Five Lessons to Remember in 2020

The lessons that entrepreneurs and business leaders experience are invaluable to their business decision-making processes.

Some executives are hesitant to go all out. And, many others are doubtful whether their actions will lead their business to success or failure.

To be an effective leader, having optimism as a character trait is vital. Optimism helps simplify and speed up a business’ vision and could provide a promising outcome in the future.

Another characteristic of an optimistic leader is being open to taking risks. Optimistic leaders are able to motivate and inspire their team to support and fight business battles alongside them.

Failure is inevitable, regardless of your financial status, level of education, or even social status. To fail is normal. Failure is part of the game. But, failure can be used as an opportunity for business leaders and decision-makers to learn and grow. And, out of that growth comes a clearer path to success.

In today’s complex business environment, businesses could learn from a ‘fail fast, and succeed faster,’ approach.

This approach involves changing or tweaking what isn’t working out well, instead of continuing on the wrong path within your business.

A famous quote from Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right,” speaks to the power of the right mindset in achieving your goals.

Success doesn't come to you, instead you go to it, and you must strive to achieve it. Having the right mindset is vital to your entrepreneurial career as it promotes growth and helps steer your business in times of uncertainty and unpredictability when cutting-edge thinking and solutions are needed.

The more specific your business goals are, the clearer your path to success will be. There are times when business leaders set vague goals. Yes, that is a reality. Yet, you need to realise that having vague goals is detrimental to your business. Vague goals will not allow you to have the right focus and will deter you from reaping the rewards of your hard work. 

Setting specific goals gives top executives a clear vision of what to do and what they’re doing. It also motivates them to achieve goals, and whenever they need to adjust their goals into bigger ones, they can refine and find an easier way to tweak or build on existing goals. Another advantage of setting specific business goals is that it contributes to the team’s confidence and strengthens their ambition.

It’s challenging for a leader to move out of their comfort zone when they’ve already established a familiar set of behaviours and habits which they’re used to and know how to master. Staying within your comfort zone equates to not growing and learning, and sadly, you will not get outstanding results from this.

Effective leaders should be willing to go the extra mile, take risks, and challenge existing functions and approaches as necessary.

This translates to:

- being fearless in challenging the vision;

- being bold in challenging stakeholders;

- being innovative in challenging best practices;

- being strong in challenging business culture;

- being courageous in challenging the organisation;

- being ruthless in challenging talent, and

- being dominant in challenging competitors.

Leaders who lead beyond their comfort zones are effective because they accept more responsibilities, they seize opportunities, they challenge things to make improvements, and they take risks to create change.

With everything going on in the world these days, the above-mentioned lessons are a few which could help you succeed in a new and changing world.