Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM August 2018 | Page 31

New Entrepreneur - Instant Leader? By: Bonnie Benkula, BSHCA, MBA Certified Coach, Speaker, Trainer The John Maxwell TEAM The Leaven Exchange [email protected] Leadership abilities do not come along with a new business. Entrepreneurs who start their own company and can sell ice on the North Pole, do not inherently have good leadership skills. Enthusiasm will get you started but leadership, direction and skills to communicate a vision will keep you going. Entrepreneurs must be cautious with their new founded position of power as owners or CEO’s of their own business. Without dedicated efforts to grow in leadership skills, they could find themselves in the same position as many of the recent high profile ousted founders who let their shiny new positions slip away between their fingers. Entrepreneurs come in all ages and leadership knows no age. John Maxwell, my mentor and one of only a few authors who has sold over 25 million books, most on leadership, encourages entrepreneurs to dedicate time to grow their leadership skills every day. Maxwell reminds us that success does not earn one leadership and says that leadership and influence must be earned! That process takes time and consistent effort, not to be perfect, but to learn from our experience and evaluate what went wrong and improve yourself, your team and your outcomes because of it. Most entrepreneurs are smart, and they learn from those that came before them. They are achievers, trailblazers and risk takers. They usually make decisions quickly, take advantage of opportunities and willing to stick their own neck out. 30 MOMENTUM / August 2018 However, some will be seen taking all the credit, making quick but ill-formed decisions, experiencing high turn-over resulting in poor financial results or even litigation within their own team. Entrepreneurs and new leaders may experience new and exciting PR and accolades. It’s important that seek a mentor to ground them during their rise to stardom and that they give credit where credit is due within their team. One of my favorite quotes from John Maxwell: “The true measure of leadership is not how much you achieve; it is how much you inspire others to achieve.” Becoming an entrepreneur does not instantly make you a good leader, but with time, effort and regular and continued personal development, you can cause your company to explode rather than implode! Influence and leadership is earned over time and you must continue to improve yourself and just as important, you must be able to inspire others to do so as well. Inspiring others, that’s what leaders do.