TO LEAD YOU MUST FIRST

In a recent article by McKinsey and Company, titled “To lead you must first lead yourself”, they summarized the five things necessary for a business owner to become a true leader. Interestingly enough, they are the same things that we have been emphasizing in our blogs for several years. I may not have used their exact words, but the message was loud and clear.

Now more than ever these five qualities are vital to the success of any small business:

• “Finding Meaning in Work:” BizQuack turned the word meaning into passion; the WHY of doing what you do.
• “Converting Emotions such as Fear or Stress into Opportunity:” The Covid-19, the political and racial unrest are being fanned by the media and a few others for the purpose of creating fear and stress in many Americans. By taking a step back and re-examining the situation, we can find golden opportunities to both right the unrest and to grow our businesses.
• “Leveraging Connections and Community:” This goes back to one of my favorite topics, growing and managing your data base. I believe that data base management should be one of the central marketing systems that every small business employs. Giving back to your community by getting involved in community and civic organizations is also extremely important.
• “Acting in the Face of Risk:” ACTION is the key word in many of the BizQuack blogs. Thinking and planning for an eventuality without taking immediate action is a sign of no belief in yourself and your business.
• “Sustaining the energy that is the life force of change:” Energy comes from many sources: reading an article, a BizQuack Blog, just before you go to bed, etc.etc.etc. Energy is there because of an idea that you feel has the potential to “get you up and going”. Change is the only constant in our lives and we have to embrace the change and the ideas it generates. Sustaining that energy can only be accomplished by implementing an idea and devoting your entire self to it.

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”