🔒Four key attributes of successful entrepreneurs

I just got a terrific email. A company I've been mentoring won the Northeast Regional Cleantech Open. They now go on to the Global Forum to pitch for $200,000.

So I asked myself again: What makes for a successful business? What are the most important attributes of a successful entrepreneur, business owner and/or CEO? What goes through the founder/owner/CEO's mind? What do customers, clients, strategic partners, suppliers and investors see in these people?

Much has been written about famous (perhaps some infamous) business leaders, yet the stories are hard to fathom for the smaller business owner, never mind early-stage growing concerns.

Here is my short list of key success drivers. They are simple. They do not require degrees, years of experience, or rich underpinnings. They are people-based.

There are four:

• Passion

• Coachability

• Collaboration

• Execution

Hands down, passion is the driver. Passion comes from deep inside. It is from the heart and soul. Passion is the driver behind the vision. It's not to be confused with excitement, which is temporal. Passion is timeless. True passion is rooted deep. It is not temporal. It is part and parcel of you. It is not a thing or dependent upon a thing or event positive or negative. Passion drives.

Being coachable is the crucial behavioral attribute of a successful business leader. Coupled with passion, this is the attribute that most often defines leadership. Success comes from having a strong character, yet knowing when and how to set your ego aside, to actively seek out coaching, mentoring and advice from other “smarter” people. More than that, it is actively engaging with these people, many of whom may be your own hires, co-owners or clients.

Being coachable is hard. It often requires stepping back and getting out of the way so others can do what they are really good at. Being coachable makes up for a whole string of capability deficits. Why? How? Because by asking for help from people smarter than you in their respective areas, skills deficits no longer matter. You are building a team. You remove the “smartest person in the room” syndrome. It is an amazing release of stress.

I had the opportunity once to coach a very competent peer, a Fortune 500 executive. He was faced with the challenge of solving problems for owners who were very resistant. My advice: I suggested that he put on his “mentoring” hat. It worked. The owners listened. He relaxed.

Coachability is listening with purpose to what others offer and then acting on it. Actively seek. Listen purposefully. Ask questions. Implement for success.

There are many paradigms of leadership. I subscribe to the most powerful — leadership comes from one's peers, staff and associates. It comes from building, encouraging, applauding and critiquing teams as a team. Collaboration is working together from within your company and engaging your customers, supply chain partners and resources. Collaboration results in earning leadership more from acclamation than badges.

If you model the above, then execution will be easier and natural. Much of the time decisions and actions will be almost transparent. A successful businessperson always knows (or finds out) what needs to be accomplished and when. And they have an almost intuitive sense of how to get this done. They constantly play what-if scenarios in their head and with their mentors, advisors and staff. Surprises are rare. In the event of a “fire,” practiced leaders will often find the required decision in front of them. If not, they quickly ask key questions and make decisions.

At the end of the day, businesses are people. Business is between people. This is the challenge and the reward. Striving to achieve the above attributes will tip the balance more to the fun, more of the time. Oh, and fun means more financial success now and over time.

Geoff Lamdin is a Brunswick-based member of member of the Association for Consulting Expertise. He can be reached at geoff@leftfieldsolutions.com