The Role of Leadership in a Successful Entrepreneurship - Essay Example

Business leadership By: Leadership means a lot to a successful entrepreneurship. It has helped in recognizing business opportunities that no entrepreneur has exploited yet. There are many trends in the 21st century, and it requires good leadership to keep at par with these trends. Various characteristics define leadership. Examples of the characteristics are emotional stability, dominance, enthusiasm, social boldness, self-assurance, intuitiveness, and compulsiveness. Leadership in entrepreneurship will ensure there is competitiveness. The employees will be motivated, and the level of production shall increase. The world is changing, and it requires competent leaders to keep the business competitive. This paper is going to discuss critically what leadership means to successful entrepreneurship. Leadership is very broad. There are various types of leadership. One of them is autocratic. It is a leadership that the managers are the only decision makers in the firm. They do not consult other colleagues in the organization. The managers act in full authority. Autocratic managers could make an organization realize its full potential. Experts say autocratic managers are the best risk takers. They could make a decision that is too risky, but favor the firm in the end. Most companies do not exploit new opportunities because the management does not come into a common decision. There could not be such a situation in firms under autocratic leaders. The decision is from a common person and there are no disagreements. Another type of leadership is participative. The managers of firms always practice democracy in their undertakings. The managers involve all the employees in making crucial decision. The firm could realize growth in production because of employee’s motivation. The workers will have a good rapport with the management. A participative manager always takes into consideration the will of his employees. If an employee has noticed a business opportunity, the management could support him realize the growth of the opportunity (Glanz, 2002, p. 2). Laissez-Faire is another type of leadership. The managers of this type do not supervise the employees. He has delegated his powers of supervision to some employees. Companies that have employees, who are experienced, have this type of managers. It allows free participation of other employees in production of the firm. The leadership of this type allows for realization of hidden potentials in the firm. In some cases, firms with this type of leadership experience poor production because of lack of supervision (Blanken, 2013, p. 2). Another type of leadership is transactional. They always reward their employees in times of success. They base their rewards on the level of service of the employee. Furthermore, these types of managers have their ways of punishing poor performing employees. The firm could experience a significant growth in the level of production because managers have set the records to achieve. The firm could tackle new opportunities with ease because the manager and the employees have set goals together. They all share a mutual vision for the firm. Managers always provide training to the employees who do not meet their goals (Johnson, 2013, p. 1). Good leadership allows entrepreneurs to have success in future. The best leadership requires a manager to have vision. Entrepreneurship is very complex, and without vision, it would not attain the maximum level of success. A good entrepreneurial manager is not satisfied with the present. He always strives for the best. The vision should be over the limits of the firm. It should also entail the procedures of conducting certain things. Example of vision is the Microsoft chief Bill Gates ambition to create software. He used all the necessary resources to ensure his vision will be a reality (Nieuwenhuizen, 2007, p. 78). Good entrepreneurial managers should seize any opportunity that comes his way. After seizing the opportunity, he should expand the ways of using the opportunity well. It requires the best risk taken to accomplish this. A good manager could take his entrepreneurship to the next level if he takes advantage of his weakness. He should know what his unfair advantages are. Example of these unfair advantages is when a person goes to buy food. He may follow the recipe on how to cook or he could follow his own way and realize his potential to cook. Entrepreneurs have to act like this. Furthermore, the entrepreneur should be able to accommodate many people on board of his business. People with necessary knowledge could add to the vision of the firm. The people could offer ideas that could open new opportunities. Good entrepreneurs always participate in the recruiting process (Adams, 2007, p. 65). Good entrepreneurial managers should be able to add more talent in the firm. For productivity to rise, it requires expertise knowledge. The firm could open more departments, more important the human resource. The department deals with both the needs of the consumers and employees. For the department to carter for their needs, a good manager would recruit able head of department to run the department. Good leadership requires flexibility. An entrepreneur without flexibility is doomed to fail in business. A flexible leader would take feedbacks from clients and would be open to them. Furthermore, they should be flexible to learn new things. It is a way of being divergent, and the business could realize significant growth. Success is easy to achieve with good leadership in place. The leadership has to offer the leading way in designing the organizational culture. The management has to bring a common culture into existence. The culture should favor delivering success. The business strategy should go hand in hand with the culture. At the end, there will be growth of the business. It is proper for a firm to have good communication means. Good leadership will ensure this communication is in place. A firm achieves greater success with good communication. It allows various departments within the firm to share their ideas. A company may formulate new business plan with good communication. It would assist in the growth and expansion of the organization. Apart from communication, good leadership should ensure there is stakeholder management. It is easy to realize success with stakeholder management. Moreover, to attain success, the management has to