When someone says leadership who, or what, first comes to mind?
Maybe you envision a quarterback calling a play, an executive working the podium, or, if you’re like me, you think of your parents. My dad was a prototypical leader: decisive, charismatic, strategic, financially disciplined, sharp and always prepared.
These are examples of the leadership we all know: team leadership. But there are two other types of leadership you should know of. In fact, I’d argue these two types of leadership need to be your priority if you want to be an effective, lifelong leader .
This first form of leadership is where it all starts.
Personal Leadership
Think about your own experiences with leaders in the past. Which one did you respect more: the leader who just sat back, doling out orders all day, or the leader who rolled his sleeves up, took point and did the work with you? Probably the latter, because the former is a boss not a leader.
The first step to successful personal leadership is putting your pride and ego to the side. Pride and ego are enemies of progress and efficiency, two prerequisites of leadership. Leadership is about personal improvement and efficiency, and learning via trial and error is the least efficient path to progress or profit.
Start by stepping out of yourself for a moment and objectively analyzing your circumstances. Set objectives and hold yourself accountable to them. Ask yourself: are you where you want to be? If not, what is holding you back? That’s personal leadership.
Because here’s the ultimate question: How can you decide the direction of a team when you don’t even know where you are going?
Financial Leadership
Controlling a crowd with your charisma, charm and persuasion sounds appealing, but I’d argue this form of leadership is just as — if not more — important. I learned the hard way you won’t go very far, no matter how well you talk the talk, if you don’t have a basic understanding of finance.
Back when I first got started as an entrepreneur my goal was simple: growth.
After several years of struggle, I ended up making a lot of money. But I also made a lot of poor decisions with that money. Decisions that now, as someone who exercises financial leadership, would never make. That’s because I didn’t know enough.
There’s a word for uncontrolled growth. It’s called cancer. And, no matter how much money you make: If you don’t take leadership of your finances, you’ll always run out. That, or worse: You’ll end up with nothing and owning others for your lack of financial leadership.
Financial leadership starts with a few habit changes.
Namely, being vigilant of your spending habits, credit score, profit and loss and fixed costs.
If your financial education is rudimentary at best like mine was, start by checking out these videos from financial education website Growella, as one example, to build up your basic understanding of credit cards, investing, retirement and mortgages.
You’d be surprised at how many aspiring entrepreneurs I’ve met through my mentoring programs who don’t even know how credit card interest rates work.
The key here is to just get started.
Take ownership of your personal habits in the form of a basic to-do list that you draft up the night before. Take ownership of your financial habits by combing through your financial statements, organizing your experiences and monitoring your spending.
Once you get the ball rolling, it only gets easier. There’s also another powerful side effect that’ll be at work here: The more you learn and apply, the more empowered you’ll feel to continue ownership of your personal and financial future.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.