Despite your expertise, skills and education, nothing can prepare you for becoming
a business leader. There’s a lot of trial and error and on-the-job-training that you’ll
experience as you grow your business.
I've been a business owner for almost 10 years now. Over the years I've made my fair
share of mistakes including several that cost me actually running the business in the way I wanted. Lucky for me, I don't have to make those same mistakes again.
To help you run your business a lot smoother, here are 25 leadership lessons from
millionaire business owners so that you don't have to make the same mistakes we have.
1. Believe in your business.
“Give your venture everything you’ve got. A passionate commitment to your business
and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure,” writes Sir Richard Branson. “If you aren’t proud of what you’re doing, why should anybody else be?”
“And don’t get suckered into blindly pursuing profits and growth. If you stay focused on being the best at what you do, it’s more likely that the rest will follow.”
2. Prioritize and delegate.
As all entrepreneurs know, you live and die by your ability to prioritize.” suggests
Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva and later co-founder and CEO of ProFounder.
“You must focus on the most important, mission-critical tasks each day and night,
and then share, delegate, delay or skip the rest.”
3. Hire people with superior skills.
Jack Ma, co-founder and CEO of Alibaba, says that, “A leader should never
compare his technical skills with his employee’s. Your employee should have superior technical
skills than you. If he doesn’t, it means you have hired the wrong person.”
4. Give employees expectations and training.
Approach to the Power of Beliefs in Business," Ari Weinzweig, CEO and cofounder of Zingerman's gourmet food company, writes that, “Clear expectations and training
tools are all about a better future.”
Ari adds, Small training success build confidence. People are more hopeful when
they know what’s expected of them and feel they have the tools they need to do the
work at hand.”
5. Set the tone.
“You can go through thousands of dollars in consultants to shape your culture,
but it will still come back to the owner's approach," says Kristi Hedges, leadership
consultant and coach at The Hedges Company.
“If you're motivated and happy in your role, then others will follow your lead.
And if you're burned out and tired, that energy will permeate everything. Owners
need to make sure they shape their role, and their company, to make them fulfilled
and excited. If you put yourself last, you're hurting the entire organization."
6. Be nice.
It may be surprising to learn that Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks
and one of the investors on "Shark Tank," is a nice and likeable guy. He’s known for
going above and beyond for his fans and has said that being “nice” is a necessity in business. When your team likes and respects you, they’ll be more likely to rally behind you.
7. Plan for fun.
Speaking of "Shark Tank," Cuban’s colleague Barbara Corcoran fosters a culture of
fun. “I think drinking together, having fun, having days off doing stupid things, dressing
in ridiculous costumes, whatever you mandate as a company culture, what happens is
everyone really likes each other and you create a family.”
Corcoran also says that this can bring out the creative side of your employees.
8. Constantly evolve.
Bill Gates once said, “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next
two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let
yourself be lulled into inaction.”
Even after Microsoft became an industry leader and was earning billions of dollars
in revenue, Gates wanted the company and his team to continue to evolve and
diversify their products so that they would remain innovative and relevant, as opposed
to being static.
9. Mentor and give back to the community.
“At the end of the day, we are all part of a community,” said Aneel Bhusri, co-founder
and CEO of Workday. “Giving back at the Workday Foundation is just recognizing that
and being part of a broader community. We are just a small piece of the community.”
“We have been very fortunate and our growth and success is largely due to our community.
The most exciting part about the Workday Foundation is that our employees actually
drive where we give and they really drive the giving. Our employees get personally
involved. It is fabulous when your hire the right people, with the right value system,
and they want to give back and they push us to give back.”
10. Leaders are lighthouses, not weathervanes.
"Weathering changes at Primerica that often lead to uncertainty and chaos helped me
develop a leadership philosophy steeped in being someone my teams can turn to for
guidance, even during the most turbulent times,” says John Addison, CEO of Addison Leadership Group and leadership editor of Success magazine. “Whether it was another leadership change or trying to save the company during [the recession], my people could say I would make the best decision for their future, and stand firm on that decision, even if it wasn't popular with everyone.”
Addison added, “Being a weathervane twisting in the wind wasn't going to instill the confidence they very much needed, so I had to learn to be a lighthouse: someone they knew would still be standing strong once the storm passed. Thankfully, [my] mentor, Primerica founder Art Williams, demonstrated being a lighthouse for many years, and I was able to follow his example.”
"Through my writing, speaking engagements and position as leadership editor for Success magazine, I am able to share my leadership message with a wider audience and play
a role in shaping future generations of leaders. My hope through sharing my message
is that one day we will have more leaders who are lighthouses and far fewer who are weathervanes."
11. Create a family-friendly environment.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made waves in November 2015 by
announcing that he would be taking a two month paternity leave. Facebook, it turns
out, is one of the leaders when it comes to offering competitive paternity leave.
“Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns,
outcomes are better for the children and families,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “At Facebook we offer our US employees up to four months of paid maternity or
paternity leave which they can take throughout the year.”