engage the correct people in making certain decisions. Example, if a firm needs to increase its market share, it should hire experts from marketing. Some firms may rely on experts from the financial sector, and this may be disastrous in the end. An entrepreneurship that has capacity for change could easily achieve success. It is able for that type of business to cope with timing. There are situations when uncertainties happen, example, earthquakes. A management that had planned for this will not experience any loss. Success is easy to achieve in firms that apply use of technology. Good leadership would allow for allocation of more funds towards installation of latest technological systems. It is good for the management to choose competent persons to run crucial departments. Careful selection of these people will increase productivity of the firm (Greenhalgh, 2011, p. 87). Good leadership addresses the issue of resistance to change in any entrepreneurship. It is important for all employees to accept change. The management should develop a two-way means of communication with employees who resist change. A good leader does not ignore those who resist changing. To attain success, entrepreneurs should look for the best benefit targets. Furthermore, the management should choose the right sponsors of the business. A good leader ensures the firm attains success by choosing the right stakeholder. Stakeholders are the backbone of any entrepreneurship. Using the right people may result to realization of new opportunities in the markets. A good leader is aware of changes in the market. A firm could easily achieve success if the managers have known the market very well. Understanding the tastes of consumers is very crucial for any firm (Skrabec, 2005, p. 14). It is important for any entrepreneurship manager to explain the importance of benefits to the employees. It is a form of employee motivation. The employees should put the interests of the firm ahead of their personal interest. Decision-making is very crucial for the existence of any entrepreneurship. Good leaders have no hard time in making decisions. A good leader has command in his decision-making. It aids in attaining much success. Commanding decision-making happens when the employees have not settled on a common decision. It is a way of saving time. Leaders always are the one to offer direction. There are times when the firm is growing so fast, and decisions have to be quick. Firms like this require a manager with commanding decisions. He would have offered immediate guidance (Havard, 2001, p. 190). Some leaders offer collaborative decision-making. The managers rely on employees in making decisions. It is very helpful in planning long-term projects. Good leaders still make the final decision even after consulting. A business will experience growth with this decision-making. The employee will feel motivated and will agree with everything the manager proposes. Collaborative decision-making requires managers to have experienced employees who will assist in making decision. Good leaders rely on consensus decision making. It is very democratic and involves voting. It respects the will of every employee. Leaders always convey a meeting and puts up a suggestion. The firm follows the resolutions of the meeting. The outcomes of the resolution always affect the whole firm. Employees may learn from their decisions and make good resolutions that support growth. It is not a convenient decision-making when dealing with a fast growing firm. Consensus leadership is important when designing the culture of the firm. The majority always rule because their decision favors many. A firm may establish new types of opportunities with this decision. The leaders could convey a meeting, and every employee would weigh the pros and cons in establishing new opportunities for the business. Some leaders rely on convenience decision-making. Good leaders allow the experts in certain fields to make decisions. Example is when a firm wants to expand its market. A good leader would allow the head of the marketing department in his firm to make the final decision. In the end, the trust would build between employees. It is like a form of delegation. The employees will experience what it to make crucial decisions is. When certain opportunities arise, the business will not have a hard time in searching for executives. They will rely on their own employees who have experience in making crucial decisions (Pol, 1997, p. 43). Good leadership would help the business prevail in constantly changing environment. Many uncertainties face the business environment. The environment is very unpredictable. It requires leaders who are easily adaptable. Managers like this will ensure the business is growing because he will be meeting the will of the people. Brainstorming is what good leaders use to cope with any business environment. They get new ideas on what to do, and involve the business community in the implementation. Employees are the best source of ideas. They give their recommendations because they are involved in the day-to-day running of the firm. A good manager should not ignore the suggestions of his employee. It may assist in tapping new opportunities. The managers have to spare time aside to involve other employees in brainstorming events. It would help in utilizing the employees’ knowledge efficiently. Brainstorming events is a form of motivation and the employees will feel energized. To deal with the business environment, good managers abandon their prejudices. The business environment is more important than the manager’s personal ambitions. Personal prejudice may deny the business opportunity to cope with any environment. Good leaders will ensure their prejudice come second, and allow the business to experience success. Good leaders in entrepreneurship always allow implementation of new ideas in business. They should involve themselves with research covering various aspects of the business environment. After the research, they should specialize on aspects that favor the growth of the business in any environment. Managers should also prioritize the research conducted by employees. It may assist in exploiting new business opportunities available in the market (Siewioreka, 2013, p. 1). To cope with any business environment, good leaders should remove barriers. The barriers may affect the productivity of employees and prevent the business from realizing full potential. Barriers always affect