Theme 1 - 1.5.6 - Moving From Entrepeneur To Leader

Question 1

What is an Entrepreneur ?

Answer 1

An entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business and takes risks in the hope of a profit or reward

Question 2

Whats a Leader ?

Answer 2

• The action of leading a group of people or an organisation, or the ability to do this.

• To lead: to be in charge of, to show direction, to be superior to others.

Question 3

Why does an entrepreneur need to learn to delegate ?

Answer 3

• When the business grows an entrepreneur will need to learn to delegate tasks out to others so that they can focus on the more strategic areas of the business, such as developing a new product

• Delegation means giving authority to others to carry out tasks (like permission)

Question 4

What things does an entrepreneur have to learn to become a leader ?

Answer 4

Learning to delegate
Trusting others
Listen to others
Be less reactive
Developing emotional intelligence

Question 5

What does learning to trust others mean for an entrepreneur ?

Answer 5

• When hiring employees or taking a business partner an entrepreneur will have to learn to trust others

• Often this will mean letting go of an idea that they have been nurturing or delegating tasks out to new employees

• Trust is important in relationships with customers.

For example when hiring specialists - the entrepreneur might feel threatened by the specialist because they know more than them and they might think that the specialists are trying to keep them in the dark or manipulate them

Question 6

Why does an entrepreneur need to learn to listen to others ?

Answer 6

• A good entrepreneur when moving to leader will need to discuss bigger decisions with other stakeholders in the business

• For example the entrepreneur may need to listen to; a joint owner, a manager, an employee who may have good ideas, a customer with a complaint or an investor

• Good leaders take the opinions of others into account and allow them to help with the business

Question 7

What does being “less reactive “ mean and why is it important for an entrepreneur ?

Answer 7

• A true business leader will be less reactive to dynamic markets and more proactive

• This means setting trends, being able to see a gap in the market, moving forward with a business idea ahead of the competition

• First to market always has competitive advantage

So basically being reactive is when you fix the problems only after they arise so for example if there is competition in the market and the competition makes a new PC operating system - you would be reactive to then create your own PC OS as there is a problem because competition made a service/product and you copied them. Being less reactive is better because you would actively try to fix issues before they arise for e.g. finding a gap in the market and making new products - before the problem - the problem being other businesses seizing the opportunity before you and creating competition which draws away consumers from you

Question 8

What is emotional intelligence ?

Answer 8

• Self-Awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen.

• Self-Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behaviour.

• Social Awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on.

• Relationship Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions and the others’ emotions to manage interactions successfully.