Growth-Optimizers: Four behaviours of very successful Entrepreneurs
Growth-Accountant | December 2022
“Entrepreneurship is a journey, not a destination.
It is a marathon, not a sprint.
It is a process, not an outcome.”
Anon
What makes an Entrepreneur successful?
Entrepreneurs are hugely successful when they understand, grow, and apply four behaviours, they are:
- Leading decisively with speed and conviction
- Engage the staff for impact
- Adapt pro-actively
- Deliver reliably
And through that leave a conscious personal and entrepreneurial legacy.
We all leave a legacy whether planned or not. A legacy can be big and bold, change the world or small and affect just a few. The scale does not matter, the contribution does.
Being an Entrepreneur is tough.
A 10-year study with a database of 17,000 C-suite executives, covering all major industry sectors and a full range of company sizes, including small to large entrepreneurs. The data covered detailed educational and career histories, performance appraisals, patterns of behaviours, decisions, and business results. In essence no stone unturned. The study was conducted by 14 first class psychologists, economists, financial markets experts, and data scientists.
What did they find:
Firstly Surprises:
Introverts surpassed introverts on performance as entrepreneurs.
Virtually all entrepreneurs made material mistakes in the past and 45% had a least one major entrepreneurial blowout.
Educational pedigrees (or lack thereof) bear no correlation to entrepreneurial performance.
High confidence provides no advantage in performance.
Secondly four specific behaviours proved critical to performance and set successful entrepreneurs apart, they are:
- Dealing with speed and conviction
- Engaging for impact
- Adapting proactively
- Delivering reliably
A little more on each:
Dealing with speed and conviction
Entrepreneurs do not necessarily make great decisions all the time, but they stand out for being more decisive. They make decisions earlier, faster, and with greater conviction. They do so consistently – even amid ambiguity, with incomplete information and in unfamiliar domains. The data revealed that entrepreneurs who were decisive were 12X more likely to be high-performing entrepreneurs.
Engaging for impact
Once the entrepreneur sets a clear course for their business, they bring others along as well. They do this by their astute understanding of the needs and motivations of their stakeholders. The data shows that entrepreneurs that engages well with stakeholders (internal and external) were 75% more successful as entrepreneurs.
Adapting proactively
Entrepreneurs who excel at adapting are 6.7 times more likely to succeed. These entrepreneurs deal well with situations that are not in the playbook. The high-performing entrepreneurs are acutely aware of it and are vigilant to adapt well, and swiftly.
Delivering reliably
The ability to produce results reliably was possibly the most powerful of the four essential entrepreneurial behaviours. Don’t we all just love certainty, knowing the performance is there and targets will be made consistently? These entrepreneurs build sound businesses get noticed by investors and their market cap reflects it.
Given that this is what set entrepreneurs apart, meaning it creates success in performance, it is only natural to start developing these behaviours as soon as you can, regardless of the size of your business. It does not matter whether you want to become a Steve Jobs or not, it will create success in any size business. It appears there are no downside to focus on a small set of superpowers.
Contact Anne, your Growth-Accountant on how to build your four superpowers.