The key to improving many skills is to use the power of habit to make them part of your regular routine, which causes you to practice them constantly. In my journey as an entrepreneur, I’ve discovered a number of skills that have helped me form effective habits and consistently achieve my goals. Here are three habits every entrepreneur should master:
Organization
Whether or not you’re a naturally organized person to begin with, organization is a necessary skill. The way you go about it can make the difference in whether you reach your goals or not. Something as simple as keeping your desk tidy can affect your success. What do I mean by that?
Well, for example, I take a lot of handwritten notes because I find that writing things down by hand helps me remember things. But the notes can quickly become disorganized and are difficult to keep track of—they can end up all over my desk, in my pocket, or in a variety of notebooks. Since I often put some of my most important thoughts and reminders down on these paper notes, I started gathering them up, and at the end of every week, I take a small chunk of time to organize and summarize them all. Then I create a document with no more than two pages that contains my action items, ideas, notes, etc.
The power of this habit allows me to know exactly what I want to do because I’ve laid out my thoughts from the week. I can stay focused on the tasks that are most important and decide what needs to be delegated.
Delegation
To grow your business, you need to delegate. Take a look at your task list and for each task ask yourself, “How can I delegate this to someone else?” The more you delegate, the more time you free up to work on improving and growing your business, and the less often you’ll have unfinished projects you can’t get around to. You have to be able to trust the people who work for you. It’s okay if they mess up—and they will. When they do, it’s an opportunity to teach them how to fix things.
Part of excellent delegation is having a strong leadership team who can support you and turn your visions into reality. When you trust these people, they will help you innovate by bringing their unique skills and perspectives to your business to help it grow even more.
Focus
The most important skill of all for entrepreneurs to learn is how to focus. This is especially important if you have ADHD, as many entrepreneurs do. Focus is important because it’s what allows you to be productive, but it’s easy to get distracted by letting your email, meetings, or zoom calls dictate your schedule. Focus is what keeps you dialed in on what’s most important to achieving your goals.
That often means saying no to opportunities. Every new goal or endeavor requires a negotiation of your time, effort, and attention. Having strong focus means having the ability to say no when people pitch you ideas or even when you come up with an exciting new idea that might steer you off-course of your current goal. You may think about focus as a narrow vision, pinpointed at just one thing, but that doesn’t have to be the case. It’s just about selectively and intentionally choosing the opportunities you chase.
The key to sustained entrepreneurial success lies in cultivating these effective habits. Create a foundation for continuous improvement and achievement in your entrepreneurial journey in scaling and growing your business. As you practice these habits, you’re likely to feel like you’re working best in your zone of genius. And who doesn’t want that?