Guest post by Jane Wesman, President of Wesman Public Relations
During the past year of economic turmoil,
all business owners have been tested to the extreme. As entrepreneurs, we’ve tackled a wide range
of problems with thoughtfulness and courage – from cash flow and customer
service issues to marketing and sales growth.
We’ve learned valuable lessons about how to survive and, hopefully,
thrive despite a down economy. But once
the economy recovers, what are the most important lessons we have gained from
our experiences? What will it take to
succeed long into the future, in a world of rapid change and intense
competition?
For me, the greatest lessons involve
leadership. What is the best way to lead
a small business? Why is leadership so
important? I have found that there are
six keys to exceptional entrepreneurial leadership. These six keys make up a concept that I call
Thoughtful Leadership.
When I speak about Thoughtful Leadership,
I’m referring to something bigger than simply treating your employees well or
motivating them to get the job done. It’s about making a complete change in how
you regard your company. Once you view
your business through the lens of Thoughtful Leadership, you will see that the
burden of running your business does not fall on you alone. It’s an extremely uplifting and positive
framework for entrepreneurship.
Being a Thoughtful Leader means looking
both inward and outward for answers, whether you’re trying to solve a large,
general problem like surviving the recession or a smaller, specific one like
collecting a debt. To be a Thoughtful
Leader, you need to have a deep understanding of yourself and what drives you,
while at the same time viewing your work as being part of a bigger whole, as a
mixture of synergies that involves many other people. You may be the creative force behind your
company, but you need other people to make it a success. That’s where Thoughtful Leadership fits in.
Here’s what it takes to be a Thoughtful
Leader.
- Know Yourself – a Thoughtful
Leader knows who she is and what is meaningful to her. She has purpose in life and work. She knows why she started her business
and why she leads it. She
understands how her business fits into her industry and her community.
- Have A Vision And Be Able to
Articulate It – a Thoughtful Leader must have a vision of what her
business is all about: what it
does, how it serves its stakeholders, and where it is going. The vision cannot be vague. A Thoughtful Leader must be able to
articulate this vision, so that others are inspired and will join her to
work together for a common goal.
- Develop Employees And Help
Them Grow – a Thoughtful Leader is committed to her workforce. She helps her employees develop their
own talents and skills. Employees
make a commitment to you, when you make a commitment to them. A Thoughtful Leader also knows that it’s
essential to help employees grow, so that the business can flourish into
the future.
- Listen Carefully – a
Thoughtful Leader always listens to employees, clients, mentors, and
others. She makes decisions based
not only on her own understanding of the facts and situations, but also
based on what she is hearing.
Therefore she not only creates a productive workplace, but she
provides clients and customers with the products and services they need
and demand.
- Implement New Ideas – a
Thoughtful Leader is willing to innovate and take risks – in good times
and bad. The business climate is
always changing. Being flexible and finding opportunities to launch a new
initiative, a new strategy, a new product or service is key to business
success.
- Take Good Care Of Yourself
And Stay Curious – a Thoughtful Leader takes time for herself and for
being with family and friends. She
relishes vacations, hobbies, and interests outside of work. A Thoughtful Leader needs time for
contemplation – to be able to see her business through a different
lens. But most importantly, she
stays curious. A Thoughtful Leader
is always interested in what is going on in the world and NEVER STOPS
LEARNING.
Once
you apply these techniques to running your business, to problem solving and
decision-making, you will find that you have created a whole new paradigm for
growth and accomplishment. Being a
Thoughtful Leader is a powerful way to succeed in today’s world of rapid change
and intense competition.
______________________________________________________________________
Jane
Wesman is president of Jane Wesman Public Relations, Inc. (www.wesmanpr.com), an innovative public
relations firm known for its high impact book publicity campaigns, and author
of the highly acclaimed book, DIVE RIGHT IN – THE SHARKS WON’T BITE: The
Entrepreneurial Woman’s Guide To Success.
She is Vice President, Programs, of NAWBO-NYC (National Association of
Women Business Owners), where she moderates a monthly panel series,
Entrepreneurs Roundtable; and is currently at work on a new book about women
and entrepreneurial leadership.
