your entrepreneurial leadership qualities.
Final Thoughts
Leadership skills are not something that happens overnight, but with time and experience, a great leader will take on the essential qualities that help them succeed in business and life. Those important qualities include authenticity, communication, flexibility, and adaptability.
To succeed in the haphazard world of business, it’s more important than ever that a leader looks beneath the surface. Nothing is like it used to be, so it’s difficult to fall back on well-worn recipes for success. It would be nice if everything were clear-cut and easy to understand in the world of entrepreneurial leadership and business success.
The truth is that there’s still so much uncertainty across industries, which is why it’s more important than ever that you do rely on those key qualities for success: authenticity, communication, and flexibility. It could even be part of the leadership style that works best for you.
