Entrepreneurial Leadership

It’s an honor and privilege to write this article together with Arthur Huis in’t Veld long time entrepreneur, now a business coach and investor in promising start-ups and scale-ups. From sustainable products to Blockchain, Crypto eConomy 

We team up to help businesses grow faster. Combining his extensive knowledge in Business Growth with my Expertise in Leadership and high performance teams

Characteristics of an entrepreneur 

Arthur Huis in’t Veld

My Five entrepreneurial points that I feel to be of continuous value no matter the time or how fast the market is moving... the key is that as an entrepreneur is that we are moving in the right direction. 

My 5 characteristics of an entrepreneur. 

1. Be Yourself! 

Being yourself may leave you vulnerable yet it will allow you stay authentic! 

“Do unto others as you would do unto yourself”. 

Everyone born, is Unique and has a story to tell. It’s often that personal story that has driven and shaped the person to become the persons journey they are on today... “The lessons of life are the most important part of your Entrepreneurial Educational Journey.” 

2. Believe in Yourself and Your Idea and or Business! 

The biggest challenge many entrepreneurs face at times is their believe in themselves as we get tested daily! It’s therefor important to take regular times out reflecting who you are, do my actions reflect who I am and whatever journey you are on to ask yourself “Do I truly believe in what I offer”. 

In relation to your Idea and or Business, always and always believe in Offering the best Value to your target market. This will be easier when you are small but when your organization growths it’s often put aside as managerial matters at times take priority. 

Therefor it’s good to engage a customer’s experience team/person whom regularly tests your target market sentiment allowing you to serve them with the best of your ability. 

“Customers ain’t numbers but People=Your Business Asset” 

3. Be Purposeful!

Entrepreneurial Spirits are often very creative with the ability to change industries and inspire people through Visionary Strategies. 

Although entrepreneurs are also trailblazers and at times may leave certain matters or loose ends unattended. Therefor with every entrepreneurial Action there is a Reaction. 

One of the Key Elements of a great entrepreneurs is that they place a team around them to stay on Course, Systematic and be Deliberate in what they deliver that will support all to be in line with the Vision supported by a structure yet flexible operational outcome... no time wasters needed here ?? as we all need to TeamUP, this may not suit everyone so a job or intra-prenerial (a person who is able to be the change maker within a structured organization) may be more suitable. 

4. Be Flexible 

Entrepreneurial people have the ability to see what others do not see directly and are able to change direction within a split second to be able to achieve what is required. 

Another trade of having to flexible is that not everything works the 1st time, it’s often a trial and error process, this is where the Idea ?? or Strategy and certainly the Team gets tested whether they are there for the Long Haul or whether the Idea is worthy to be launched or not. “

Entrepreneurs are not afraid to say no, change direction or start something new or another way as NOT ONE way or solutions fits their target market. 

5. Be Balanced 

Balanced for me is one of the biggest keys to life whether you are an entrepreneurial person or not. Balanced I mean it’s not all about the business but it’s about you, your close ones and for some your families. 

Celebrate these moments often, some call it downtime yet taking time out with loved ones will refresh and align you with you and often some amazing inspirational ideas ?? and solutions. 

Go and Make YOUR Difference!

Hi, with great honour I have embraced the invite from my Dutch mate with lots of colourful entrepreneurial flair @marvinsutherland to partner him with this LinkedIn article. It all started back in the 70’s where I envisaged to be a famous soccer, world game of football, player. I regularly read my favourite magazine “De Wondersloffen van Sjakie” (see link in comments) 

My Sjakie, taught me the unthinkable but to dream big and for some even the impossible. He taught me to dream up playing strategies and dream the game before playing the game! These important lessons allowed my discover that anything is possible so long you 

Believe in Your Dream, Live it before you play your Game.

Today I am 54 years young, have a wonderful lady, my wife, in my life. Three amazing kids and one grandchild with more in the dream stage ???? Since 1993 we as a family travelled, lived and explored the possibilities between Australia and Europe. We supported individuals life their Dream, we launched companies to help the, achieve and fulfil their dream, we raised fund in the millions and we have only just started..... 

Want to join me and US on your Dream Journey? Then let’s hook up at www.arthurinc.co (see link in comments)

Arthur Huis in’t Veld, The Flying Dutchman 

PS. anything is Possible you can Dream of it just has to be the Right Dream that fits YOU!

Kick-ass Entrepreneurial Leadership: Accelerate Growth

Marvin Sutherland

Accelerate Growth!? Why Bother?

As the competition increases and your customers continuously demand more value from your team, there is a constant demand to adapt and evolve.

This requires a new mindset and a set of behaviors which encourage bravery and creativity, where mistakes through innovation are supported, so when you find what works, it’ll keep you ahead of the competition. If you just keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll be left behind. 

While of course skills and knowledge are essential, your company DNA requires the right attitude and mindset to build a high-performance culture. The success will be felt from sales calls to presentations to winning new customers and growing existing accounts. 

The only guarantee is that if you’re not changing, your competitors are

Life is Change. Growth is optional. Choose Wisely. Karen Kaiser Clark

But How do you Acceleratie Growth

Tip 1. Decide. Unleash the unlimited potential of your team

But does my team have what it takes? Can we grow into a High Performance & Happy Team, in which every individual team member, takes ownership for the team results?

