What True Leadership Is All About

Here is a fact about leadership that no one really wants to talk about -- it’s a lot bigger than just yourself. Sure, leadership can bring bigger paychecks and a whole lot more notoriety in most cases, but that’s not even remotely close to defining what true leadership is really all about.

True leadership is much more than authority and recognition from the outside world. Instead, leadership is all about developing people and helping others reach their full potential. It’s about equipping others with the right tools and strategies to not only maximize the success of an organization but also the lives of individuals. It’s about breaking down barriers and leading others through the uncertainty of the future.

The best leaders to ever live not only succeeded at helping their team win championships or organizations reach new milestones and dominate the marketplace, but they deeply cared for people and understood what a privilege it is to be a leader. 

Think about it for a moment. As a leader, you have the incredible opportunity to change someone’s life every single day. It could be something as simple as saying hello and remembering people’s names when you greet them. It could mean you being passionate about helping your people achieve and pursue all of their personal dreams and ambitions just as much as their professional one’s. It could mean you forcing everyone around you to grow and develop into stronger and wiser human beings that will end up taking them to a place they never thought was possible before they met you.

There are a plethora of qualities that one must need in order to become a fantastic leader. However, I strongly believe that one of the most important traits that all leaders must possess is a passion to develop and maximize the potential of others. When you begin to transform people individually, you then begin to transform your organization or team as a whole.

Transforming people is a quality that every memorable leader has thought about every single day of their lives, because they understood if they could transform their people, they would then be able to advance their mission. The leaders that are too caught up in egotistical gratification rather than the development of their people will surely fall short in the long run. There is a major difference between true leadership and authority-driven management.

Just as athletes have to take daily reps and constantly work to elevate their game, leaders also need to have the same mentality on finding ways to become more efficient in touching the hearts of their people, inspiring others to take what their doing to the next level and unlocking the barriers that hold others back.

Your commitment to going the extra mile to care for your people, lend a helping hand and inspire them will determine the results you receive. When a leader fully understands what true leadership is all about, not only will their organization never be the same again, but they as individuals will be changed forever as well.

There is nothing easy about true leadership. It’s one of the most difficult jobs in the world, but it also has the potential to be one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. Whether you lead a team of five or 5,000, focus more on being a developer of people and helping those you lead become all that they can possibly become. That’s true leadership.

Matt Mayberry

5 Necessary Conditions for Entrepreneurial Success

Every week I hear from people desperately trying to become successful entrepreneurs. They inevitably have loads of basic questions that instantly tell me they’ve taken the plunge prematurely and, as a result, have severely limited their chances of making it on their own.

I’m sure that’s not what you want to hear, but if I don’t tell you the truth, then who will? The problem is that’s the wrong way to do it. The hands-down best way to become a successful entrepreneur is to not try to become an entrepreneur in the first place.

Wait, what? That doesn’t make any sense. It sounds like a contradiction.

Au contraire, it does make complete sense. Not only that, it’s the best advice on entrepreneurship you’ll ever get. The thing is, nobody becomes a successful entrepreneur over the long haul by setting out to become one. It happens organically under certain conditions.

Related: 10 Behaviors of High Achievers

The problem is one of competitive markets. Entrepreneurship is about business, and a business that beats the competition and takes off is not so easy to contrive. For a venture to have even a snowball’s chance in hell of making it, several factors have to come together:

Opportunity.

Like it or not, opportunities don’t just pop out of your Mac’s screen and shout, “Here I am!” You have to go out and find them and explore them. Think of opportunities as branches off a tree trunk. You need to get out in the real working world to gain exposure to enough branches. That’s where everything else stems from.

Discovery.

Perhaps the hardest thing about a business is figuring out the right customer problem that needs to be solved. Without that, you’ve got nothing. Usually, that requires significant exposure, expertise, and experience. Otherwise, you’ll never come up with a winning product that beats the competition.

Expertise.

Every successful entrepreneur has some sort of expertise by the time they come up with the product or company that ends up making it. Maybe it was their passion from day one or perhaps they developed it while working for others. Whichever it is, there’s something they can do better than the pack … and BSing isn’t it.

