An article by Dr. Yogesh Pawar, Founder School of Inspirational leadership and Chairman Association of Inspiring Syndicate of Entrepreneurs
An entrepreneur is a risk taker but sometimes, we as humans tend to take the path of least resistance, and for an entrepreneur this path can be unproductive or disruptive. During these times, all we need to do is calm down and seek some guidance or help. If one is looking to minimise and eliminate the barriers to growth, one needs to innovate and do out of the box.
Entrepreneurs or leaders create barriers to their success. They need to have a robust vision which is guided by a strong value system that helps them reach their desired professional and personal goals. Before they start the journey, they need to create a strategy for their success, that is aligned to their vision. However, it is observed globally that leaders do start with a vision in their mind, but during the journey they are not able to pull through due to a lack of ability in executing the vision, this requires a certain amount of discipline in their behaviours in day-to-day activities.
We are going to talk about what are the top five behaviours as a leader needs to focus on daily.
You must have heard about a pearl, a pearl takes a lot of time to create from a shell where there is freshwater entering into the shell, and over a long period of time, the pearl gets created. Similarly, it is important to focus the definition rather than word. The definition is the key to what you have to practice. So, let’s see what these pearl behaviours are.
There are the top five things we have to do.
Proactive: Now anything that we do, we have to be proactive. If we can understand the environment- who am I, where am I, what am I doing, what the people around me are doing and how can I proactively help and assist them. This is a unique ability of an entrepreneur who is moving on to a great business. Small steps that we can undertake to help people around us. So be aware of what is happening in the environment. That is the first pearl behaviour 'P' which stands for proactivity.
Engagement: Engagement is the ability to get along with people whether the person is older or younger, seasoned professional or a newbie, of any gender. For a leader what matters is the ability to get along with that person. The reason for achieving high level of engagement for leader to attain the sense of comfort. If they are not comfortable it will create obstacles. So, the great thing has to be that we can engage with people.
Appreciation: Everyone loves to be appreciated, which is the basic need for every individual. One of the key skills an entrepreneur, is appreciating the good things in individuals by understanding their strengths. Most of the times in our daily routine with our employees, subordinates, vendors, customers, we are so focused on problems that we are unable to focus on all the good work that is being undertaken. In that rut, we just neglect everything good that they are doing. The true leader identifies each gem and polish them with the right kind of rewards and appreciation in the people around him.
Recognition: It comes from the need’s theory created by David McClelland. One of the things in needs theory is the need for social affiliation. It is very important that somebody tells us that we are doing well, it is so very important that it is told in front of everybody. For example, we are in the world of social networking, we click a photograph and immediately post it on every social media platform. Why do we do that, because we want somebody to appreciate our photograph. Exactly after 5-10 minutes of posting the photograph, the next thing we do is to check how many likes have we’ve got. Everyone wants recognition but we'll only get it if we give it to the people. That's the key as a leader if we can notice and announce recognise people publicly in team meetings, in front of clients and vendors for their efforts.
Listening: It is one of the most important things for a successful entrepreneur. Just imagine an employee coming to us to share something with us and we give them enough time to hear their thoughts, grievances and suggestions. The best thing that will happen is that they will start trusting us, if they start trusting us half of your job as a leader, as an entrepreneur is done. Most of the times, there is the dogma between the employee-employer relationships of trust. If we can listen to them and if we make them comfortable, trust me business is a by-product, profit is a by-product. The poll is constantly focusing on our behaviours as a leader, as an entrepreneur. The humble request is that follow this on regular basis.
Proactivity, engagement, appreciation, recognition, and listening to people has always been the key for success for entrepreneurs. These five critical elements of behaviour will help an entrepreneur to overcome many obstacles and will help you attract people, business and ideas towards you.