They’re already have too much to do!

Is there really more potential in my team, is it really possible to get our team to grow and learn even more? And Faster?

The real answer doesn’t lie in how to make it possible, but in 100% commitment in achieving this goal. 

If the Why is strong enough the How will Follow. Tony Robbins

As you look around the room, you can see your team has all the talent, qualities and drive to overcome your greatest challenges. But they require leadership, coaching and support to bring this to fruition. 

Choose to inspire your team to reach new heights by taking them out of the comfort zone where we’ll stretch their abilities and see their amazement at just what they can achieve. 

What’s more, as they recognize their achievements, your team will start to support and inspire each other to continually grow and develop.

Tip 2. Focus, Focus, Focus

How?

1. Define your team Why: Why do we really do what we do? Settle for nothing less than delivering remarkable value for customers. 
2. Translate your Why in Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG): Goals that scare the Hell out of you. If you want to create more ownership, it’s crucial to engage your team in this challenge.
3. Reengineer your Why and BHAG back into the monthly goals, mindset, attitude and daily behavior and actions that are crucial in achieving your monthly goals 
4. The last step is Alignment. Align the Monthly Goals with the Purpose, Passion and Strengths of the individual team members. People then do what they are internally driven to do, what energizes them and what they’re really good at. 

Where your attention goes, energy flows. Where energy goes, results show

However, change and innovation is needed to accelerate growth. Change brings out our deepset fear. It creates doubt. This is to be encouraged – it’s called stepping out of our comfort zones.

How we approach fear is what we cover next…

Tip 3. Dare Bravely. Break through Fear

Creating and instigating change will create fear within your teams. It’s a natural phenomenon.

But inspiring your teams to break out of their comfort zone will lead them to new heights and realize their full potential.

When you compare your customer experience against your competitors, are you continually striving for perfection?

Or is your team happy to pursue the same old, same old? 

If it’s the latter, then of course fear is holding them back. They seek comfort in the knowledge that what they’ve always done has been successful, so by definition if they continue along the same path, they’ll still be successful.

However, while your team walks this path, your competitors have gone off track, finding new routes to circumvent your proposition and provide your customers with the WOW experience they desperately seek.

Let’s look at NASA for example. How many times did their teams try and fail to send a rocket to the moon before they were successful? Rather than simply being satisfied by sending a rocket into orbit, they set aside their fear of failure to go to the extreme of what they thought was possible.

Tip 4. Encourage Courage in Your Team

As a leader, why do you feel your team isn’t as focussed as they should be? Why do you become exasperated by the lack of ideas coming through? Are you frustrated the team aren’t as passionate or committed to excellence as you are?

Often, we find individuals within the team lack a certain mindset which prevents them from breaking through their self-imposed limitations. However, as a leader it’s your role to build up the courage in your team, to help them learn from failure, and to inspire a positive mindset which dares them to be bold.

How do we inspire courage? 

One of the first steps as a leader will be to create a culture where questions are encouraged. That in itself can be daunting as the majority of your team probably started their careers where the boss was an autocratic leader, where it was action by decree and decisions rarely challenged.

But, by allowing your team to open up and speak freely, we demonstrate that as leaders were emphatic to their concerns, and we value their feedback.

This olive branch then naturally flows into the wider team, where we take time to be inquisitive, understand and then challenge the status quo in order to deliver exceptional customer service.

Courage brings out our passion

It takes courage to speak up on the issues which we feel most passionate about. Plenty of individuals admire those who speak in public, lacking the self-belief to own the stage and have their voice heard.

However, when you look around your team, you won’t hear their grumbles and concerns, excitement and inventions, if they aren’t empowered to speak up.

As a leader, you can become the facilitator, not the enabler, of team discussions. From there, you can advise, coach and develop your team to flesh out their ideas, enable cross-team communication, and create an environment which drives innovation. 

Tip 5. Just do it

Break down barriers and encourage the sharing of information, then you’ll start to see the collaboration opportunities which exist across your teams.

Of course, you have always seen that potential, but the teams will now start to see it for themselves.

In high-performing teams, we see proactive conversations between sales and product development taking place to build a new customer proposition. Or, we see a collaboration between marketing and IT, creating a new flow of information which spots where the pain-points exist, and potential up-sell campaigns.

What we’ll also see is your team prepared to take risks and support each other. Shared ownership of projects, a desire to continually test and improve, an eye for detail and so on – all with one goal in mind.

If we go to the sports analogy, successful teams will spur each other on. Whether that’s improving diet, new materials for clothing, better ways to practice etc, it’s all geared towards shaving 0.01 secs off a time or scoring a winning goal in extra-time.

Every modern-day leader wants to unleash the untapped power, passion and strengths in their teams. Leaders bring out the best in in People. Leadership: Encourage and Nurture the key qualities which make-up a high performing team.

I inspire and challenge Business Leaders in IT, Finance & Consultancy, to be a GameChanger. Igniting a Switch in Thinking, Daring and Doing. 

Leaders build Leadership. You co-create High Performance & Happy Team that aspire to turns every customer into an enthusiastic and loyal ambassador.

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