The Good-Hearted Business owner and Being a Leader

Challenge the belief that you can�t be kind and good and still do the necessary business tasks. The key to a healthy business is still found in loving.

There is a way to cleanly run a business and maintain good-hearted principles, a high level of integrity, and to be successful. Challenge the belief that you can’t be kind and good and still do the necessary business tasks such as market your products or services or pitch sales. Your purpose is to lead and that means having a willingness to be right and wrong and to know that your decisions make a difference. Lead by example, let your yes be yes and your no be no, knowing that your employees and clients are taking note. Be willing to be seen, don’t hide your light, don’t detract from or hide your power or expertise. Instead, be willing to have your marketing material show you as the expert you are. Put your knowledge out in a blog; as an expert, it’s part of your job and it is your purpose to be found so that you can enrich people’s lives. What if the sun refused to shine or withheld its brilliance? We would be deeply affected by that and you are the same. Nature doesn’t apologize for itself and in fact, nature hates a void. You are here to fulfill your purpose, so step into it and do so. While doing so, hold your shape; be findable, be seen, and keep your boundaries. Maintain your integrity and professional limits with employees and customers.

Do you work on fulfilling your vision? It is your job to share the vision and to steward over it. One of my favorite quotes is, “Spirit meets you at the point of action and brings the vision forward”. So, unapologetically take action, and upgrade the vision if need be. Be mindful that visions can, and often do shift and change, so allow it to bend to adjust to the density of the world we live in. It takes time for your vision to be created, but every year, upgrade, re-enliven, realign your vision, and accept feedback.

Lastly, as a leader, accept that not everyone around you is a leader. There are people whose purpose is to follow the leader, and that is an act of their own leadership. Realize that your secretary may want the freedom to work from 9-5 and that others welcome the consistency and security of a weekly check. Not everyone will have the risk tolerance you do and not everyone is an innovator, besides, your vision isn’t their baby. Be a great leader and hold people accountable as a form of love and encouragement, and work hard while being a good-hearted business owner, not instead of.