entreprenurial leadership

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch

Entrepreneurial Leadership: What Schools Can Learn from Business Leaders

The U.S. education system is becoming increasingly modernized. Efforts in the business world to improve leadership were ignored by school administrators for a long time, but this is beginning to change.. Researchers are scrambling to propose models that would steer the education sector to new heights. Most of the efforts to improve leadership have sprung from the fact that now, more than ever, there is increasing pressure on school leaders from the government, communities, and various highly placed observers, all of whom are concerned about the state of education in America. This is especially true in light of reports that have found American education lacking when compared with other developed countries.

One of the new ventures being considered as a leadership solution is entrepreneurial leadership. One aspect of entrepreneurs that stands out is their positive influence on creativity and economic growth, both of which are commodities in high demand globally. School leaders can draw valuable lessons from entrepreneurs when it comes to being innovative, motivated, and goal-oriented.

Many studies have been dedicated to entrepreneurial leadership in the business sense, especially for small enterprises, but few have linked it to school leadership. Perhaps this is due to the fact that school leadership has traditionally been seen as separate, likely because the success of a school is not measured in dollars. However, among many other similarities, schools and businesses share an emphasis on obvious, measurable results.

The entrepreneur’s drive has been the main focus of many research studies. Schumpeter describes this drive as “the will to conquer,” “the dream and the will to found a private kingdom,” and “the joy of creating and of getting things done.” While these developments accurately describe an entrepreneur’s desire to succeed, they do not explain where the so-called “Schumpeterian entrepreneurial endowments” come from. This will be the basis for our focus on entrepreneurial leadership.

Recently, researchers have recognized that entrepreneurs do not successfully build new ventures without possessing effective leadership behavior traits. A good example of this is the requirement that business founders create a vision for their firm, and inspire or influence others to see and understand their dreams. This is a good trait for attracting employees and acquiring the necessary resources for growing their ventures.

Entrepreneurs have to set the initial goals in a way that rewards workers. They need to show leadership because they are founders of their ventures; there are no established standard operating procedures or tried and true strategies that they can fall back on when starting from scratch. This is the main difference between entrepreneurs and corporate managers, since the latter often have more well-defined goals, objectives, structures, and work procedures to guide them. This may be an advantage to entrepreneurs, since the problem of substitutes and/or blockers of leadership that are usually associated with the larger and more established organizations are less of an issue.

Though the importance of leadership in entrepreneurship has been established, there has been a lack of research on the forms of leadership behavior that are required, and which prove most effective. Additionally, much of the entrepreneurship literature on this kind of leadership has been one-sided, focusing mainly on empowering leadership behaviors. The failure to include the conditions caused by other behaviors, such as directive leadership, may be harmful to any entrepreneur. More specific research is needed to explore the benefits of entrepreneurial leadership for schools; after all, an educational breakthrough could be just around the corner.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch

Entrepreneurial Skills Required in Educational Leadership

The entrepreneur must be highly professional and competent in handling a business, in order to accomplish their goals. Discovery and development of new products and production processes, and handling risk require some level of professional qualifications, which can be developed through further business related education. One major area that calls for leadership from entrepreneurs is developing human resources to gain a competitive advantage.

The importance of employees in service delivery cannot be overemphasized. The entrepreneur has to show leadership to increase efficiency in the role of human resource management, and also work to ensure employee satisfaction if they are to gain a competitive advantage over rival businesses in the same industry. The role of the leader in human resource management includes the recruitment, development, and motivation of employees. Let’s examine the traits applicable to school leadership.

Employee Recruitment and Development

Entrepreneurs need to observe and interpret labor market changes to position their enterprises as players in the market. For smaller enterprises, certain problems may arise. First, entrepreneurs have to assess the qualification needs, then set clear standards for qualification, to maintain and develop a unique market position. Second, before employees are hired, job design and cautious decision-making in the business have to be determined.

Communication, Motivation, and Control of Human Resources

Information and communication strategies within the business firm are important determining factors of service quality and the company culture. Small business leaders have to carefully create and implement practical channels of communication to achieve meaningful results. Again, the small market enterprises (SME’s) periodically face problems associated with favoritism and information/communication imbalances .

Employee Development and Empowerment

Research shows that, in the business world, employee satisfaction leads to increased customer satisfaction. This is why leadership tasks should include workplace design, and carrying out of a reward and incentive scheme that is geared toward improving employees’ service. Entrepreneurial leaders can choose the best basis for designing the service delivery process, according to the customer/employees’ needs, or employee judgment.

Many employees in SME’s have left their jobs for various reasons, including bad manners in the company, not being appreciated, noncompliance with agreements, harassment by superiors, or an unproductive working atmosphere. Job satisfaction is strongly influenced by the level of freedom in the job, as well as satisfaction with the leadership style in the enterprise.

