If Your Employees Were Like You ... They Would Leave!

Your Employees are Not Clones

Something almost every entrepreneur struggles with is managing and leading employees. The skills required to skillfully manage and lead are very different from those required to build an enterprise (i.e. design, sales, production). And while most entrepreneurs start businesses based on their innate talents, employee management is not typically the sharpest tool in their toolbox. 

I hear a lot of entrepreneurs wondering why their employees aren't more self-motivated, aren't "stepping up to the plate" and "running the ball down the field." The fact is, if your employees were naturally that way, they probably wouldn't be working for you - they would be out starting their own companies.

Entrepreneurs have a unique drive to build something of their own. The people who are working for them are coming to a job. They expect to be told what to do and they need to be managed throughout the process. And, yes, they also expect to be lead and inspired. 

This is where most entrepreneurs need some leadership training. Setting up the structures and expectations within your organization while also maintaining positive energy are critical skills that you need to develop. Yes, you can try to outsource employee management, but while I have seen many people try, I have not seen anyone do this without first learning leadership themselves.

If you want to build an organization, then you need people working for you. Thus, you simply must learn how to lead them to succeed.  

When you invest in your leadership skills, you set yourself up to overcome the limitations that hold most small businesses back. 

What are you waiting for? Go out and lead! 

Virginia Ginsburg is founder and chief consultant at Swell Strategies. She is passionate about supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs in starting and running successful enterprises. An avid reader, in this blog she reviews books and articles and relates specific learning points back to entrepreneurial businesses.