Khuram

My Story on Leadership

We all know that leadership is a key part of entrepreneurship. A successful entrepreneur is also a successful leader.

I’ve been learning my own lessons on leadership of late, and here they are in no particular order.

Lesson One:

Its important to be clear about how you are going to serve your community and to understand your mission as the leader.

I learned this lesson, when i had a group on LinkedIn earlier this year that grew of its own accord, but i had failed to serve the community by providing value to each new joining member in the form of encouraging participation and creating suitable initiatives.

Now the group is just a crowd, rather than a community of active members.

It would have been wise for me to delegate some responsibilities in terms of driving the community.

Lesson Two:

Leadership is not an exercise in fear-mongering or an exertion of authority.

I had been asking one employee of mine to record regular updates, on our new chosen collaboration system, which he failed to do. I let this persist for a while, and after some time responded with an outburst.

This is resulted in a temporary, short-term change in his behaviour. However, if i had truly understand leadership, i would have known better to inspire him through helping him understand the value of updating the collaboration system.

I did that last week, and now he has been updating regularly every single day, much to my pleasant surprise.

Lesson Three:

Its ok to make mistakes, as long as you are prepared to accept them, and take corrective action promptly.

This further extends with my example above, when i realised fear-mongering was not the way, and corrected quickly by explaining the value to him.

Lesson Four:

People are inspired by leaders.

As long as you are pushing the envelope, extending boundaries, venturing decidedly into the unknown, people will unite behind you and become ambassadors of your cause.

I setup a mastermind group around 4 months ago. At the time, all three of us founding members had no idea of how to run the group, and how to work it best.

I persisted and kept moving forward, and now we have a loyal following and active participation.

The Greatest Lesson

The greatest lesson that i have learned however, is that leaders provide value through listening.

I’m currently mentoring a start-up, and in the beginning i had come close to almost dictating their plans in moving forward, but i learned a valuable lesson in taking a step back, and listening to their problems and helping each of them be their most creative and authentic selves. This energised them, motivated them and has hopefully put them on a path of success.

What are the lessons you have learned?

What is your story on leadership?