How to Really Lead as an Entrepreneur: 5 Habits to Form

Over here on the Business in Alignment blog, we talk a lot about what it means to be a leader. Or, more specifically, to be a soulful leader. And today, that tradition continues as we're going to talk all about the habits the most successful entrepreneurs have. 

Habits of Successful Entrepreneurial Leaders

So let’s dive into how to really lead as an entrepreneur, beginning with these five habits to form to be a successful entrepreneurial leader. 

Operating from a place of clarity

Successful entrepreneurs use this clarity to their advantage, utilizing it as a compass that guides their life and their business. Then, when you make decisions based off of this vision, your decisions are going to align with who you are as a business leader. 

In a recent post about the seven characteristics of a soulful leader, I talk about why being clear is one of the seven Cs of successful leadership:

“They are clear on their purpose, the impact they wish to be making in the world, and how they wish to contribute. This characteristic of a leader is something many leaders have to work hard on. You might be clear about your wish to lead, but the path you’ll take for doing so isn’t always as clear.”

You’re not going to have clarity about every decision all the time as an entrepreneur. However, if you have a clear vision and purpose guiding you, your next moves or choices will be a lot more obvious to you. 

Hiring a mentor or coach

I’m going to let you in on a secret. You know those successful entrepreneurs you admire so much? They have coaches! Call them mentors, guides, or any other term...but the sentiment is the same: successful entrepreneurs understand the importance of having someone in a coaching position that helps them optimize their business and their life.

(Are you looking for a coach of your own? Click here!)

Investing in themselves

Hiring a coach or guide brings us to this next habit: Entrepreneurs invest in themselves because they know doing so is necessary to propel themselves forward.

As scary as it might seem to invest in entrepreneurial coaching, you’re ultimately doing yourself a favour that could change the course of your life and business. 

Being open to ideas and feedback

Most great ideas don’t come to fruition without the input of multiple people. But if you’re an entrepreneur and a leader, you might be determined to forge your own path, and you might think this means closing yourself off to the thoughts or feedback of others.

While there’s certainly something to be said from operating from a place of your own inner-knowing and what you already know to be true, there’s also great value in keeping great people around you whose opinions and feedback you can trust. 

So, next time someone offers their input or makes a suggestion, consider it carefully rather than writing it off simply because it wasn't yours!

Accepting (and asking for) help

As entrepreneurs, it’s often in our nature to feel as though we can (or that we must) do everything ourselves. In fact, we might even tell ourselves it’s simply quicker to do things ourselves than to teach others to do them.

But as an entrepreneur, knowing when to ask for help, or at least accepting it when it’s offered, can be game changing.

And because you’re an entrepreneur who may have paved your path largely on your own, it might not be in your nature to accept or ask for help. But once you do, a whole new world of opportunity will open up for you!

For example, outsourcing some of the tasks you do now, even if it takes time to train new people on them, will pay off in big ways. For starters, you’ll have a lot more time to focus on the tasks or practices that are most meaningful to you and that will contribute the most to your business success.

Visit this post next to read all about how entrepreneurs and outsourcing are a match made in heaven.