Early in my business career, my wife asked me if I knew what I was doing.

I assured her I did.

Since then, my experience taught me I was wrong. The truth was that back then I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I know now three elements—learning, leadership and awareness—are crucial for long-term business success.

3 necessities for long-term business success

Career-long learning

We think growth all the time for our businesses. We preach our vision to our employees and hire the best talent to help us reach our goals. However, as we do those things, we also have to grow our skillsets as fast as our companies are growing. If we don’t, we risk becoming the wrong person in the wrong seat, with the very employees we hired to take us to the promised land asking us: “What value do you bring to the company?”

Once you have a clear understanding of what you do and don’t know, you can decide your next learning steps.

Leadership

The importance of good leadership is paramount to business success, but not all leaders are created equal. I break down leaders into four types.

• The “urgent/reactive” leader thrives on an almost crazed atmosphere where he or she can ride to the rescue, put out the fire and move on to the next problem. There isn’t much time for introspection and no real vision.
• An “ever optimistic” leader starts from the belief there is nothing he or she can’t do. “Yes, we can do that!” is the typical answer from this type of leader…leaving it up to their staff to figure out how, even if accepting the new business takes them away from their core focus.
• The “reflexively pessimistic” leader plays to survive, not to win. This leader has been toughened by hard times, and always worries about the economy’s effect on the business. In some industries easily battered by a downturn, this style can be effective, but if maintained too long, the pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• The final leadership style, the “steady/proactive” leader, is the one every CEO should strive to become. This type of leader values productivity and profitable growth above all things, knows how to achieve both and can course-correct no matter the difficulty. They understand both offense and defense, and can shift between them as cycles dictate.

Self-Awareness

We need to know our strengths and weaknesses, and how they affect the business. Unfortunately, this is a trait we often fail to develop. My suggestion for being better at self-awareness is to surround yourself with people who know more than you do and to learn from them.

In addition, we must watch for the time when work infringes too much on our family and personal time. To avoid regrets later, you have to consider whether you need to make a stronger commitment to a more balanced life.

We all can benefit from a better understanding of the vast reaches of what we don’t know, and the dose of the humility that goes with it.

Today’s guest contributor is Randy H. Nelson, speaker, coach, former nuclear submarine officer in the U.S. Navy, and author of The Second Decision – The Qualified Entrepreneur. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Miami University, Ohio, and was awarded their Admiral Sidney W. Souers Distinguished Alumni Award in 2011.

Image source before quote:  morgueFile.com