Entrepreneurship. Leadership. Politics. There is some relationship between the three themes that I’ve honed in on in this week’s Business Growth Roundup. Every week I like to share what I’m reading and what’s on my mind. This week, I’m thinking a lot about the kinds of characteristics that lead people down various paths, whether deliberate or unconscious. What is the difference between a manager and an entrepreneur? What’s the difference between a manager and a true leader? How does our behavior affect the people around us, and how are we integrating with our peers and superiors? I’ve included three articles from today’s true thought leaders and business growth experts on this subject. I hope you find the subjects as interesting as I do.
What Is An Entrepreneur?
Ken Krogue
I love it when Ken probes our thinking by asking for definitions of words – and business roles – we take for granted. In asking ‘what is an entrepreneur’ we’re made to challenge our assumptions and break out our thinking. A business owner isn’t necessarily an entrepreneur. Being a manager does not qualify you as an entrepreneur. Then there are leaders, and Ken describes leadership in some absolutely beautiful ways that I hope you’ll take the time to read. Ultimately, an entrepreneur must be both leader and a manager. This is a terrific article. Once you’ve read it, let me know what you think of it.
6 Powerful Ways to Win at Office Politics
Travis Bradberry
How do you manage politics in your office? It’s impossible to avoid it, and sidestepping it won’t help your career. Politics are all around us, and in order to be successful we need to learn how to thrive in your workplace’s political environment. We have to learn to play it smart. Travis Bradberry has written an interesting article about how we need to learn to observe and understand what’s going on around us, and to build broad alliances. It’s important that we don’t become so caught up in the politics that we lose site of our career goals. Politics does not have to mean dividing the outcome between a winner and a loser; we can create win-win relationships. I think that we all have to deal with politics in our lives and that this is a helpful article, both for within the office and for life in general.
14 Things You May be Doing To Make Your People Hate Mondays
Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick
Savvy organizations are beginning to weed out the type of ‘leaders’ that do less in the way of inspiring their staff to follow them and more in the way of having them avoid them. The destructive personality of many managers has a negative impact on engagement, turnover, and morale. This article offers eleven ways that you can make Mondays miserable for your employees, and I hope that anyone who is doing any of these things and reads the list has the self-awareness to give pause after reading this article. Leadership isn’t easy, but with the right continuing development and consciousness, we can all work to be better leaders and to inspire, rather than frighten, our subordinates.