Related: Quit Screwing Around and Get to Work

Network.

Whether its equity partners with the right mix of talent, investors, adult supervision, or some combination thereof, successful businesses almost always have several key players involved from the start or relatively early on. That requires a network – not an online one, a real network of real people you meet in the real world.

Savvy.

Not to be cliché, but businesses have lots of moving parts and it’s not easy to get everything working together unless you have some sort of business savvy. There are only three places to learn that: from your family, from business mentors, or by working hands-on in the business world.

Notice that the factors overlap. They’re actually all intertwined. That’s why not setting out to become an entrepreneur but getting out in the world and getting your hands dirty working is the easiest way to someday make it on your own. The real business world is where all those conditions come together. And that’s where most successful entrepreneurs find them.

The only caveat is that I assume you’re looking for some sort of breakout success where that becomes your livelihood and you make a very good living at it. Of course, you can slug it out with a gazillion competitors in a number of small businesses or make a go of it as a solopreneur, but that’s not exactly knocking the ball out of the park, if you know what I mean. 

Look, I know this might be disappointing for some of you, but trust me when I tell you, if you really want to make it big someday, you'll be better served by getting out and getting some experience than banging your head against a wall trying to figure out why things aren't working out for you. 

Related: The Secret to Winning Customers and Growing Your Business

Steve Tobak

Why More Millennials are Bullish on Entrepreneurship

Optimism is back in a big way among U.S. entrepreneurs, especially the millennial set. According to a new global report, the wounds of the Great Recession have healed and more Americans are willing to take a shot at being their own bosses.

More young people, ages 25 to 34. are starting businesses in the United States, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor released Tuesday by Boston-area Babson College, compiling data from 73 economies and more than 200,000 respondents around the world. In 2014, 18 percent of Americans in that age group were starting or running new businesses, compared to 15 percent in 2013. This is the report's 16th year.

What's more, rates of entrepreneurship in the U.S. across all age groups climbed to nearly 14 percent last year, from a post-recession bottom of 7.6 percent in 2010. Babson entrepreneurship professor Donna Kelley adds the report's data are highly comprehensive in terms of early stage start-ups because researchers are monitoring people who are starting companies while they are still working other jobs.

Fifty-one percent of the working age population in America sees good opportunities to launch businesses according to this year's report, up from 47 percent in 2013, Kelley said. More people are also starting businesses because they want to, rather than because they have to, she points out.

"It's very motivating, and the rate of failure is also slightly declining," she said. "There may have been lingering hesitation, and some people had been wanting to hang on to their jobs. Banks also are more likely to lend, and there are more support systems that may not have been there during the recession."

Optimism among American entrepreneurs has also been increasing in the National Federation of Independent Business' monthly index, which hit its highest levels since October 2006 in last month's reading, bolstered by a sunnier outlook post- midterm elections, according to the conservative industry group.

For Jason Rappaport, now is as good a time as any to be an entrepreneur. In fact, he said he can't imagine doing anything else.

"I couldn't find meaning in something that I wasn't making myself," he said. "There are things that are very important to me, that I don't see other people doing."

Rappaport, 25, started his Philadelphia-based company Squareknot in 2013, which allows users to make collaborative online guides, adjusted to their own preferences.

"I feel strongly that part of being an entrepreneur is making it happen, even when the cards are stacked against me—time doesn't matter," he said. "Right now it's cheaper and easier than ever to build products."

The fact that there are fewer barriers to entry is one factor boosting entrepreneurial optimism globally, Kelley pointed out, with technology a leading force in this shift. Optimism levels climbed globally, with the exception of Europe, where entrepreneurs are feeling less certain about opportunities.

"People can start businesses on their own and be a part of the value chain that doesn't require you to hire employees," she said. "You can open a retail store on your own today thanks to technology."

Kate Rogers

10 Ways to Improve the Quality of Your Business Life

There's no greater success sucker in life than negativity. Work inevitably brings challenging experiences, whether it's having to spend time around negative people or being in a bad situation. 

Negativity can limit your potential to becoming something great in your career and keep you from living a purposeful, hopeful and fulfilling business life.

