Leading with entrepreneurial flair: How can we dial up the entrepreneurial leadership qualities that are innate in all of us?
Many of us will have worked under differing types of leadership throughout our careers. Some leadership styles we may have found exciting and inspiring while others feel more challenging. Visionary leaders may have helped us excel and guided us, even through the most challenging times.
How would you coin this form of leadership?
The chances are people like; Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, and Sir Alan Sugar spring to mind when you read the term ‘entrepreneurial leader’, but this is the more extreme side of the entrepreneurial range.
The other side is more accessible and attainable than you might realise. These leaders who demonstrate more accessible traits like courage and experimentation can help us navigate uncertainty and identify opportunities because entrepreneurial leadership isn’t purely about ambition or a pioneering vision. It’s about seeing the opportunity ahead when others cannot, it’s about having an ‘outside-in’ mindset. This approach to innovation and problem-solving stems from taking inspiration from elsewhere, from a wide variety of influences, trends, industries and perspectives – rather than only focusing on immediate knowledge.
So, what are the traits of an entrepreneurial leader?
At Imagine Beyond, we partner with business leaders to create innovative learning experiences that drive your organisational goals. Born out of first-hand experiences working with entrepreneurs and leaders over the past 25+ years, our 12 entrepreneurial leadership criteria were formed – underpinned by observing and studying leadership and neuroscience across many different disciplines.
Entrepreneurial leadership builds from a growth mindset, which is focused on the self and the belief that you can always grow and develop your talent. Similarly, an entrepreneurial leader applies the belief that things can always become better for business, focusing on innovation (no matter how big or small) and new ideas. These leaders find new ways to add value, for your business, your employees and your customers.
Entrepreneurial leadership qualities include traits like creativity and curiosity, courage and experimentation. The good news is that many of these qualities are innate in all of us, to varying degrees, and transformational when you lean more into them.
To embody the traits of an entrepreneurial leader, Imagine Beyond founder Claire says it is not only about investing in a new product, innovation or service idea – but also about finding incremental ways to improve your business or develop your teams. Claire says, “Building on the growth mindset, entrepreneurial leadership is about making business better and spotting opportunities that can support those efforts.”
Why is entrepreneurial leadership more important than ever, right now?
Deeply passionate about entrepreneurial leadership having worked in, and with, a wide range of businesses from founder-led to FTSE100 Claire has witnessed the highs and the lows of evolving businesses. Claire has seen how being resourceful, creative and agile is invaluable when it comes to navigating uncertainty and change.
If you look back throughout humankind, we have always created tools to progress and evolve. Today’s challenges and innovations are just further opportunities that will evolve humanity in a way that we can’t yet imagine.
Those who can recognise and harness the power of their entrepreneurial leadership traits are much better placed to be able to navigate that change – a crucial ability in the modern era of work.
With the mass adoption of GenAI, multiple restructuring of organisations, new challenger start-ups, AI teams entering already competitive markets, and new roles being created to support technological evolutions, entrepreneurial leadership will help the leaders of tomorrow identify where the opportunities are.
How can you identify, and emphasise your entrepreneurial leadership traits?
You might not consider yourself an entrepreneurial leader, but the initial step in spotting where you embody these traits is considering what they mean to you in a broader context, and then recognising and identifying how these align with your own actions and behaviours.
For example; often creativity can be viewed in the more traditional sense – being musical or having the ability to draw or be artistic – but creativity spans so much more than that. Creativity by definition lies beyond this thinking, it’s our ‘inventfulness’ – the use of our imaginations or ideas to create something. Outside of the traditional definition, that ‘something’ could also mean suggesting a new solution or a way to do things more resourcefully. As Plato said, “Necessity is the mother of invention”.
When it comes to curiosity, ask yourself, what are you curious about, what do you have a strong desire to know about or to learn? Thinking of these traits in a different, broader context will allow you to focus on where you are creative or curious. Leaning into these instances will then help you challenge your mindset to do something differently.
To imagine beyond the powers of further harnessing your entrepreneurial leadership abilities, and those of your teams and business, reach out to us to discuss the workshops we can facilitate for your organisation!
