The Skills Entrepreneurs Lack Most – Me Included!
In my last ELAvate Sales blog post, I wrote about the skills and behaviors that successful entrepreneurs have and employ. This blog post was based on research by the late Dr. Bill Bonnstetter, my hero of assessments, motivation and behavioral research.Bill states in his research, “In fact, as my research shows that most serial entrepreneurs display persuasion, leadership, personal accountability, goal orientation, and interpersonal skills. But in that same study, we also discovered a set of skills they do not possess.” Let's visually review what Bill found:
Empathy is a key skill many entrepreneurs lack. In my own experience, entrepreneurs are used to achieving and exceeding goals. Their attitude towards others might be “Come on, don’t give me the sob story! If I have done it why can’t you?” Slowing down, listening, verbally appreciating other’s different situation, and, then responding with your heart are the keys to boosting your empathy to others.Self-Management by entrepreneurs can be a weakness. Many start out small and in their early career probably developed strong habits to “micro manage” themselves, their projects, their goals to success. But as their organization grows, they need to learn to let go, find others better suited and delegate the growing number of projects and activities for organizational success.Planning and Organizing becomes more complex as entrepreneurs grow their company. As “one man bands” in their early days, they most likely took care of their own schedule, work activities and balance of work and family life. Symptoms of poor skills here include double booking appointments, forgetting about meetings, missing deadlines, and poor family work life balance. The best thing any entrepreneur can do is to hire someone to keep his or her work life organized! I am blessed, in Singapore, I have Jenny Chng, in Indonesia, Ratna Ariastuti, in Vietnam, Chau Le, and in India, Manish Harsora. Without these calendar and activity police, my life would be utter chaos!Poor Analytical Problem Solving Skills are a hindrance with most entrepreneurs because of their high utilitarian needs to move quickly to get return on their time and investments. Their focus seems to always be on the solution and the possible attitude of “I am successful, so I know best.” What they forget is good thorough analytical process and skill many times yields better alternatives that lead to better decisions and solutions to achieve their visions for future success.What can you do to minimize these 4 skill blocks to greater success? Here are a few suggestions:
- Review your Leadership Profiles (DISC, Attitude, Strength Finder for example) and determine your level of ego, patience, and attention to detail and process.
- Learn how to listen, appreciate people and empathize. The book “Winning with People” by Dr. John Maxwell really helps.
- Hire people that take care of these areas of weakness.
- Find a great PA that can take care of your schedule and detail work, yet strong enough to direct you, the pushy successful one.
- Learn the skill of Setting Goals and Delegating. Refrain from doing everything yourself, especially when things are off track or going too slow for you.
- Review and track your daily schedule for a week. Then analyze it for what you need to Keep Doing, Start Doing and Stop Doing to be more effective.
- Finally, attend a Creative Problem Analysis and Decision Making workshop to learn this process. You will make better decisions.
To read Dr. Bill Bonnstetter’s Harvard Business Review article and research, click here »Enjoy your week growing as a successful leader or entrepreneur by strengthening your relationships through greater empathy, effective delegation, efficient planning and slowing down just a bit to analyze more.