Starting a business is hard work, even more so when you are doing it for the first time. Serial founders have the benefit of their experience from previous businesses to fall back on, but for the first-time founders, the experience of building the startup will seem like a fish trying to walk on land. There are certain leadership qualities that a first-time founder needs to have to ease his journey.
There are certain leadership qualities that a first-time founder needs to have to ease his journey. A true leader should also stay up to date with the latest leadership trends.
Decisiveness
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Running a business is really about making decisions about what to do, when to do it, for whom, when, where, and how it should be done. If as an individual, you are indecisive, you will have more challenges as a first-time founder. You must be able to think on your feet and make decisions on the spot after all considerations. If you are a person who likes to think, rethink, and overthink before making a decision, you will miss out on a lot of opportunities.
This does not mean you should jump in on every new wave. It means you should be able to decide within a short time, whether you want to do something or not, rather than putting off the actual decision for fear that you could be wrong.
Decision-making can be difficult when you begin to consider who ends up with the short end of the stick, but they should be done anyway. Delay can be very dangerous when it comes to making decisions in business.
Management
Empathy
Empathy is about bringing your human side into conversations and interactions. People should know that they are interacting with a fellow human being and not just some robot, or some tyrant leader who wants his business to be successful irrespective of who gets to pay for it.
Take time to have regular one-on-one conversations with your team members, and encourage them to share their personal wins and losses with the team. Try to not be judgemental. The purpose of communication between you and others does not have to be about agreeing or disagreeing, but about understanding and empathizing.
People generally respond better to you if they know that you will empathize with them and not judge. No one wants to feel misunderstood or disregarded, and personal support or help you can give to your team members will engender loyalty.
The mistake one often sees here is a leader who thinks he needs empathy to deal with his customers, but not employees.
Honest communication
There is a lot of competition and uncertainty in business. You should be 100% honest and open with your people. Don’t leave them to guess what is going on, or they may think the worst. A key part of honest communication is feedback. Regularly give and ask for honest feedback from your employees and customers. Once honest communication becomes a standard in the company, the rest will fall in place.
Accountability
You don’t want to be that leader who tries to shift blame to every other person and give excuses for everything under the sun. If you do, you will unconsciously breed the same trait in your employees and team members. Good leaders don’t complain. They don’t find excuses. They certainly don’t try and blame things on other people.
Thanks for this.
Thank you