Success is not guaranteed to everyone that starts a new business or is an entrepreneur. There are often articles about the common characteristics of successful business owners and what makes them rise above all of the challenges and achieve their goals, but few articles are dedicated to the attributes that will hold you back if they are not kept in check. Often, in times of pressure and stress, negative personality traits can take over and it is helpful to recognise this and try to avoid this happening to ensure the health of your business. Here are some of the personality traits that can work against you when running a business:

Distraction – Don’t let yourself be distracted from your goals. Life throws many distractions our way, remember, it’s all about setting goals and working towards them.

Procrastination – you can’t always wait for the right moment and right circumstances to make decisions. Procrastination is the worst kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s demotivating and leads to apathy.

Pessimism – this is not a great character trait and the outcome is always negative. Pessimism leads to fatalism and self-sabotaging despair.

Laziness – Let’s face it, we all have a lazy part to our personality. This is the part that thinks that things will just work out by themselves instead of tackling problems and working towards solutions. Don’t give in to this trait – it will be detrimental.

Small-mindedness – One should always be looking beyond and for the next thing.   Being close-minded can stall the growth of your business – be open to new ideas and ways of doing things.

Being Controlling – Often times, we know what needs to be done and think we are the only people who can do it. Let go of control and hire people who are smarter, better and more effective at doing what needs to be done. You’ll free up your time to focus on the things that make your business work.

An inability to Listen – Find out what your customers need and what your staff need. The ability to listen is undervalued and the negative impact of not listening is underestimated. Open your ears and reap the rewards.

Perfectionism – this can be deadly to the growth of any business. There is nothing wrong with striving for excellence, but aiming for perfection will stunt the growth of your business. You need to be flexible in order to achieve your goals or you won’t get there.

Selfishness – This character trait does not serve entrepreneurs well. Ultimately, being selfish and trying to do everything will backfire and the business will suffer. Delegation in any business is key and will also allow you to pass your skills on to the team around you.

Being over emotional – Don’t let your feelings govern your decisions. Being too emotional will work against you as an entrepreneur. The difference between entrepreneurs who succeed and those who struggle is their ability to regulate their emotions.

Inconsistency – Be consistent. It will make your staff and everyone around you trust that you know what you are doing and that you can be counted on.

Stubbornness – Business owners need to be focused and goal oriented. Those positive traits can become unhealthy, however, when they set in as stubbornness and being overly attached to certain outcomes. Fixed ideas can lead to missed opportunities.

Presumptuousness – nobody wants to work for a know it all who seems to have the answers for everything. Don’t presume that you have it all figured out – be open to ideas and opportunities – sometimes you’ll just have to figure it out as you go along.

Any of these personality traits can keep you from the success you deserve. But the good news is this: You can take the lead in your life and work through any character trait that isn’t serving you. Our tendencies can govern our destiny, or they can tell us what we need to work on. It’s up to you.