Monday Motivation: Becoming a Mature Leader

  Leadership and entrepreneurship are intertwined, because to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to first be a successful leader. And since you would need to motivate and inspire yourself and your team every day, one can safely say, if you were not mature enough as a leader, your entrepreneurial skill set would not be a complete one. Leadership is a quality that can be learned and then continuously strengthened until maturity. Some of our most celebrated business leaders didn’t start out that way; they matured into their leadership roles by actively responding to the world around them, re-evaluating their strengths and weaknesses and taking notes from all experiences they come across as they go by. Here are four things you need to keep in mind if you want to become a mature leader.

1. Don’t be scared to fail big.

Most aspiring entrepreneurs have great ideas, but they are consistently blocked by some variety of fear. Ron Holland said “Failure can either be a stepping stone to success or a stumbling to defeat.” I believe that if you never tried to do anything at all, you would never know if you would be achieving success or kissing defeat eventually.  As a person, I can give you a long list of decisions I have made which turned out wrong, but the good thing is, I try to fall forward, learning from each and every mistake. If you read testimonials of some great and successful men, most of them failed and failed big at some point in time, but they got up, dusted themselves and moved on more intelligently. 2. Acknowledge your accomplishments and banish self-doubt. Most times, we are often our own worst critics. We overestimate the risk in our minds and see ourselves as more vulnerable to them, forgetting how competent and capable we have been and can still be. If we keep paying more attention to those feelings of doubt or anxiety, our self-image would be distorted, and the lack of confidence will stop us from taking charge. So, in order to keep self-doubt at bay, let’s stop focusing on what we haven’t done, look at our daily progresses and celebrate past accomplishments. This will help in keeping our confidence level high thereby ensuring those necessary tough or unpopular calls are more doable. 3. Break the mold; think independently. Our brains are wired to recycle ideas we’ve already heard from others, but independent thinking will ensure you create a truly outstanding product or service. When solving a challenge, always make effort to think things through and think a step ahead of the pack, do not focus too much on standard style, but on the result. People think of new solutions every day, so don’t get stuck in other people’s way of solving problems; zoom out of your comfort zone to see variables that others might have overlooked and as much as you can, rule out elements of solutions that are most expected or obvious. 4. Cultivate generosity. Creating an organisational culture of generosity is healthy for business. Research has shown that engaging in acts of kindness is associated with greater happiness. While being stressed and in a negative mood puts our bodies into fight-or-flight mode and limits our range of thoughts, making us less effective problem solvers, positive emotions can improve productivity and inspire innovation. An organisational culture of generosity encourages employees to work collaboratively. It also gives employees a sense that what they are doing is valuable; it gives them the opportunities to feel they’re getting fulfillment through their work and not just a paycheck. About the author: Chris Bamidele is a passionate and unapologetic Nigerian, who believes in God and humanity. He is a writer, blogger, and an aspiring Television Director; and an optimist to the core. He blogs at www.chrisbamidele.wordpress.com and tweets @Chrisbamidele. He currently lives in Lagos.

---

You might also like:

• 3 Tips For Fundraising
• 4 Tips Fashion Designers Should Know About Replicating Styles
• 10 Tips To Gain More Twitter Followers
• 5 Tips To Consider When Buying Goods As A Fashion Entrepreneur

This article was first published on 9th November 2014 and updated on February 1st, 2016 at 9:03 am

---

---

Comments (0)