There several features and qualities in common for those entrepreneurial leaders, especially for those who have been through hell and back, and have yet managed to thrive.

1. Fundamentals of Entrepreneurial
Leadership: Essential Features
By David Kiger Image courtesy of Pixabay at Pexels..com

2. There is a question endlessly debated within the entrepreneurial
realm: are entrepreneurs born or simply made? In fact, leaders,
just like entrepreneurs, seem to emerge from different
backgrounds: business school, journalism, arts and, of course,
the good old engineering school.
There have been many cases of students who think they simply
have what it takes only to fail (miserably) and drop out of school.
While those individuals do not get their knowledge from classes,
they do learn from experiences: the experience of the first
contact with what is defined as an entrepreneurship leadership
style. As per previously discussed by David Kiger, there several
features and qualities in common for those entrepreneurial
leaders, especially for those who have been through hell and
back, and have yet managed to thrive:

3. Vision and nonconformity with today’s juncture
When considering what it really takes to be a successful
entrepreneur, may CEOs—who started as entrepreneurs, of
course—reckon that assimilating this sense of leadership
depends on several factors, especially on a defined
nonconformity and dissatisfaction with today’s circumstances
and a vision for how things should operate. These two things
allow entrepreneurs to come up with the first steps that need
to be taken in order to thrive, and that was proven by none
other than Bill Gates.
Bill Gates started with a vision first, a vision particularly radical
considering the juncture—late 70’s—since a software itself
was a tremendous business. Gates managed to articulate his
nonconformity and dissatisfaction with the fact that software
was not a business per se back then, and second, he knew

4. that software would have a tremendous impact on the world:
Gates pictured a computer in every home and on every desk
running on Microsoft. He managed to see the potential of
PC’s, but above all, he managed to see the potential of
software as a business and never hesitated to take all the
steps necessary to build software for the future. He expanded
and harnessed every opportunity as the industry started to
grow. When he started, he was also a student.
It is important to stress that last part because such
example serves as the perfect opportunity to reveal and
underline the relationship between leadership and
entrepreneurship. Both terms are deeply linker. Great
entrepreneurs like BIll Gates have to be great leaders—just
like Bill Gates—. There are some aspects and skills found in

5. entrepreneurship that span way beyond traditional and
typical leadership training. Leaders can also be considered
entrepreneurs, in fact, some of them constantly face
leadership challenges almost identical to social
entrepreneurship projects and ventures; however, it is
necessary to specify that both terms are not systematically
identical; nevertheless, it would be such a big mistake not to
reckon the substantial overlap in all of this rhetoric.
Some experts believe that if today’s educational system
empowered future leaders with entrepreneurial visions and
aspirations, today’s organizations would be less dehumanized
and would actually focus on developing people through the
creation of value through four main dimensions: vision, as
mentioned above, influence, leading in the context of
innovation and creativity, and planning.

6. Vision as a tool
Vision is the main component when it comes to inspiring
others to follow the path towards perfect and exemplary
performance or other goal-oriented behavior as well as
corporate performance. Vision, and other attributes like
brevity, clarity, orientation, stability, desire and, of course,
the ability to inspire. Individuals ought to be turned into real
followers: people willing to work hand in hand for a greater
meaningful mission while involving more people and seizing
their participation.

7. Influence as a tool
As mentioned above, one thing that remains immanent to the
various connotations of leadership, especially entrepreneurial
leadership is the ability to convey a compelling message in
hopes of influencing individuals towards pursuing a much
greater goal. Rational persuasion is commonly and rather
widely used in different directions: upward, lateral and
downward. All three can be considered as different ways to
influence people. Entrepreneurs are not only capable of
seeing opportunities (understanding how to see them: their
ways and their means), but they are also capable of
effectively organizing resources to carry out such vision and
idea. Rational persuasion and inspirational discourse are likely
to be effective when the message is compelling and the
request exudes legitimacy and is in line with the
entrepreneur’s values and needs.

8. Harnessing the power of innovation
Leading creative individuals requires certain amount of
technical expertise and, above all, creativity. It demands
both direct and indirect influence strategies.
Entrepreneurial leadership should always focus on
generating new ideas that go in line with today’s juncture,
emphasizing creativity and promotion.
Planning
Under today’s circumstances, it is quite impossible to
achieve anything without previous planning and
coordination. This part is almost self-explanatory; however,
it is a key feature and success is highly determined by its
existence. Without planning, realistic planning, there is
nothing.