If you stay miserable in your work life, you'll have greater amounts of stress, increased health problems and less opportunity to grow your business: You won't be able to see past the negativity to the opportunity.

To become more positive, make a conscious decision to change your thinking and accept that work brings difficulty and negative moments. Your choice should be to live effectively within the challenging times. 

Related: The 6 Scary Truths About Becoming an Entrepreneur

1. Accept the challenge.

No amount of positive thinking can take a challenge away but there are positive ways to look at it. Don't let anxious emotions swallow you.

You need to not rid yourself of these emotions or become overly attached to them. Painful times in business come and go as part of the natural flow of things. Trust that each challenge in business is there to help you grow. Do your best to live effectively when challenged.

2. Be self-reliant.

When people act in a self-centered fashion, they can become negative toward themselves and others.

Perceiving your business life as being all about you makes it tempting to believe that you deserve more than what you have. An attitude of entitlement sets you up for unrealistic expectations -- that others in the work world should cater to your needs and wants.

This type of attitude makes you difficult to work with. For a more successful and fulfilling work life, be able to depend upon yourself to get your needs met.

3. See opportunity.

When you view your business life as only what you don't have, you cannot appreciate what you've achieved thus far.

Learn to see and appreciate all that you have achieved and be grateful. There's nothing more draining than being around someone who is constantly complaining about their business. Train yourself to see everything as an opportunity.

Make the mental shift from negativity to gratefulness. This attitude gets noticed. It will make you more attractive to work with. And from this, more possibilities open up. 

4. Shed the seriousity.

Laugh more, especially at yourself. Life gets busy, schedules are full. Your business life can become task oriented or routine driven. If you stop laughing and act mechanically, you're living life under a black cloud. Yet you're responsible for your personal and professional relationships.

Work isn't always about performing tasks. Take moments to change your routine, enjoy breaks and go on vacations.

Related: How Giving Could Become Your Default Weapon of Choice

5. Help others.

If you live your business life as if you're the center of the universe, you will struggle. If the whole point of your company is to only think about yourself, you won't achieve long-term success.

Helping and supporting others to become happier and more successful versions of themselves is a pathway to your own increased fulfillment and success.

6. Have a purpose. 

Setting goals and striving for something bigger in your business life can help you lead a more abundant life.

Everyone is here to work and to be in action. Happiness is a byproduct of achieving. 

Without action, there's no room for anything but depression and negativity. By staying busy, moving toward business objectives, being creative and innovative, you will wake up with a purpose that keeps you motivated in your quest to achieve bigger-picture goals.

Related: 5 Thoughts That Crush Success

7. Choose your attitude.

Change always starts from within. In business, you can be your best ally or worst enemy. Work is never going to be without challenge. Even when you feel that nothing is going the way you want, you can choose to search for the silver lining.

Learn to change the language you speak to yourself with. You're perhaps hardest on yourself when things in business don’t go well. A stream of negative, self-defeating inner talk corrodes your focus on goals and dreams. Be nice to yourself and keep pressing forward.

8. Adopt positive company.

Emotions are contagious and so you become more like the people you spend your time with. If your co-worker circles are full of emotional vampires, histrionics or self-centered people, you will unconsciously resemble them.

It's difficult to stay motivated at work when people around you are not supportive and don't demonstrate goal-oriented behaviors. When you surround yourself with positive, motivated people, you'll ride the escalator to success. 

9. Work hard. 

Turn stress into positive action and motivation. All stress can be worked through. Don't let it paralyze your movement. When you focus on moving through workplace stress, it dissipates more quickly.

10. Shed the victim mentality.

You cannot grow in your business if you see yourselves as a victim. Each person is responsible for his or her thoughts, attitude and work ethics.

Take full responsibility for your views and yourself amid the good and the bad. If you consistently believe bad things happen to you, you are handicapping yourself in the drive for success. 

To increase your feelings of success, make positive choices in favor of yourself. Love yourself. Take positive actions in your business and manage your thoughts.

Thoughts become words and words lead to actions, and actions become habits. Pay attention to gratitude, prosperity, abundance, love, hard work, goals, exercise, eating healthfully and obtaining sufficient sleep. Let these become your habits.

Sherrie Campbell