What Strengths Do Entrepreneurs Need to Keep Growing?

How can you keep your business growing? How do successful entrepreneurs continue growing their businesses year after year? These executives have discovered that if they hope to grow their business significantly, they need to grow as well.

Many successful clients have gone from stage two businesses with revenue of $10 million in annual sales to an excess of $500 million in sales. Several have gone beyond the billion dollar mark.

The entrepreneurs that have achieved this significant growth have invested part of their time in developing the strengths of not only themselves but also the key people around them.

So what strengths do these people share? More importantly, can they be developed in others?

My clients have learned their greatest leverage exists in developing other leaders and managers around them.  Almost every leader I work with has become very involved in leadership and management development activities in their organization.

There are several strengths that all these successful entrepreneurs possess. All of these skills can be developed if you’re willing to invest the time and resources to improve them. They are strengths that all of us can develop. I cannot remember meeting a successful midmarket entrepreneur who was not committed to lifelong learning. This attitude has provided them with many new enjoyable personal and professional growth opportunities.

The first strength these entrepreneurs possess is they are master communicators. All have found their own unique voice when leading others. All of these leaders communicate in different ways but their message connects to their stakeholders. Not every entrepreneur is a Steve Jobs or Richard Branson, but all great leaders continue working on how they communicate their vision and ideas to their many stakeholders. This skill helps produce many market leaders in their industries.

The second strength is more of a mindset and it’s there in every successful entrepreneur I work with. They are masters of ambiguity. They are very good at seeing possibilities when others see roadblocks.  They seemed to have a sixth sense about what’s going to happen before it does. To be successful in a disruptive age, you must learn how to be the disruptor. They have cultivated in themselves and others the ability to share information in a way that it can be acted on. Too many unsuccessful entrepreneurs have great ideas in their heads but fail to build an implementation schedule to seize these emerging opportunities.

The third strength is they know how to recruit, develop, and manage high performing teams. They are very good at understanding what makes a person successful in their organization. As importantly, they provide the people on their teams the opportunity to grow within a larger vision of what their organizations want to achieve.

They let individuals maximize their contribution to their teams. These leaders understand how to get the best from all their team members. They see their role as coach, mentor, and sometimes, challenging team player to their different teams.

Today, there are so many ways to develop your team. Successful leaders are always developing their people. They understand the role of growing and developing people in their businesses.  The successful entrepreneur requires their leaders to develop their own team members.

The fourth strength is they are constantly looking for ways to change the customers experience to something even more incredible. They invest significant time empowering others to create an extraordinary experience for their many stakeholders. They help create a business culture that nurtures trust and innovative thinking and doing. I believe that entrepreneurs are about the implementation of their strategies not about creating paperweights for their bookshelves. Their people are not only engaged, but excited about working with their customers and clients.

The fifth strength is disrupting the market norms through their people and technology.  Changing the game is something these leaders and their teams excel at. They are constantly looking for ways to create new products and services for their many different markets and customers. They are willing to take risks. They always know what the downside and upside might be before jumping in.

Finally, these entrepreneurs maximize the impact of their advisors. These executives are very good at working with outsiders who bring different strengths to their organization. They make their advisors part of their teams. Their inclusive attitude helps increase the results they get from their advisors.

As businesses continue to grow and change faster, it is critical to have your advisors provide your leadership team with a different point of view.  Strong advisors can provide a wider range of what’s working inside and outside your industries. Their expertise provides the leader with many options to choose from when making decisions on future directions for their organization’s growth.

Want to learn more about strength development and personal leadership? You might enjoy my guest blog called How Personal Leaders Can Accelerate Their Development

Now we know what strengths are required to succeed in today’s changing business environment. Next week, I start sharing how you can build these strengths into both you and your team. See you next week.