The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits

EFFECTIVE LEADERS ARE CONSIDERATE

Ambitious entrepreneurs sometimes focus so intensely on their business goals that other considerations—like people’s feelings—get sacrificed. They are impatient, critical, condescending, or combative with their employees. And in the short run, no doubt about it, this approach works.

But the best leaders I know don’t throw their weight around. They achieve their goals by treating everyone around them with respect. Arrogance and rudeness, they realize, are counterproductive. By putting themselves in other people’s shoes to see things from their perspective, they arrive at their destination feeling good about themselves … and with better long-term results.