Entrepreneurial Leadership

build trust, set a mission, secure a team, and deliver results

this most difficult of all business assignments—to serve as leader—is more a matter of attitude, of mind-set, and of maps than of the application of theories that only touch on elements of the leadership equation.

I’ve occasionally had to turn back, to recalibrate, to reboot. But over time, I’ve learned how to better prepare and, more importantly, how to recover. I’ve learned what to do—and how to think—when things don’t go as planned.

Though life can be messy and unpredictable, there are patterns and methods for increasing the odds of success

once someone internalizes the skills and behaviors needed to be an entrepreneurial leader, they’re highly portable. The context may change, but the skills of leadership do not.

Being an entrepreneurial leader requires setting goals, developing strategies, staffing the execution, making assignments, and measuring results—all within the context of values that support a shared mission.

an entrepreneurial leader can’t control or micromanage the execution—but nonetheless, if the execution fails, he or she must be willing to take the heat.

Like the coach of a sports team or a team captain, succeeding in this role requires one to take a special joy in watching others reach summits.

entrepreneurial leadership is the most impactful work any who would become a leader may do—and the world is made better by those who seek out its challenges.

Trust is base camp for preparing the entrepreneurial leader’s attempt to lead a team to the summit. Trust animates the mission, is a predicate for recruiting a team, and enhances the interdependencies that deliver results.

Unwavering values allows one to behave predictably, which is a requisite for building trust. Therefore, aspiring entrepreneurial leaders should conduct a deep and introspective inventory of their core values, affirming the ones that will help them as leaders and seeking to temper the ones that will be counterproductive.

humility as a defining quality of the people he deems “Level 5 leaders.”

“A Level 5 leader is an individual who blends extreme humility with intense professional will.

Running toward the Fire:

most of the entrepreneurial leaders I know have this same disposition—to run toward problems

Having the core values included in this second version of integrity means behaving in predictable ways, regardless of the setting. And as others come to trust how you’ll respond, you’ve empowered them. They’ll have confidence to take actions on their own. They’ll act as they believe you would, confident there’ll be no incriminations or second-guessing.

in assessing entrepreneurial leaders, I’ve learned to focus on the second definition: to be whole and undivided, the way an engineer might speak of the structural integrity of a building.

perseverance—to keep going when you would prefer to quit, to continue to seek success even when it seems unlikely, and to choose a path that is hard instead of one that is easy.

There’s value in having spent time doing this: you learn to do hard and uncomfortable things and develop empathy for people who spend their professional lives in this manner.

An understanding of our limitations, foibles, and weaknesses is a necessary step to becoming a leader who can be trusted and whose legacy will be one of durable change.