5 soft skills every entrepreneur needs to master (otherwise your business will fail)

Photo credit: the author

Entrepreneurs love to live in the clouds.

It’s so much easier to talk about the big vision, the grand achievement, the cliche mantras that those who have already achieved “success” claim inevitably ladder up to a massively successful business.

But the moment you step into the world of entrepreneurship, you start to realize that what sounds easy in theory — “I have to build a great team” — does not happen overnight.

And actually, there are a lot of much smaller components that go into building a great team and a successful company.

As a founder, I have noticed that the soft skills I use on a daily basis are the real building blocks of a functioning business. Anyone can say, “I need to be a great leader.” Where people struggle is in actually deploying the soft skills that go into authentic leadership — like being patient and able to listen.

The more I continue to grow my company, Digital Press, the more I realize it’s the small stuff that counts the most. And where I see so many other entrepreneurs fail isn’t in their ability to see the big, grand vision, but instead slip and fall over the small stuff along the way.

Here are five soft skills every single entrepreneur should master sooner rather than later.

1. Managing other people’s stress

If you thought you were stressed working a nine-to-five, you’re in for a real treat.

The truth is, stress isn’t always a bad thing. Stress is just stress. Things could be going really well — and the stress you’re feeling is rooted in dealing with a lot at once.

Other times, stress becomes very emotional. People get frustrated. Conflicts arise. Resolutions need to be found.

As an entrepreneur, it’s your job to be that solid core to your company. You cannot internalize other people’s stress —the moment you do, you’ll find yourself in a death spiral.

Instead, you need to separate what someone else is feeling and what you’re feeling. And if you’re feeling stressed yourself, you need to address that first so that you can more productively help the next person work through their stress.

Most entrepreneurs never learn how to do this. Instead, they build huge amounts of resentment for the people around them, never realizing that they have never mastered the skill of managing their own emotions in parallel with those around them.

2. You’re not selling — you’re giving people an opportunity to work with you

3. Not cowering in the face of a challenge

4. You’re not “networking”—you’re making friends

5. Empower, don’t give orders