Leadership Lessons from Powerful Women Entrepreneurs

Women entrepreneurs are making strides in diverse sectors in today’s fast-paced business world. From technology to fashion, healthcare to finance, they are changing paradigms as they break down barriers. These strong women entrepreneurs have shown here that resilience, creativity, and determination is possible; and while their individual leadership qualities are different, there are lessons to learn from their leadership styles we can apply to our own lives. Here are some leadership lessons we can learn from these pioneering women.

• Accept the challenges and be resilient

Women entrepreneurs, like any entrepreneur, face challenges, especially compared to their male counterparts. And successful women entrepreneurs stare down the obstacles. Even the most successful entrepreneurs, no matter what gender, have experienced lots of failures along the way. Take Oprah Winfrey: she overcame an abusive childhood and started working in TV as an intern in a dismal job, and she went on to build an empire. Take Sara Blakely: she started Spanx with $5,000 and has built a billion-dollar business. Strong women entrepreneurs have demonstrated that tenacity is part of leadership. Women entrepreneurs have taught us to accept challenges and to be resilient. Resilience means that embarrassment and failure are a part of learning and growing; we can’t be afraid of them. Resilience is pushing on despite embarrassment or failure. As a leader, this mindset helps you keep moving towards your vision despite obstacles.

• Create Strong Networks and Support Systems

No leader achieves success on their own, and women entrepreneurs definitely know this. As both Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Facebook, and Arianna Huffington, the founder of The Huffington Post, have told us, strong support networks are important. Strong networks and relationships create support and accountability, which are key to ensuring you grow. Being with the right people—whether they’ve been through it all themselves, your mentors, your advisors and peers or whether they are just good friends that can provide a new viewpoint for you, they’ll get you through the ups and downs. Women who are successful in business appreciate the value of relationships, and they see how much support we can give each other both from a position of mentorship and by allowing ourselves to collaborate with other women who are entrepreneurs.

• Be Bold in Making Decisions

Women entrepreneurs often have to do something that pushes them out of their comfort zone and make bold, decisive decisions. A great example of this is Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, who made her own bold decisions regarding the direction of PepsiCo’s products; she also decided to invest in healthier options for the company’s product line. She is willing to take a risk and lead by conviction, ultimately topped off by vision, which makes her a leader of one of the most successful multinational organisations in the world!

As a leader, you must be able to make the hard decisions, whether that is after scaling your business, moving to a new market or making a critical adjustment to your strategy. Women entrepreneurs remind us that sometimes we must be fearless to explore the courage of the unknown. Leadership is all about the stewardship of vision, and more often than not, bold decisions are essential to drive that vision toward success.

• Emphasise Purposeful Leadership

Many women entrepreneurs are in business for reasons beyond profit. We see this in women entrepreneurs like Melinda Gates, who is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and whose work in global health and education has changed so many lives. Purpose-driven leadership is about aligning your business goals with your values and using your platform to address significant issues facing society. Purpose-driven leadership brings loyalty, trust and respect from stakeholders. It also brings a greater sense of fulfilment and long-term success. Leaders who are centred and driven, as opposed to reactive, with their “Why” (not just their “How”) are more powerful and effective in their direction and influence.

• Promote Inclusivity and Diversity

Inclusive leadership is a strong feature of many women entrepreneurs’ success stories. Whitney Wolfe Herd used her company, Bumble, a mobile dating app for women, to make a safer, more inclusive space for women to connect with men. Part of Bumble’s success has been Herd’s inclusion of diversity as a part of Bumble’s. Today, Bumble is the second-largest dating app in the world and one of the fastest-growing. A leadership style that creates an inclusive culture and supports diverse voices is critical to collaboration, innovation, and, ultimately, growth. The greatest leaders know and utilise the power of diversity in conjunction with problem-solving, creativity, and ideation. By leading inclusively, women entrepreneurs illustrate that diversity is not just some marketing word; it is a significant principle in helping create and sustain a successful and regenerative organisation.

Conclusion

To be a leader is not merely to occupy a position of power; to be distressed for the decisions and actions you create; a mindset that inspires others; a continuous commitment to one’s own values. These themes are exemplified in women entrepreneurs and add compelling examples of resilience, inclusivity, emotional intelligence, and decisiveness at any level of work. By recognising these points of great leadership, each of us can be inspired to gain the qualities needed to grow and prosper in any business.