Learning to be a great leader is a big box of worms. It's kind of a minefield for young and new entrepreneurs, in terms of how much you should learn by doing, and how much to extract from the books. It's also tricky since everyone seems to have an idea on the subject. There are tons of leadership styles detailed in popular theory. According to a landmark study , Leadership That Gets Results , published in Harvard Business Review by Daniel Goleman, there are half a dozen primary leadership styles, including the Pacesetting leader, which works like others; the Democratic leader, who favors collective membership; and the Affiliate Leader, who fosters a culture of belonging. Many leaders naturally dive into a few different styles, depending on the scenario.
Whichever style speaks to employee email database you the most, one thing is for sure, there are almost as many quotes from leaders on the internet as there are cat videos. But taking steps to become a quality leader takes more than just sticking a few choice phrases on your office wall. The reality is that once your business is up and running, you will invariably need to call on more bodies. More people means more responsibility, not to mention a big increase in the number of emails and questions thrown your way. It's easy to be overwhelmed. Unless you've been so determined to get things started that you haven't thought about the type of leader you want to be.
If so, don't worry. You're not alone, and we're here to help with our leadership tips. Since launching Foundr, we've interviewed over 100 of the world's top entrepreneurs and learned so much about building and running a business. In this article, we distill what we've learned about this difficult topic. Think of it as a mini-masterclass in leadership advice, as taught by some of the founders we most admire. We've read through several hours of incredible wisdom, as told to Foundr Magazine during our entrepreneur interviews, and extracted five golden tips from some of our most epic guests, all of whom are awesome leaders. Here's what they had to say, all in a neat little package: