Leadership as a small-business founder is a unique experience.
Unlike leadership in the corporate world, where you’re one cog in a very complex wheel, being a small-business leader means being able to lead yourself and others in a much more responsible way. You’re the one calling the shots, and ultimately the one trying to get your people to believe in your small business dream.
This year, I attended the launch of the Top 50 Small Business Leaders report, and many of the winners said they’d started their business as they’d identified something that was missing. Exploring this led to an idea, a vision and eventually, a business.
People are driven by purpose, so this vision is essential for small-business leadership. However, a small business can only survive if a business founder is healthy inside and out – mentally, emotionally, physically and energetically.
But most people forget this and suffer the consequences.
The small-business experience
Nine years ago I left my steady corporate finance job to start a business with my (now ex) partner.
The business was in the health and fitness space, and we were building an integrated one-stop solution for busy professionals from scratch. It was a big idea and a big vision with great possibilities
But six months into the business, I was struggling emotionally and physically. At first, I thought it was the stress and unpredictability of running a startup vs having a corporate job, but eventually, these struggles started impacting my work and my ability to be a leader.
From the outside, I looked like I had it all together, but on the inside, I was struggling – the burnout, stress and overwhelm I thought I’d left behind when I’d left the corporate world, were still there and had become even more amplified.
In hindsight, I can see how important it is for business founders to feel stable in themselves in order to thrive in small business. Often, the very idea that drives us to found a business, and our drive to be seen and recognised for our independence, our innovation and our impact, are underpinned by vulnerabilities that we’ve hidden inside. Our fear of being helpless, powerless, unseen and unheard.
My experience drove me to learn more about the deeper complexities of the human system, leading me to understand and create an embodied leadership approach.
Carrying the weight
For small-business leaders, the experience of being a founder can be an enlightening one. You have to face up to internal realities that might otherwise have stayed hidden. You need strong foundations within yourself and around you, to handle the ebbs and flows.
If you’re struggling under the weight of being a small-business founder and it’s impacting your sleep, ability to concentrate and your personal relationships, here are some tips that might help.
- Learn to understand the language of your body and how it shows signs. Being able to identify your body’s early symptoms and warning signs can help you understand what your body is trying to tell you. Can you start paying more attention to your body?
- Feel and integrate your emotions – even the hard ones. We’re scared to feel emotions when they rise, especially fear, anger, shame and anxiety. Rather than running away, learn to sense these emotions and understand them. What are you really feeling at work and in your personal life?
- Cultivate rest. We are always running and doing, and constant external stimuli means that even when we’re working on one task, we’re thinking about the next thing to be done. We’re conditioned to be this way by our modern world. Try to practice taking time out for two-minute pauses and truly take a break, without guilt. Being able to rest is essential.
