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developed together with hard skills. While hard skills are usually very specific, depending on the
type of business, soft skill are needed to be successful in nearly any role. Here are some of the
main soft skills that every entrepreneur needs to work on:
Teamwork and leadership skills
These are the basic and most important skills for anyone who wants to become an entrepreneur
and to create and run their own business. Teamwork and leadership skills have direct impact on
the vision of the company. Having a strong, motivated team is crucial to the survival of any
business and in order to have a strong team, you need to have excellent leadership skills.
The most important skill of a leader is to be able to clearly communicate its ideas and vision.
Sharing them with your team will make them engaged to your ideas and motivated to work on
reaching your goals. Employment engagement is the key to attracting and keeping the best people
in your team.
There is a difference between being a manager and being a leader. Leaders don’t give orders; they
inspire their employees to give the best they have and help them in their professional and personal
growth. They understand the importance of other people’s contribution to the success of the
company and that a team needs to have all members working together to be efficient. That’s why
good leaders encourage openness and honesty, they ask people for feedback and give them
feedback. They seek other’s opinions and encourage them to brainstorm and come up with
solutions to the problems that they face and propose their ideas. This way they will become more
confident and creative on one hand and on the other, this will foster their sense of ownership and
sense of belonging to the company.
Leadership also means having organizational and time management skills. Entrepreneurs need to
know their team and to assign the right tasks to each member, they need to plan the implementation
of the tasks, as well as to be able to delegate, because as the business is growing, we need to admit
that we can’t do everything by ourselves. By learning to delegate we will have more time to
manage our business and to plan for the future, rather that working on managing the day-to-day
issues.
Communication skills
Communication skills are a must for successful business owners. Entrepreneurs need to work on
their speaking, listening, writing and reading skills. They are needed in almost every aspect of
entrepreneurship. Effective communications skills will help you not only in the interaction with
team members and partners, but also when trying to communicate your ideas and vision to future
investors and potential clients.
The most important communication skill is listening. Active listening will help you lead a team,
build relationships, negotiate with others and mediate. By listening to clients, you can more quickly
and effectively understand their needs and specific problems and work on solving them. This will
Project 2019-1-BG01-KA204_062299
The content of this material does not necessary reflect the official position of the European Union.