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Why Entrepreneurs Need to be Good Managers and Great Leaders Did you know, 23per cent of the businesses fail because they don't have the right team!

By Ananthanarayanan V

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Seldom do you find successful entrepreneurs who have done everything alone?

It's always a team of skilled professionals who have made the brand a success while working on the vision & idea of the entrepreneur. To ensure that your ideas are put into action, to develop products & or services, you need to be a good manager. Someone who can guide while executing the strategy as planned to get things done.

But at the same time, you need to inspire those around you to believe in your idea as much as you do too. How people feel about you & your company plays a crucial role in laying the foundation for your business success.

So as an entrepreneur, do you need to be a manager or a leader?

Well, to succeed in the long run, you need to be a good manager and a great leader.

As a manager, you have the ability to control a group of professionals to accomplish a set goal. But at the same time, as a leader, you have the ability to influence & enable others to be inspired in the process in building a more skilled, culture-centric work environment that is crucial for sustaining as a successful business in the long run.

A Good Manager

As a good manager, you have subordinates with whom you discuss career developments, skill mapping & performance while helping them achieve the epitome of their organizational dreams.

At the same time, by being a great leader you can ensure that you empower them with faith and trust in your leadership skills. A combination of these two aspects will literally decide how long they stay with you in your organization.

A good manager understands they have to hire the right people, but at times, you might shy from owning that responsibility in case your hired skills & resources aren't able to deliver. That is when you, as a leader can outshine, take that ownership, amend it rather than getting into a blame game or panic mode resulting in poor work culture, wastage of time & resources.

"If the person the executive places in a position does not perform, the executive has made a mistake. It is the duty of managers to make sure that the responsible persons in the organisations perform: How to Make People Decisions: Peter F Drucker"

A Great Leader

Remember, great leaders, surround themselves with people onto whom they can project their ideas whereas as a good manager it is your duty to ensure that you are managing people who know more than you for specific skill sets.

As an entrepreneur, you have to deliver products & services that excite end users but at the same time ensure that you don't go overboard with your dreams. This is important because you need to meet the deadlines as promised to your stakeholders.

Here, there are two distinct skill sets, one of being a risk-taker & constantly innovating and the other focusing on current priorities or tasks or goals.

As a good manager, you can ensure you are delivering on time for the sake of immediate gratification but as a great leader, you need to be the one who can look at the bigger picture & plan well ahead.

Every successful business has both, leaders and managers who can complement each other.

Iconic entrepreneurs have managerial styles and leadership styles that have the ability to inspire billions across the world and these are the ones who have built some of the greatest companies of all time

To be a successful entrepreneur, both these roles of being a manager and a leader are extremely crucial even though they might seem paradoxical at times.

It's like a professional who has mastered the game of chess.

In a game of chess, the winner is not just the one who has a great strategy but also the one who understands what each piece in the board represents, their skills, ability to move & what they can accomplish, to execute that winning strategy.

So, are you a good manager, a great leader or both?

Have a great day.

Be Well

Ananthanarayanan V

Founder & CEO, Techdivine Creative Services

Ananth is a 3-time global award-winning digital marketing professional CMO Asia awardee and a global Peter Drucker Challenge first place winner in Entrepreneurs category across 40 countries. He is a renowned speaker, social media influencer, digital marketing & management trainer and digital strategist for some of the top corporate brands. He has published three books, the first one, Expressions, was covered by the Times of India team in Mumbai and his 3rd book on "Social media marketing Brand ROI" was among the most popular books in it's genre in USA and Europe on Amazon in 2015. His digital agency, Techdivine Creative Services founded in March 2010 has catered to 70 clients across 7 countries delivering digital marketing social media ROI solutions. As a corporate trainer, he has conducted hands-on training programs for 9,000+ participants across some of the top corporate and elite academic institutions. He loves automobiles, running, photography and sketching.   

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