Some thoughts about entrepreneurship & leadership

Entrepreneurs and leaders get talked about as if they're a different species. They're not. They're people who decided to take responsibility for something and saw it through. The real question is what kind of person you become along the way.

I've been doing this long enough to know the qualities that actually matter. None of them are clever. All of them are hard. Here are five that keep showing up.

Consistent

Consistency starts with knowing what you're about. Vision and values, basically. And the only way to land on those is to sit with three questions:

• What do you want to do?
• Why do you want to do it?
• What difference will it make?

Answer those honestly and you've got something to be consistent against. People come to know you for that consistency, your authenticity, your integrity. Without it, you're just reacting.

Creative

Creativity isn't really about being artistic. It's about problem solving. Seeing a situation through a different lens, spotting an opportunity where someone else sees a wall.

The mistake most leaders make is filling every hour with tasks. There's no space left for the mind to wander, and wandering is where the new connections happen. I try to keep at least 20% of my time clear of tasks. It feels indulgent. It isn't.

Collaborative

The big problems (climate, poverty, disease, anything worth solving) are not getting fixed by people who only talk to others like themselves. We have to lean outwards. We have to work with people who think differently and try to see issues through their eyes, not just our own.

Watch what happens on the motorway when a lane closes. Cars race down the outside lane and cut in at the last second, and everyone ends up at a standstill. If drivers just merged in turn, the traffic would keep flowing. Competition, in that moment, is the enemy of collaboration. We're all worse off when we act only in our own interest. (Look up "Tragedy of the Commons" if you want the longer version.)

Compassionate

Compassion is letting yourself be moved by suffering, and doing something about it. As a leader, that means being sensitive not just to the people in your organisation but to the dynamics between them. The relationships matter as much as the individuals.

It's also good for business. People work harder for someone who genuinely sees them.

And don't forget to extend it to yourself. Leaders and entrepreneurs are usually their own harshest critic. Be kind to yourself too.

Challenging

Be disruptive. Not for the sake of disruption, but because the extraordinary doesn't live inside the status quo. Challenge the norm. Just because something is, doesn't mean it has to be.

One last thing

So that's the list: consistent, creative, collaborative, compassionate, challenging.

Worth saying one more thing. We all need an anchor, something beyond ourselves that keeps us oriented when the work gets hard or the world gets confusing. A North Star. For me, that anchor is my faith. It drives me, stretches me, restores me, and gives me hope when I'd otherwise be lost in it.

So which of those five are you strongest in, and which one have you been quietly avoiding?