Developing Personal Entrepreneurial Skills - Essay Example

Developing Personal Entrepreneurial Skills Name Institution Course Date Developing Personal Entrepreneurial Skills Introduction Every person possesses certain qualities that offer sense of individuality. However, not everyone can make a successful entrepreneur. The indicators of entrepreneurial success are based on the skills and qualities possessed by an individual (Sindell and Sindell, 2015). In order for an individual to build on leadership skills it is important to have an idea of the strengths and weaknesses they possess. In this report, I will offer an overview of entrepreneurship and evaluate entrepreneurial performance to determine my strengths and weaknesses. It will also identify areas that need improvement and ways of achieving this. Overview of entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship can be termed as the process where an individual have a strong mind-set that strive to start new venture in an innovative way (Klinger and Schundeln, 2011). It is the capacity and willingness to start and manage a new enterprise along with business risks in order to make profits. Entrepreneurs often understand that successful business ventures involve more than just a creative idea. Many people often think that entrepreneurship only involves coming up with new ideas, but it involves more than that. At its core, entrepreneurship is a mind-set and a way of imagining new ways to create value or solve challenges (Klinger and Schundeln, 2011). Not everyone can start a new venture and drive success. It takes a person who can take an idea with relevant skill set to do whatever it takes to turn the idea into reality. Entrepreneurs need to possess a number of skills in order to be successful in their undertakings since lack of such skills often lead to failure of entrepreneurial ventures. Evaluate your entrepreneurial performance indicating strengths and weaknesses Entrepreneurial performance is measured by the skill set that an individual possess that can assist in driving entrepreneurial success. One of the major entrepreneurship strength that I possess is effective communication skills. According to (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 2009), communication is an important element in ensuring business success. People often think that being an entrepreneur does not require communication skills since an individual may not have staff to interact with. Nevertheless, an entrepreneur will need to have a clear line of communication with the suppliers and customers to ensure that one convey the intended message correctly (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 2009). I am competent with all type of communication whether verbal or non-verbal and I can communicate well when selling my vision and ideas to team members. Another strength that I possess is risk taking. I am never afraid to take on challenges and I am always focused on rational approaches to decision making in mitigating risks. Taking risk in business is scary, but it often differentiates a successful entrepreneur and unsuccessful one (Kilinger and Schundeln, 2011). Many people often avoid risks when possible and this may result to business failure. Although risk is intimidating, I am conversant with the fact that a new business venture will not grow or succeed without taking any form of risk. With such an idea in mind, I am always open to taking calculated risks my team undertakings that have the potential to yield good results. In addition, another quality that sets me apart from other people is my ability to manage people. Most business ventures fail due to the inability of an entrepreneur to effectively manage its employees (Xu and Thomas, 2011). Poor management of teams can potentially result in failure and lack of people’s skills will sink a business. With the ability to manage team members, I am able to organize and delegate activities well among team members due to my interpersonal skills and this has always resulted in success. Although I have numerous entrepreneurial strengths, there are several weaknesses that I possess such as poor time management. Poor time management not only wastes time, but it also wastes money (Carter, Ulrich and Goldsmith, 2005). I often have a lot of things to accomplish in a day that overwhelm me and I am often unable to manage time properly. I am poor at paying attention to schedules and organizing daily team work which lead to time wastage. Also, I am faced with the challenge of effective allocation of time to daily activities. I often feel too stressed to do what needs to be done and often complete most of my assignments at the last minute which may be unproductive in a business setting. Another weakness that may destruct me from doing well in a new business venture is poor listening skills. Although i have effective communication, I am poor at listening to other people. I often tend to listen and think at the same time which destructs my listening skills. According to Xu and Thomas (2011), the act of listening is influenced by a number of barriers such as destructions assumptions, low concentration, jumping into conclusion and inability to prioritize information. Poor listening is detrimental to the success of a new venture. Working with people requires an entrepreneur to have effective listening skills in order to determine areas of improvement in business (Carter, Ulrich and Goldsmith, 2005). Also, other weaknesses that I possess include setting unrealistic goals, poor decision-making skills, poor problem-solving skills and being afraid