Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs: Leadership vs. Good Management

Not all managers are good leaders, but all good leaders are successful managers. Leadership is an essential skill for entrepreneurs and has its differences compared with traditional management.  Managers often fall into the trap of constant micromanaging and ruin their role as productivity motivator. Leaders, on the other hand, know how to delegate and give their employees more freedom and flexibility, more room for creativity and responsibility.

Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right. – Professor Warren G. Bennis

The company culture of a startup can be different in so many levels and ways from the company culture of all big organizations and large companies. Entrepreneurs are fully responsible for the success or the failure of their company and one of their biggest assets is the strong and highly motivated team. Hiring the right people is just not enough, entrepreneurs must know how to manage, lead, inspire and motivate their employees in order to build strong team with devoted members.

There are many things that entrepreneurs must do to inspire and motivate their team members and the approaches they use can be very individual. Transparency, honesty, flexibility, good communication, delegating skills, empathy, mentoring and inspiration are just a number of qualities and actions that successful leaders can implement in their behavior. Managers are great at controlling work processes, leaders succeed into establishing trust and feeling of responsibility in their team members.

Managers follow specific rules, but good leaders think out of the box and often create their own rules. This is the main reason why entrepreneurs with good leadership skills succeed more often – they are ready to experiment in order to innovate, they create the rules, don’t just follow the pattern.

Managers aim to achieving stability at the work flow, but leaders are more likely to seek the opportunities in the uncertainty by embracing the constant changes of the business world. Many managers want to control the work flow without supporting creativity and flexibility, but, on the other hand, leaders inspire and encourage innovative approaches and ideas.

Entrepreneurs must use their entrepreneurial skills to create innovative products that actually bring specific value to the customers. They know how to see the opportunity in situations in which others see nothing, or worse, a disaster.

Visionary entrepreneurs manage to achieve more with less, to inspire others and lead them to creating extraordinary services and products by concentrating on growth before concentrating on profit. The business world needs good leaders and entrepreneurship often creates and shapes visionary leaders who are ready to change the world.