I happened to flick onto the tail end of a documentary with Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den ‘How we made our Millions’. He was seeking to find out the unique qualities of an entrepreneur – what made them successful.

Regular readers of my blogs will know that I am a fan of the Gallup Strengthsfinder tool and their book ‘Strengths In Leadership’, research studies into the unique strengths that makes a successful leader. Jones’ documentary provided further insight into how two very different leaders achieve top performance and earn millions.

Richard Reed is co-founder of Innocent and Michelle Mone founder of MJM International lingerie.

Reed advocates everything natural; from his smoothies to the way he does business with his staff and business partners. The offices are like a family home and his style is very much about collaboration and accessibility. Peter Jones called him a ‘hippy with a calculator’. The creative team confessed to working in organised chaos that was successful, much to the discomfort and dismay of Jones. Reed told Jones that he wanted to get rich and die poor, a reference to his contribution to charity and the needy.

Michelle Mone is much more of an authoritative, demanding leader whose strong need for perfection, by admission of her and her staff, makes life quite stressful. Her offices, like her home, are pristine and organised to perfection. Mone is always changing her mind and admitted she is a ‘nightmare’. Jones compared her to Thatcher as the ‘Iron Lady’  also only needed 4 hours sleep. Michelle’s drive for success is strong, and any self doubt she may have accelerates that drive to greater success and satisfies her need to achieve more.

I picked up on 6 of the traits for success that I think are worth reflection as you take your business to where you want it to be

• If you don’t like what is happening, do something different to change it
• If you are 70 % sure go for it, it doesn’t need to be perfect to start
• Don’t take no for an answer without asking ‘why’?
• You can be doing well but you can do better
• Collaboration with business partners and staff earns loyalty and trust
• Let any self doubt be a driver not a barrier

However different Mone and Reed behave and think, they are undoubtedly inspirational leaders in their field, and have made millions! The road to success is very different for each of them, as they chose to run their business so that it  fits their lifestyle.

Denise Molloy is a business and performance coach who works with owner managers to take their business to the next stage. Watch out for her workshops in January to help you:

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A friend confided to me the other day that she had a long lunch date with an ex colleague – and wished she hadn’t. “Why did I do it?” she bemoaned. “I know he’s so negative. He just gets me down.”

It got me thinking. We all have choices in life – and sometimes we get it wrong! Some of us spend our lives trying to be all things to all people. But sometimes, especially in business, we have to remain focussed and look after No 1 – however difficult that might be. If we don’t look after ourselves, how can we take care of others? That means remaining positive and surrounding ourselves with people with a positive, can do, mind set.

In business, we can’t afford to be negative nor have negative people on our team. It could spread quickly and it will inevitably impact team synergy and motivation. So if you sense, hear or see negativity – deal with it!

That doesn’t mean taking a hatchet and losing hard-working, long-serving team members. But you do need to address it, and in a positive way. We are all individuals, each with our own strengths and by focusing on individuals’ strengths; you are instilling a positive mindset. Who doesn’t like doing what they do best and most enjoy? You will be encouraging them to take responsibility, setting them up for success, and eliminating negativity.

Coaching to each persons’ strengths gives them fresh confidence and a new direction– great at getting the best out of people. So make sure you have positive people around you; encourage their strengths, develop their skills and you’re on track for success.

As a small business owner, it is almost inevitable that the values you hold personally will be those reflected in your business. Our values are often our drivers of which we are not consciously aware, but by spending some time to evaluate them, they provide us with a benchmark to decide whether a particular course of action is the right one, or wrong one.

Any decision and course of action you consider will either honour your values or neglect them. Having a list of these can be a great tool in making those difficult decisions and making sure they are the right decisions for you and your business.

As values define who you are, they will be your internal compass on how you do business, with whom you do business, and why people do business with you. By considering your values it will help you identify your personal and business brand and how this is reflected throughout your business and the way you market your products and services.

This exercise will get you to start ‘consciously’ thinking about the values by which you live your life and will help you gain clarity on those on which you will not compromise.

• Describe as many values as you can think of, that impact on the way you live your life and run your business. Start with a cluster of words if that makes it easier, placing the most significant term at the beginning eg Honesty/integrity/trust. Remember, values are abstract words and are standards, expectations, things that are important to you.

• It may help to think of really good moments in time to elicit some values that made you feel great. Conversely bad times will throw up values that weren’t present so think through what made you unhappy so you can work out what values were missing in the action you took, or in the situation that occurred.

• Once you have the list, have a go at ranking them against each other so you can give them some priority.

• Think which values are core to the way you do business and on which you will not compromise

Keep the list visible and refer to them when making those difficult decisions – they will help to bring clarity to the course of action that is right for you and your business.