There’s a common misconception that every startup founder is a natural-born leader.

While some successful entrepreneurs are, many founders simply take leadership skills for granted or never completely developed them. As a consequence, they’re unable to influence others, which makes it almost impossible to get their business off the ground.

On the other hand, many leaders lack entrepreneurial skills. Here are some things you can do to improve your leaderpreneurial competencies:

1. Be able to describe entrepreneurial competencies.
    
2. Create a personal and professional development plan to improve them each day.
   
   
3. Re-examine your entrepreneurial mindset. Without it, there is no innovation.
   
   
4. Find a coach or mentor or sponsor.
   
   
5. Recognize that calling yourself a physician executive does not mean you have an entrepreneurial mindset.
   
   
6. Surround yourself with people who are other than knowledge technicians.
   
   
7. Get out of the office and network with people from other industries. Don't deceive yourself into thinking that sick care can be fixed from inside.
   
   
8. Take time to negotiate the 4 career crises and follow a different path to round out your skill set.
   
   
9. Follow the 70-20-10 rule.
   
   
10. Spend 30% of your time living in the future.
    
    
11. When the time is opportune, take a sabbatical or gap year.
    
    
12. Work in a place that has a culture of innovation or create one.

We need entrepreneurial medical schools led by leaderpreneurs, not academic triple threats , if we are to win the 4th undustrial revolution.

Leadership is about articulating a vision, providing direction and inspiring the heart. Leaderpreneurship is about creating the future by leading innovators, not managing or leading innovation systems.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs.