10 Key Leadership Qualities for Today's Entrepreneur

Many writers have penned essays on the characteristics, behaviors, values and attitudes that spell success for the entrepreneurial leader. My top 10 list goes further, blending the theoretical, practical and the common sense based on 25 years Ive spent in the field assessing, coaching and consulting leaders.

1. The successful leader has a vision:

Think things through and know where you want to go and how you want to get there. Work with others to ensure a vision is followed through. Direct the actions and resources toward making it a reality.

2. The successful leader communicates well:

Articulate a vision clearly to others. Encourage two-way communication between managers and nonmanagers and always be available to others. Strive to be succinct and specific about directions and instructions. Above all, a good leader avoids generalizations and ambiguities that can lead to misunderstanding, conflict and poor performance.

3. The successful leader supports and guides the employees:

Start by helping others clarify and achieve goals by identifying and removing any obstacles. Provide the resources (time, money, people, information and equipment) needed to complete the task. Dont reprimand others who make mistakes when taking a well-calculated risk. Instead, critique and analyze what went wrong and what went right. Next, work with the employee to correct the error. Decide whether another attempt at a previous goal is necessary, and offer encouragement if it is. During the entire process, provide appropriate feedback to ensure positive attitudes and actions. Serve as a model of good attitude and use approaches that others can emulate.

4. The successful leader believes in his/herself:

A good leader possesses a strong sense of confidence, built upon years of learning, experimenting and at times failing but always growing. Be aware of personal strengths and limitations, and demonstrate those skills and talents without boasting. Assume responsibility for faults and personal errors without hiding them or blaming others, and know that if a mistake occurs, it does not equate inadequacy. A successful leader believes that he or she can turn around a negative situation by re-examining the variables and other circumstances with input from others, when necessary.

5. The successful leader creates the atmosphere that encourages others to grow and thrive:
Know that no one individual possesses all of the answers. By appreciating the role that motivational techniques can play in improving employee performance, you can work with others to increase organizational productivity and improve individual job satisfaction. Here are some tips on how to create a motivational atmosphere:

 Ask people their opinion rather than telling them yours. When people ask you for solutions, have them come up with answers or options rather than telling them the best way to resolve a situation. Discuss the merits of their views and how to make them successful. Provide positive feedback when employees voice their opinions. Offer suggestions or try to resolve challenges. Reinforcing behavior on your part will encourage more spontaneity, thinking and innovation on their part. Ask questions, even when you dont know the answer. Ask employees challenging questions that encourage them to think, plan and react. Above all, encourage employees to challenge themselves. Encourage employees to take appropriate risks. Support them when they do and also when the outcome of risk-taking isnt positive. In those cases, evaluate what went wrong and encourage other, more appropriate risks.

6. The successful leader manages by walking around:

By getting out of the office and walking around the department, plant or building to interact with other employees, you get an opportunity to see people on the line doing daily tasks. Create an opportunity to informally chat with employees and learn something more about their work challenges and lives.

7. The successful leader acts and reacts in an honest manner:

Authors and creators of The Leadership Challenge program Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner report that honesty is the No. 1 characteristic of superior leaders. Honest leaders easily build trust and confidence. Their employees are more apt to work harder, ask questions and respect leaders who come across as honest. Employees will also accept critiques, whether positive or negative, from leaders they trust and believe.

8. The successful leader creates and fosters a learning environment:

Recognize that increased knowledge, more job experience and challenging different mind-sets increases worker satisfaction, motivation and productivity. Frequently encourage others to think outside-the-box and see issues from alternate perspectives.

9. The successful leader perseveres:

Dont deflect from achieving goals simply because obstacles exist or no answer is readily available. Continue in your pursuit of excellence despite barriers and criticism, and encourage the same attitude in others.

10. The successful leader shares successes:

Know that positive outcomes are rarely the result of only one persons attempts or input. A self-confident entrepreneur shares the limelight and accolades with others who contributed to the final product or service.

1. Mission: Leaders know what their mission is. They know why the organization exists. A superior leader has a well thought out (often written) mission describing the purpose of the organization. That purpose need not be esoteric or abstract, but rather descriptive, clear and understandable. Every employee should be able to identify with the mission and strive to achieve it. 2. Vision: Where do you want your organization to go? A vision needs to be abstract enough to encourage people to imagine it but concrete enough for followers to see it, understand it and be willing to climb onboard to fulfill it. 3. Goal: How is the organization going to achieve its mission and vision and how will you measure your progress? Like a vision, goals need to be operational; that is specific and measurable. If your output and results can't be readily measured, then it will be difficult to know if you have achieved your purpose. You may have wasted important resources (time, money, people, and equipment) pursuing a strategy or plan without knowing if it truly succeeded. 4. Competency: You must be seen by your advisors, stakeholders, employees, and the public as being an expert in your field or an expert in leadership. Unless your constituents see you as highly credentialed--either by academic degree or with specialized experience--and capable of leading your company to success, it will be more difficult for you to be as respected, admired, or followed. Practically speaking, not all executives immediately possess all of the characteristics that spell success. Many leaders learn along the way with hard work. As crises and challenges arise, those at the top of the hierarchy have key opportunities to demonstrate to others that they are in fact, qualified to be leaders. In actuality, greater competency can be achieved as a leader gains more on-the-job experiences. 5. A strong team: Realistically, few executives possess all of the skills and abilities necessary to demonstrate total mastery of every requisite area within the organization. To complement the areas of weakness, a wise leader assembles effective teams of experienced, credentialed, and capable individuals who can supplement any voids in the leader's skill set. This ability is what sets leaders apart from others. However, the leader needs to be willing to admit he lacks certain abilities and go about finding trusted colleagues to complement those deficiencies. After building the team, the entrepreneur needs to trust that team to understand issues, create solutions, and to act on them. 6. Communication skills: It does little good to have a strong mission, vision, and goals--and even a solid budget--if the executive cannot easily and effectively convey his ideas to the stakeholders inside and outside of the organization. He must regularly be in touch with key individuals, by email, v-mail, meetings, or other forms of correspondence. Of course, the best way to ensure other people receive and understand the message is with face-to-face interactions.

Getting out of the office or touring different sites is an irreplaceable method of building rapport and sending and receiving messages. "Management By Walking Around," or MBWA, meeting employees at their workstations or conference rooms, or joining them for lunch are just a few of the many effective approaches leaders can use to develop positive contacts with employees. 7. Interpersonal skills: Successful entrepreneurs are comfortable relating to other people; they easily create rapport and are at least more extroverted than they are introverted. These factors help leaders seem approachable, likeable, and comfortable in their position. Those qualities contribute to staff wanting to interact with their leader. They also help motivate employees to do a better job. When workers can relate to their boss, they believe that their boss is more concerned about them, with their performance, and with their output. Furthermore, they believe that they can go to their boss with problems they encounter on the job without fearing consequences for not knowing how to resolve issues. Not all entrepreneurs are adept at interpersonal skills. Those that aren't, might find it helpful to take a course, choose a mentor or locate a therapist to help them build interpersonal skills. The intangible cost is too high to not improve these abilities. In addition, here's where a strong team comes into play. The less experienced leader who is still learning these skills can rely on the team to get out and to "press the flesh," interact with employees, and spread a positive attitude to help develop morale. 8. A "can do, get it done" attitude: Nothing builds a picture of success more than achievement, and achievement is the number one factor that motivates just about everyone across all cultures. When employees see that their boss can lead and direct, has a clear vision and attainable goals, and actually gains results in a timely manner, then that person's credibility increases throughout the organization. Entrepreneurs must modestly demonstrate their skills to give their constituents valid reasons to appreciate and value their efforts. 9. Inspiration: Quite often, employees need someone to look up to for direction, guidance, and motivation. The entrepreneur needs to be that person. Hopefully, Human Resources has hired self-motivated individuals. Nevertheless, there are times, when many employees need the boss to inspire them by word or action. Employees need someone to look up to, admire, and follow. Even when the production or delivery of services looks like "it is all going well," the leader may at times need to step in personally to offer a suggestion or encouragement to ensure that employees perform their jobs in an optimal manner. 10. Ambition: Resting on your laurels is bad for employee morale and entrepreneurial credibility. Employees need to be constantly striving for improvement and success; and they need to see the same and more in their leaders. When the boss is seen as someone who works to attain increasingly higher goals, employees will be impressed and more willing to mirror that behavior. It's a win-win for everyone.

The basic message in this article is that you as the owner/entrepreneur need to "be out there" for your employees. Continually demonstrate to them why and how you earned the position you now hold. Communicate with them using any of a variety of methods that show them you are worthy of being followed. Make that process inspiring and positive and you can almost guarantee that your results will be consistent with your efforts.

Entrepreneurship Challenges and Opportunities: Indian Scenario

Risk taking ability, Self-confidence, Decision making ability, Knowledge of cumin growing to harvesting technology, Economic motivation, Market orientation, Risk factors, Soil and firm condition of experiences, Water resources, Water quality and volumes, need to cumin for all technical factors, Ability of co-ordination to cumin related activities, Achievement, Motivation, etc. indicators are behavior of entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurship has gained greater significance at global level under changing economic scenario. Global economy in general and Indian economy in particular is poised for accelerated growth driven by entrepreneurship. Admits environment of super mall culture we find plenty of scope for entrepreneurship in trading and manufacturing. An entrepreneur is a person who is able to look at the environment, identify opportunities to improve the environmental resources and implement action to maximize those opportunities (Robert E. Nelson) it is important to bear in mind the entrepreneurial skills that will be needed to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and communities and to sustain a healthy economy and environment. Taking this into consideration, we will find that each of the traditional definitions has its own weakness (Tyson, Petrin, Rogers, 1994, p. 4). The first definition leaves little room for innovations that are not on the technological or organizational cutting edge, such as, adaptation of older technologies to a developing-country context, or entering into export markets already tapped by other firms. Defining entrepreneurship as risk-taking neglects other major elements of what we usually think of as entrepreneurship, such as a well-developed ability to recognize unexploited market opportunities. Entrepreneurship as a stabilizing force limits entrepreneurship to reading markets disequilibria, while entrepreneurship defined as owning and operating a business, denies the possibility of entrepreneurial behavior by non-owners, employees and managers who have no equity stake in the business. Therefore, the most appropriate definition of entrepreneurship that would fit into the rural development context, argued here, is the broader one, the one which defines entrepreneurship as: "a force that mobilizes other resources to meet unmet market demand", "the ability to create and build something from practically nothing", "the process of creating value by pulling together a unique package of resources to exploit an opportunity".

It combines definitions of entrepreneurship by Jones and Sakong, 1980; Timmons, 1989; Stevenson, et al., 1985. Entrepreneurship so defined, pertains to any new organization of productive factors and not exclusively to innovations that are on the technological or organizational cutting edge, it pertains to entrepreneurial activities both within and outside the organization. Entrepreneurship need not involve anything new from a global or even national perspective, but rather the adoption of new forms of business organizations, new technologies and new enterprises producing goods not previously available at a location (Petrin, 1991). This is why entrepreneurship is considered to be a prime mover in development and why nations, regions and communities that actively promote entrepreneurship development, demonstrate much higher growth rates and consequently higher levels of development than nations, regions and communities whose institutions, politics and culture hinder entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurial economy, whether on the national, regional or community level, differs significantly from a nonentrepreneurial economy in many respects, not only by its economic structure and its economic vigorousness, but also by the social vitality and quality of life which it offers with a consequent attractiveness to people. Economic structure is very dynamic and extremely competitive due to the rapid creation of new firms and the exit of 'old' stagnant and declining firms Redefining entrepreneurship and innovation Succeeding as an entrepreneur and an innovator in todays world is vastly different from what it was earlier. Organizations will face seven trends in the next decade as they flight to survive, grow and remain competitive.

Speed and uncertainty will prevail. Technology will continue to disrupt and enable. Demographics will dictate much of what happens in business. Loyalty will erode. Work will be done anywhere, anytime. Employment as we know it will disappear. Women Entrepreneur: Women entrepreneurs have been making a significant impact in all segments of the economy in India, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Australia and the United States. The areas chosen by women are retail trade, restaurants, hotels, education, cultural, cleaning, insurance and manufacturing The New Thrust suggests following two factors pulling or pushing women in an entrepreneurship Factors leading women to be an entrepreneur:Women entrepreneurs choose a Women takes up business enterprises to Profession as a challenge and an get over financial difficulties and respond- adventure with an urge to do some - visibility is thrust on them due to family -thing new, liking for business and circumstances. to have an independent occupation. With the spread of education and new approaches/awareness, women entrepreneurs are achieving higher level of 3Es, namely: (i) Engineering (ii) Electronics (iii) Energy. Though we should not forget certain Psycho-Social Barriers which hinders the growth of women entrepreneurs. Opportunities :

Free entry into world trade. Improved risk taking ability. Governments of nations withdrawn some restrictions Technology and inventions spread into the world. Encouragement to innovations and inventions. Promotion of healthy completions among nations Consideration increase in government assistance for international trade. Establishment of other national and international institutes to support business among nations of the world. Benefits of specialization. Social and cultural development Challenges: Problems of raising equity capital Difficulty in borrowing fund. T hought-cut completions endangered existence of small companies. Problems of availing raw-materials. Problems of obsolescence of indigenous technology Increased pollutions Ecological imbalanced. Problems of TRIPS and TRIMS. Exploitation of small and poor countries, etc. Suggestions Govt. should provide separate financial fund of womens entrepreneur. We should provide her special infrastructure facilities what ever she deeds. Govt. should arrange special training programmes of women entrepreneurship Govt. should felicitated top ranker womens entrepreneur. Women entrepreneur should more competitive and efficient in the local & international market. Use should invite successful women entrepreneurs from foreign countries. Women Entrepreneurship in India Out of total 940.98 million people in India, in the 1990s, females comprise 437.10 million representing 46.5 percent of the total population. There are 126.48 million women workforce but as per the 1991 census, only 1, 85,900 women accounting for only 4.5 per cent of the total self-employed persons in the country were recorded. As per a rough estimate the number of SSIs are expected to be2.5 billion having 9% women entrepreneurs in to it. Considering this trend, women participation in another five years was 20 % more, raising the number of women entrepreneurs to about 5, 00,000. Combined effect of motivational drive, preparation of information material, conducting training, creation of women industrial estates, and training of promoters and use of mass media all together is bound to accelerate the process of women entrepreneurship development. Some psychosocial factors impede the growth of women entrepreneurs are as follows:

Poor self-image of women Inadequate motivation

Discriminating treatment Faulty socialization Role conflict Cultural values Lack of courage and self-confidence Inadequate encouragement Lack of social acceptance Unjust social, economic and cultural system Lack of freedom of expression Afraid of failures and criticism Susceptible to negative attitude Low dignity of labour What New Awareness has to say about it? The new Industrial Policy of the Government of India has specially highlighted the need for special entrepreneurship programmes for women entrepreneurs in the nature of product-process oriented courses to enable them to start small-scale industries. A majority of women entrepreneurs are from the middle class families who have low technical education, less family responsibilities but desire to become entrepreneurs. This potential should be identified and tapped. Rural Entrepreneur Succeeding as an entrepreneur and an innovator in todays world is vastly different from what it was earlier. Besides the existing generation of entrepreneurship also is passing through the transition period. They experience financial resource limitation to promote or to develop a venture and there is also look of research and innovation to meat with marketing challenges. Indian rural economy is also experiencing behavior of entrepreneurial. Aim of most farmers is to earn profits from farming as from any other business, if he determines the objectives. A farm business necessary requires deliberate decision and proper investment, after assessing risk and available resources to maximize profit. There for entrepreneurship is not simply adoption of new activity but it is transformation of a person from traditional of modern India is known as Home spices and is in fact the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices in the world. Though, cumin cultivation requires more inputs and production prices are high but last two years monetary output is uncertain. It is also sensitive crop to many disease, pest and also highly risky crop considering natural hazards, as well as the day to day fluctuating wholesale price index. Organizations will face seven trends in the next decade as they flight to survive, grow and remain competitive.

Speed and uncertainty will prevail. Technology will continue to disrupt and enable. Demographics will dictate much of what happens in business. Loyalty will erode. Work will be done anywhere, anytime. Employment as we know it will disappear.

Opportunities For rural Entrepreneurs. Crashed Scheme for Rural Development Food for Work Programme National Rural Employment Programme Regional Rural Development Centers Entrepreneurship Development institute of India Bank of Technology Rural Innovation Funding Social Rural Entrepreneurship. Challenges For Rural Entrepreneurs Growth of Mall Culture Poor Assistance Power Failure Lack of Technical know how Capacity Utilization Infrastructure Sickness Present Entrepreneurial Scenario Mr. Ratan Tata had clearly articulated to us his vision for Tata Motors. The company has very successfully launched its passenger cars- Indica and Indigo and recently in January 2008 they have set a benchmark in the history of four-wheeler industry all around the globe by offering their masterpiece NANO to be the worlds cheapest car worth 1 Lac rupees only. The company has also taken over the business of Corus, a giant in the steel industry. Vijay Mallya and talk of innovation, to hit the Indian market. Vijay Mallyas mission was to create brand Kingfisher as a generic brand for lifestyle. There happened to be some sort of compatibility between the way he lived his life and the brand image that he was thinking to create. One of the key ingredients of innovation is to simply be yourself. He did the restructuring process of United Breweries without any sense of embarrassment. We are all sometimes stymied, curbed and limited by ourselves. Philips, Sony, Honda, Ford provide the signposts of entrepreneurship today for all to emulate. Some of these have come up only in recent years and from small beginnings. In India, too, one sees glimpses of such entrepreneurship. ICICIs experience tells a great deal about entrepreneurship good as well as not so good. Following Indian firms will keep on dominating the corporate world in the future too

Tata Steel & Motors Indian Oil Corporation Reliance industries Infosys Technologies Moser Baer Bharti Tele-ventures

Twaalfhoven and Indivers (1993, pp. 3-4), they are run by dynamic entrepreneurs, who manage and lead their companies not only to remain in the business but to expand it. Dynamic entrepreneurs look for growth, they do not have only a vision but are also capable of making it happen. They think and act globally, look for expansion, rely on external resources, seek professional advice or they work with professional teams. They challenge competitors instead of avoiding them and take and share risks in a way that leads to success. In this way economic vitality of a country largely depends on the overall level of entrepreneurial capacity, i.e., on its ability to create rapidly growing companies Summary The entrepreneurs provide a magical touch to an organization, whether in public or private or joint sector, in achieving speed, flexibility, innovativeness, and a strong sense of self-determination. They bring a new vision to the forefront of economic growth.