of changes. An entrepreneur is expected to have the ability to set goals that that are achievable and realistic. Identify areas needing improvement and suggest methods of doing so including a SMART personal development plan There are some areas that need improvement regarding my entrepreneurial skills and capabilities. One area of improvement is listening skills. Due to the importance of listening skills in creating good relationship in business, it is paramount that I work towards improving this skill. What differentiates a successful entrepreneur from unsuccessful one is the ability to listen to the complaints and ideas of the staff (Xu and Thomas, 2011). Listening skills can be improved through frequent practice of motivating team members through active listening. This can be improved by listening keenly to the needs of the team members, posing question to them and encouraging feedback. Another area of improvement is decision making. The reason for poor decision making is relying on people too much and having shallow analysis. Effective decision making necessitates an individual to conduct a thorough analysis of a situation before deciding on the way forward to avoid making poor decisions (Sindell and Sindell, 2015). Although involvement of team members is important in decision making, it is important for an individual to have a stand when in the leadership position. The inability to make sound decisions in time may be detrimental to an organization. Another area of improvement is problem-solving skills. As an entrepreneur, efficient problem solving assists in streamlining the manner in which matters are handled. An enterprise is often faced with challenges that require timely solutions. And as such, being an entrepreneur requires excellent problem-solving skills in order to solve any issue that affects a business (Highes, Ginnett and Curphy, 2009). Poor problem-solving skills may lead to increase in costs and frustrations among team members. It is therefore important to improve on problem solving skills in order to be a successful entrepreneur in future. Below is a SMART personal development plan Leadership skills to improve Growth objective(s) for each skill? Activities People who can help Indicators of success Timeline Problem solving skills To identify problems affecting team work and find the best solutions accepted by all 1. Allocate place and time where every team member can raise their concerns. 2. Implement effective strategies necessary for effective problem solving. 3. Have your tutor critique my problem solving skills Tutor and team members 1. 10% improvement of relationship between team members. 2. 15% decrease in disagreements and conflicts among team members. 1. Try different problem solving strategies every two weeks. 2. Evaluate the level of satisfaction from the conflicting parties Listening skills To motivate team members through active listening 1.Ask different team members for honest feedback Tutor and Team Members 1. 20% increase in motivation of employees witnessed through active participation 1.Obtain feedback after four meetings Decision-Making To be able to synthesize information from team members and use it to make sound decision in time 1. Enquire about the suitability of the decisions I have made in the past. 2.Take the position of a team leader Team members 1.Getting better results from decisions 2. 30% increase in the positive feedback of decisions made 1. Obtain positive feedback from team members after three consecutive meetings. 2. Assess the results and outcomes after every decision. Summary & Recommendations Entrepreneurship involves the development and management of a business venture in order to earn profits. For an entrepreneurial venture to be successful, there are numerous skills and abilities that an entrepreneur must possess such as effective problem-solving skills, decision making capabilities, communication skills and risk-taking among others. Some of the strengths that make me an effective entrepreneur include effective communication skills, risk-taking and ability to manage money. These skills are effective in driving entrepreneurial success. Some of the weaknesses that I have include poor listening skills, decision-making, problem solving and poor time-management. To be successful in leading people, I should work at overcoming my weaknesses and making improvement in my leadership skills. The personal development plan will assist me in overcoming my leadership weaknesses and building on becoming a better leader. Time is an important element in building on these elements. Therefore, instead of rushing into transforming my leadership skills, I should take time and work on one weakness at a time in order to ensure effective improvement. References Carter, L., Ulrich, D & Goldsmith, M 2005, Best practices in leadership development and organization change how the best companies ensure meaningful change and sustainable leadership, San Francisco, Pfeiffer. Hughes, R., Ginnett, R and Curphy. G 2009, Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience, McGraw-Hill, New York. Klinger, B. and M. Schündeln 2011, Can Entrepreneurial activity be taught? Quasi-experimental evidence from Central America. World Development, Vol. 39, no. 9, pp. 1592-1610. Sindell, T & Sindell, M 2015, Hidden strengths : unleashing the crucial leadership skills you already have, United States, Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Xu, J & Thomas, H 2011, How can leaders achieve high employee engagement? Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol.32, no. 4, pp. 399-416. Read More