12. Treat employees like royalty.
“We treat our people like royalty. If you honor and serve the people who work
for you, they will honor and serve you,” said Mary Kay Ash.
13. Communicate effectively.
Warren Buffett has said, “You’ve got to be able to communicate in life and it’s
enormously important. Schools, to some extent, under emphasize that.
If you can’t communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas,
you’re giving up your potential.”
14. Be a man or woman of the people.
Jim Sinegal, co-founder and former CEO of Costco, was beloved by his employees.
Why? Because not only was his salary $350,000 a year, he was down in the trenches
with his employees fighting for them to have higher wages. He had no frills office and everyone called him by his first name.
15. Encourage employees to get more sleep.
“Sleep plays a vital role in our decision making, emotional intelligence, cognitive
function, and creativity -- all of which are hugely relevant for both our overall
health and our ability to be productive and effective,” Arianna Huffington told Forbes.
“Today, so many of us fall into this trap of sacrificing sleep in the name of productivity. But, ironically, our loss of sleep, despite the extra hours we put in at work, adds up
to more than 11 days of lost productivity per year per worker, or about $2,280.
This results in a total annual cost of sleep deprivation to the U.S. economy of
more than $63 billion, in the form of absenteeism and presenteeism (when employees
are present at work physically but not really mentally focused).”
16. Boost their self-esteem.
“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self esteem of their personnel,”
said Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. “If people believe in themselves it's amazing what they can accomplish.”
17. Be transparent.
“I’ve come to learn there is a virtuous cycle to transparency and a very vicious
cycle of obfuscation,” said Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. When employees
are curious and denied access to information, they become resentful and start
digging. “That’s when executive management says, well, clearly we can’t trust
our employees with this information. So, we’re going to have to buckle down
and release even less information.”
Instead, treat employees “like adults” and be completely transparent.
18. Stop talking and start listening.
“Leaders who listen are able to create trustworthy relationships that are transparent
and breed loyalty. You know the leaders who have their employees’ best interests
at heart because they truly listen to them,” writes Glenn Llopis, founder of the
Glenn Llopis Group.
“As a leader, it’s difficult to really know what your employees are thinking about, what’s troubling them or how to help them get out of a performance slump -- unless you take
the time listen to them.”
Llopis adds, “Listening goes well beyond being quiet and giving someone your full
attention. It requires you to be aware of body language, facial expressions, mood,
and natural behavioral tendencies. Listening should be a full-time job when you
consider the uncertainty embedded in the workplace and the on-going changes
taking place.”
19. Write ‘thank-you’ notes.
Harvey Mackay, founder of the MackayMitchell Envelope Company, says that,
“The cost of praising someone is nil -- but every psychological study shows the
payoff is huge. Employees want to be seen as competent, hardworking members
of the team. You want satisfied, motivated and productive staff members. What
better motivator than thanking employees for their contributions to the company’s
success?”
Make sure, however, that you’re sincere, specific, share publicly, and keep the praise
on-going.
20. They don’t tolerate poor performance.
“Anyone running an organization understands how important talent is,” says
Duncan Maru from Possible. “But many early stage social enterprises are impatient,
cut corners on hiring, or don’t transition people out quickly enough when things are not working. You need to be aggressive and brutally honest about your talent pool.”
21. They hold themselves accountable.
Accountability, according to Michael Hyatt, “means that you accept responsibility
for the outcomes expected of you -- both good and bad. You don’t blame others.
And you don’t blame the external environment. There are always things you could
have done -- or still can do -- to change the outcome.”
“Until you take responsibility, you are a victim. And being a victim is the exact opposite
of being a leader.”
Hyatt adds, “Victims are passive. They are acted upon. Leaders are active. They take
initiative to influence the outcome.”
22. They challenge the status quo.
“Internally, the impact of the status quo is a stagnant culture that pushes away top performers,” writes Matt Wagner, vice president of strategy at Client Focus.
“Your best employees are driven by the need to do something great. When they
run into obstacles that don't make any sense to them, they start thinking about
greener pastures. Of course, the opposite is true of your bureaucrats and your
go-along-to-get-along employees. They hope to milk the status quo for as long as
possible. They hate change.”
23. Have face-to-face discussions.
“There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed
by e-mail and iChat,” Steve Jobs told author Walter Isaacson. “That’s crazy.
Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You
run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say 'Wow,' and soon you’re cooking
up all sorts of ideas.”
24. Celebrate accomplishments.
Don't be afraid to celebrate your accomplishments. Just celebrate those of others more, recommends Nina Vaca of the Pinnacle Group.
With my company, this means that we celebrate even the little accomplishments
of others.
25. They encourage continuous learning.
“Learning is the minimum requirement for success in your field,” writes Brian
Tracy. “Information and knowledge on everything is increasing every day.
This means that your knowledge must also increase to keep up.”
The best leaders encourage their employees to read, attend workshops, and
conferences so that they “can get ahead in every aspect of” their lives.
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