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Entrepreneurial Leadership
Is there such athing as “Entrepreneurial Leadership”? Is it different than Leadership alone and/ or
Entrepreneurship? Is their commonality between them, which makes it logical to combine
such distinct concepts?
When you hear the word leader, what comes to mind first: one who has influence and power, a person
who rules, guides, or he who inspires others? There is more to leadership than what we think.
TALENT MANAGMENT
Pavan Sriram
According to a recent
research done by Forbes;
they having put together
what most respected
business thinkers define as
leadership – “Leadership is
a process of social influence,
which maximizes the efforts
of others, towards the
achievement of a goal”.
Successful leaders empower
employees to act on the vision.
The core of leading effectively
lies in their ability to transfer
their beliefs to those around
them. They execute through
inspiration and develop
implementation capacity
networks through a
complex web of aligned
relationships.
Organizations
are undergoing a
metamorphosis.
Technology, products,
and customer demands
areconstantly changing.
Whether one speaks
of downsizing or a
transformation, no
onecan deny the
profound changes
across geographies. The
organizationalstrategies and
structures that might have
been effective earlier don’t
seem to be working now. In
the increasingly turbulent
and competitive environment
firms face today, a new type
of “entrepreneurial” leader
distinct from other behavioural
forms of managerial leadership
is required.
Researchers have attempted
in the past two decades
tomerge these two distinct
terminologies into an
integrative one. In fact Gordon
Lippitt in 1987 defined the
‘entrepreneurial leader’ as
one who is able to take risks,
innovate and assume personal
responsibility. This presented
the earliestdefinition of
entrepreneurial leadership.
He said leadership qualities
are more than beingan
administrator or a manager.
As an art, it means
orchestrating the totality of
the enterprisewith energy, self-
confidence, persistence, and
learning capabilities.
It’s argued that onecould
associate entrepreneurs
with leadership functions
such as providing vision
to thedevelopment of a
new product, service, or an
organization as a whole.
Entrepreneurial leadership
deals with concepts and ideas,
and theseare often related to
problems which are not of an
organizational nature. Instead,
they tend to beindividual
characteristics or behaviours.
They include vision, problem
solving, decision-making,risk
taking, and strategic initiatives.
Are Leadership, Management
and Entrepreneurship
mutually exclusive?
Entrepreneurial leadership
is what you do when no one
else is watching – be it an
Olympic athlete challenging
himself in silence to break new
barriers, to a longdistance
runner dealing with the agony
of distance or for an orchestra
conductor whobalances the
different skills and sounds to
turn it into pure melody.
There are usually two
terms used to describe this,
“willingness and intent”.
As a leader if you have the
willingness, you will take those
measured risks and the intent
to make choices, moving in a
positive direction. Combine
“willingness and intent”
and you have a compelling
combination for people to
follow you whether you are
corporate leader or a budding
entrepreneur. And those who
demonstrate this leadership
can’t put their mantle down
because it is a state of being
for them, inextricably linked
with who they are.
“The passion and drive of
entrepreneurs move the world
of business forward as they
challenge the unknown and
continuously create the future”
- Kuratko
Being an excellent
entrepreneurial leader is not
easy, as it requires a lot
of effort and people
do not appreciate
what you do. This is
why some successful
leaders never
become successful
entrepreneurs.
When you talk about
entrepreneurship, it’s
a vibrant process of
forward looking change
and creation. It calls
for energy and passion
towards creation and
implementation of newer
ideas and creative solutions
for businesses to grow and the
willingness to take “calculated
risks’ – risks requiring time,
equity, to formulate an
effective business strategy; the
fundamental skill of building
resources and, finally, the
vision to recognize opportunity
where others see chaos,
contradiction, and confusion.
Are Entrepreneurial Leaders
born or made?
This is a question endlessly
debated in most of the
corporate circles today. Do
or Can organisations provide
that platform for leaders
to test waters and come
out successful. Let’s look
at the term “Intrapreneur”
for a minute – it’s basically
an Entrepreneur except
that he/she focuses inward
in an organisation - on
ways his business can act
“entrepreneurially” from
within established set of
protocols and standards.
Intrapreneurship isbecoming
a widely used termgiven that
companies are struggling to
find ways to maintain their
competitive edge in today’s
business.
In many ways organisations
provide a great laboratory
for their emerging leaders to
test their entrepreneurship
leadership metal. While
those who make such
choices learn from the early
experience of the first contact
of their entrepreneurship
leadership style with possible
opportunities to help them
achieve their goals.
So what does it look like?
What differentiates Leaders
and ‘Entrepreneurial’or
‘Intrapreneurial’ Leaders - here
are few examples from my
own experience of having
worked with some of the best
entrepreneurial-led companies
and their leaders:-
• An Entrepreneurial Leader
makes the people connect and
strives to bring out the best in
people. They see a persona, not
a person. They identify, assess
and build people to work for a
bigger cause.
• They have fire in their bellies.
Passion is such a key part of
being a great leader that if you
don’t have it, you simply can’t
be a great leader. Think of all
the great leaders who started
the biggest firms throughout
the ages and try to name one
that did not have passion. And
passion is infectious; others
feel it and want to get on
board with such leaders.
• They look for opportunities
in the unlikeliest of places.
Constantly checking, correcting
and balancing their own
behaviour to suit needs and
challenges.
• Entrepreneurial leaders
lead change – a defined
dissatisfaction with the
present, a vision for how things
should be, and a clear idea of
the first steps that need to be
taken.
• And the most critical of them
all – Stepping out of their
comfort zone. In fact they
rarely get stuck in a routine.
Entrepreneurial leaders learn
to confront risk and protect
the downside by figuring out
the odds of success, working
out what the worst possible
consequences would be, then
deciding whether to accept.
Do write to me at
pavan@ittige.com on how you
organisation is identifying and
encouraging entrepreneurial
leadership.
Pavan Sriram is the Founder
and CEO of ITTIGE Learning, a
performance-based training
company that works with c-level
executives to improve learning
outcomes.