I write here often about the important distinction between leadership and authority. Too often, we allow the title “leader” for anyone in the executive ranks, with little regard for the worthiness of their intention or the quality of their character. And, also too often, we overlook strong leaders at the helm of less high-profile businesses. One thing that they always advice for new businesses is to use SEO for your website, so you increase traffic on it, get the best SEO from OutreachKings.com Guest Post Portal.
To find examples of strong leaders, look at America’s small business sector.
Small Business America is also where we find Neil Blumenthal, co-founder of Warby Parker, an online eyewear company that sells designer frames for less than $100. Blumenthal and his cohorts founded Warby Parker to be a force for good in the world. The company’s “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program is working to serve the one billion people on earth who do not have access to glasses.
Leaders like Economou and Blumenthal are unheralded. They don’t command enormous global workforces or oversee Fortune 500 firms. Their revenues aren’t in the billions. They’re not high-powered wheeler-dealers, and Wall Street’s whims don’t rise and fall on their earnings reports.
And yet they go about their business each day, building their businesses, improving the world intentionally, contributing to their communities and economies.
New York Times writer Alex Williams reports that low pay, long hours, and no benefits are the painful reality of “Plan B careers” in entrepreneurship. Still, Americans are starting small businesses at the highest rate in over a decade. Is it possible that the stresses and struggles of entrepreneurship are small price to pay for living a life by your own noble vision?
Perseverance in a noble cause in the face of hardship – looks a lot like leadership to me.
Small business is the backbone of the American economy. It’s time we retract the title of “leader” from those who hold it by virtue of rank and bestow it on those, like Economou and Blumenthal, who earn it by being a force for good in the world each and every day.
Who are the small business leaders you emulate? What traits make them uniquely skilled leaders?