So, we can assume that there are certain basic requirements that must be achieved for successful entrepreneurship. These include an appropriate wage system, team building, and a satisfactory internal communication system. Interestingly, the issue of wages can a factor of satisfaction, but not necessarily of motivation. Fair wages may not always be expected, thus an increase in employee earnings does not always lead to higher job satisfaction.

Most, if not all of personal motivators are basically highly important performance factors. Entrepreneurs in SME’s should realize the importance of long-term human resource tools such as career planning, training, education, and job diversification. They should also communicate to their employees to show that they are concerned about these issues.

In addition, the entrepreneur has a huge influence over the motivation of employees through the practice of fairness, freedom, and employee empowerment. Entrepreneurs can be divided into two groups: those considered “employee friendly” and those considered “employee distant’ by their employees. The former are seen as more creative in designing the right motivational and communication structure in the business. They offer empathy and fairness, providing higher motivation and job satisfaction for employees than the “employee distant” leader.

There is little evidence that an authoritarian leadership style and low educational achievement by entrepreneurs has a damaging effect on employee motivation. We can assume that higher fluctuation rates may be caused by inefficient human resource management, and the actions of leaders. There is no single effective leadership style: it all depends on the decision-making structures or cultural settings involved. Entrepreneurs should be aware that employees are motivated by a leader’s high sense of fairness and empathy, and should act accordingly to achieve success.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch

7 Things that Schools Can Learn from Entrepreneurs

When school administrators are looking for places to find inspiration, one rich source of knowledge is the world of entrepreneurship. There is so much that can be gleaned from the successful pursuits of entrepreneurs that educators would do well to have a look at the techniques used as they seek innovation and success.

Here are seven things that schools can learn from entrepreneurs.

Drive has been the main focus of many research studies, and has been described as “the will to conquer” and “the joy of creating and of getting things done.” While these phrases accurately describe an entrepreneur’s zeal to succeed, they can also accurately apply to the educational arena, where that same spark of fire to get things done is often at the heart of the mission. Educators are compelled by a deep seeded need to change the world, and school leaders must both feel this same drive themselves and also harness it in their followers.

The need for entrepreneurs to show leadership stems from the fact that they are founders of their ventures and, as such, there are no established standard operating procedures or even organizational structures that they can fall back on while starting from scratch. This is the main difference between entrepreneurs and corporate managers, since the latter often have more well-defined goals, objectives, structures, and work procedures to guide them. Too often, educators fall into the trap of becoming corporate managers and are wary of stepping out into innovation. But innovation is how change happens! If the school environment isn’t working towards the goals of educating its students, then it’s time to make substantive, fresh and exciting changes. Unlike entrepreneurs, educators have to jolt themselves into innovation.

Another attribute of entrepreneurs is the ability to lead their business and to be able to allocate resources. So too must leaders in education be able to lead their schools and to allocate resources. The difficulty here is that, while entrepreneurs and schools both face the same tight budgets, schools live with the knowledge that there will be always be a baseline of funds available. Again we come to the innovation that entrepreneurs bring to the table, but this time in the light of resource allocation. Educators must be creative with the limited resources at hand, and must be willing to work diligently to figure out how to squeeze each dollar out in the most effective way. They would do well to learn from entrepreneurs who face the loss of a business for failed resource allocation rather than simply waiting another year for new funds from the state.

Entrepreneurs are required to observe and interpret labor market changes to position their enterprises as players in the market. Schools don’t always realize it, but they’re facing those same labor market changes and would do well to make the application and recruitment process as attractive as possible through outreach and communication, just as entrepreneurs must do. For both educators and businesspeople, getting the right people is THE key to success.

Research has shown that the information and communication strategies within a business are strong determinants of service quality and the organizational culture. Entrepreneurial leaders therefore have to carefully conceptualize and implement practical channels and instruments of communication if they are to achieve meaningful results. This same thing is true for educators. Accurate and effective communication are essential factors in employee retention and happiness, and can help schools to keep those good staff members around.

It has been proven again and again that satisfied employees in business enterprises increase customer satisfaction. In education, satisfied teachers and staff increase educational outcomes for students. This is why leadership tasks should include workplace design and implementation of some sort of reward and incentive scheme that is geared toward improving teacher’s service. Administrators have their hands tied in the case of monetary compensation, but there are other opportunities for educators to create effective incentives for staff through innovation and partnership. Empowerment for educators comes from their sense that they are heard and valued members of their school community.

A school setting with a traditional top-down, heavy-handed approach to management does not generally have the structures in place to listen to new ideas. An entrepreneur is on the other hand open to all new ideas, regardless of how out of the box they might seem. The biggest threat facing any company is the failure to open the doors to the creativity that’s right there in house. The same is true for a school environment. Instituting a policy of being open to any and all ideas, no matter how far afield they might be, is perhaps the greatest lesson that schools can learn from the entrepreneurial world.

The entrepreneurial spirit and the educational spirit are two sides of the same coin, with each having the same necessity of innovation, creativity and open mindedness in order to create success.

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