the sales department. It would be wise for a good manager to concentrate in restructuring the sales department when dealing with barriers. Furthermore, managers have to think small when dealing with the business environment. It involves restructuring the running of the firm. Managers should have less power. They do this by delegating their duties. There should be small managers within the firm who assist in tackling crucial issues in the business environment (Bednarz, 2013, p. 1). Good leadership applies complexity. It denies them to be undemocratic. The managers will run the firm while consulting with other employees. There are managers with ambitions to exercise full control. They would deny employees who had suggestions of new business opportunities. A good leader allows his employee to have full motivation. Complexity allows employees to have freedom of their undertakings and work without pressure. Furthermore, complexity will allow installation of new technological systems. Good managers would like to experience efficiency in their production. Technology and efficiency go hand in hand. It will be an advantage to the firm if managers embrace complexity. Good managers always favor complexity. It removes the burden of human beings making all the decision. The firm could sometimes rely on the computer system, to make certain decisions. Complexity allows quick completion of work in any firm. It will also create employment for people who will work in these systems. Furthermore, complexity in any firm will assist the management to predict outcomes. Good leaders support this idea. They help in creating goals for the employees (North, 2007, p. 76). Good managers have to tackle the challenges of complexity with ease. They should be the lead in making crucial decisions. The managers need to drop some types of prediction tools. It would assist the firm in preventing the problems complexity brings to the firm. Good managers should have the skills in dropping the prediction tools that affect the business. They should drop prediction tools that contain assumptions. Managers should be in a position to mitigate risks in order to tackle effects of complexity. They should not limit their thinking to the traditional ways of mitigating risks. They will do this by using the accurate prediction methods. More so, good leaders separate different elements of complex systems. It makes it easy to tackle the challenges. Good managers should sort an upcoming problem quick enough before it grows to a complex problem. All this solutions requires managers to have a broad mind. Their mind should be quick and accommodate all the challenges that come with complexity (Michael, 2004, p. 65). Good leadership incorporates future leadership trends in its system. There are various future trends in leadership. Any entrepreneur should apply these trends for the benefit of the firm. In future, leadership will become more personal. Good managers should ensure their business would allow employees to cater for their own needs. In future, organizations will start reducing their costs by cutting the expenses. It requires firms to offer leadership development courses. At the end, firms will know how to operate on low cost, thereby using the funds in expanding the business. In future, leadership will be internal. Good leaders would allow their position to be to the benefit of the firm. Some managers have taken their position to benefit their personal ambitions. Future trends require good managers to put the interest of the firm first. There would be no extra positions in the future, hence require managers to use their position very well. The future requires leaders who have the public respect and have a good history of achievement. The future trends indicate that one learns on how to become a good manager. A person working with a good manager will definitely become a good manager. For a firm to grow, it requires managers to delegate their crucial duties to some employees. The employees will learn to become good managers at the end, increasing the leadership base in the entrepreneurship. It would be easy to promote employees and chose executives of new businesses associated with the firm (Anderson, 1999, p. 15). Credibility is a future trend in management. Good managers should be credible. It requires results to rate the credibility of managers. To attain high credibility score, managers should ensure their entrepreneurship achieves higher and have a huge market. Managers will need to take time to achieve credibility. Managers in future have to command respect. A manager gains respect through his ability to raise the level of entrepreneurship. Good leaders always command respect. They have raised the level of their businesses (Goldsmith, 2003, p. 300). Reference list Adams, R., 2007. A Good Hard Kick in the Ass: Basic Training for Entrepreneurs. New York: Crown Publishing Group,. Anderson, T., 1999. Every Officer is a Leader: Transforming Leadership in Police, Justice, and Public Safety. Los Angeles: CRC Press. Bednarz, T., 2013. Dealing with a constantly changing business environment. Leadership & Management, p. 1. Blanken, R., 2013. 8 Common Leadership Styles. ASAE, p. 2. Glanz, J., 2002. Finding Your Leadership Style: A Guide for Educators. New York: ASCD. Goldsmith, M., 2003. Global Leadership: The Next Generation. New York: FT Press. Greenhalgh, L., 2011. Minority Business Success: Refocusing on The American Dream. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Havard, 2001. Harvard Business Review on Decision Making. Chicago: Harvard Business Press. Johnson, R., 2013. 5 Different Types of Leadership Styles. Small Businesses, p. 1. Michael George, 2004. Conquering Complexity in Your Business:. Chicago: McGraw Hill Professional. Nieuwenhuizen, C., 2007. Business Management for Entrepreneurs. Atlanta: Juta and Company Ltd. North, M., 2007. Managing Business Complexity : Discovering Strategic Solutions with Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation: Discovering Strategic Solutions with Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation. New Orleans: Oxford University Press,. Pol, L. G., 1997. Demography for Business Decision Making. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group. Siewioreka, A., 2013. Learning leadership skills in a simulated business environment. Computers & Education, p. 1. Skrabec, Q. R., 2005. St. Benedicts Rule for Business Success. New York: Purdue University Press. Read More