Report on Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs

1.0      Introduction of Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs     

There are some essential characteristics for a person to become a successful entrepreneur. Some of the fundamental characteristics required are such as high motivation to perform a flexible work according to the circumstances, and also, a successful entrepreneur must have the capability to tackle all the drawbacks faced by using the learning experience gained from their mistakes in past experiences. In this paper I will be conducting entrepreneurial self-assessment to reflect my capability to handle a leadership position or to eventually start up my own business.

The objective of this paper is firstly, to address the entrepreneurial weakness that I have, and also build up a short-term and long term plan to improve all the entrepreneurial strengths that I have.

1.1      My Background of Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurial skills are not the kind of skills that we born with, nor gain in classroom course, but are gained as a combination of own personality, life-changing events, well-shaped skills and more effectively through work experience.

For myself, I have had a number of opportunities throughout my life that shaped my entrepreneurial skills and enabled me to act as a leader in some situations. In fact, each of my life experiences has enabled me to take and learn some life lessons, that couldn’t have been be learned in a different way.

I remember how some events throughout my childhood where I had to take the lead, or else, I was able to explain some tasks in a different simple way. In addition to this, at an early age, I have found myself as a natural leader, whereas my friends were always trusting & listening to every decision that I have made. I have always thought of the reason for that trust, and I felt that they believe each of my decisions has always been considering everyone’s best interest.

1.2      My Career of Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs

Leadership roles are something that I have been fortunate enough to get in my life experience. One of the examples was when I had a number of different projects and was eventually designated as the team-leader during my career as a Transportation Design Engineer. At that time, leading and conducting training for my colleagues was one of my responsibilities, and thus, I had to make sure to always be ready and up-to-date with the latest tools & programs. I have always ensured I keep the communication flexible, constant and proactive; I do not wait for the problem to occur then react. Additionally, I have continuously assessed my leadership styles and techniques to identify the areas that need improvements in the organization. Another example is when was assigned to lead the internship program at my department, the traffic engineering department, where I have to train fresh engineers on using the right tools & programs and applying the right manuals while performing the work. This is where I had learned that there is always a room to learn more and more, I have always learned new things while preparing for training the fresh engineers.

 1.3      My Studies of Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs

Ever since my early age, I have learned many things around entrepreneurship form my life experience, this has enabled me to embark on a critical and wide-ranging evaluation of my own capabilities, skills, competencies, as well as my own weaknesses. However, for me, there are so many things that I still need to learn, in order to improve my entrepreneurial skills and become a better leader.

            During the time I was doing my bachelor’s degree at the American University of Sharjah, I was involved in several leadership opportunities. I have attended couple of Leadership conferences that used to be held at AUS, giving me the chance to meet with great entrepreneurs lecturing about dealing with the challenges faced during their career. These conferences were a great place for sharing the passion and exchanging of ideas and experiences.

            During my post-graduate degree at The University of Wollongong in Dubai, I have considered taking Entrepreneurship Course titled “Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs”. This course has supported me to grow my entrepreneurial skills throughout all the lessons, discussions, and through completing all the assignment tasks required in this course as well. Thus, I believe that by the end of my degree, I would be able to achieve the skills as well as competencies that I need to become a successful entrepreneur.

2.0      Self-Assessment of Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs

2.1      Strengths & Areas of Improvement

A successful entrepreneur is someone who comes up as a leader, generating a vision, and also make sure that the team will work along together, in addition to the responsibility in steering up the organization to achieve all of its main goals (Olson 1985). I believe that I could be a leader who has those essential and fundamental skills, along with the managerial capacity that is fundamental in undertaking the entrepreneurship.

Until recently I thought Empathy is one of my strengths and I was disappointed when I discovered that it might still be an area of improvement for me. As I mentioned previously that during my childhood, I was being trusted by my friends to make decision for the group even if it was on a minor group decision.  

As I have acknowledged, entrepreneurship is a wide-range responsibility that entails the ownership of different skills, capabilities that are not readily found in an individual. Therefore, I have understood that one of my visible weaknesses is lack of Empathy. I actually discovered this weakness recently after finalizing an assignment on “Satya Nadella”, this assignment was focusing on studying an entrepreneur skills and methods in dealing with challenges. Satya Nadella emphasizes a lot on having Empathy in his speeches, conferences, emails, memos and interviews. I noticed that Lack of Empathy is one of my greatest weaknesses that I need to focus on developing. I have also been experiencing difficulty with both listening as well as understanding different feelings from others. I have begun to work hard in moving away at this absence of sympathy during my job since I have realized that weakness.

I understood my strengths and leadership skills from many ways. I assessed my personal skills and strengths at work. I listen to others about what they say related to my skills and leadership properties. I spend my time with friends to have reflection on myself from many perceptions. The dedication and reliability of my self are my strengths. I collected information from feedback of my friends and close circles. I see my abilities as learning skills and leadership. I like to manage problems and issue through the proper process  and by considering ethical conditions in the workplace.

3.0      Feedback from Others of Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs

            Feedback is something that has been helping me in building up my strengths to become a great and successful entrepreneur.

The feedback from my friends and family was extremely positive. I would say special thanks to my family member. My parents helped me a lot in overcome my weakness. I was extremely worried about my weakness and it though that it will be extremely difficult for me to overcome it. But my parents knows me better than anyone else in the world. They gave me lessons that are completely related to understanding and development. They just say that this weakness is common in almost everyone. This can be overcome easily if you stay focus.

It was extremely difficult for me to stay focus and concentrate. Due to lack of concentration and focus I was struggling with this weakness. But my parents motivate me a lot at that time. They always said that you just have to keep trying until you are able to build up this skill in you. They also said that if you stay focus and concentrate then you can easily overcome your problem.

For increasing my confidence and focus, my friends also helped me a lot. They always gave me unique examples and motivate me. They also gave me difficult exercises in the form of games where I have learned about how to stay focus and relax. I would say that through them I am able to overcome my weakness.

Why I think it’s my weakness

There are a lot of reason through which I thought that Empathy is my weakness. From them one of the huge point is that I was unable to understand important things in the class. When my teacher was giving us lectures and I was not able to concentrate at that time

The next point is that my parents and teachers are highlighting that point in my personality. Due to these factors I started to realize that it is my one of the huge weakness that would stop me in becoming a successful entrepreneur 

 4.0      Action Plan of Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs      

Goal 1 – Empathy

I have to put my effort to tackle my lack of empathy, along with understanding that feelings of others really matter. In order to achieve this, I would make sure to perform some action steps such as focus on my voice tone and how I deliver my presentation to others, make sure to perform an ethical body language while observing the body language of others as well. I need also to listen to others’ opinions before I start speaking or discussing my point of view.

Goal 2 – Transform all of my weaknesses into strengths

I would do my best to transform all of my weaknesses into my greatest strengths to make me as an effective leader. I have realized and accepted all the weaknesses along with the causes that have also motivated me to solve all the weaknesses. In fact, I am prepared and ready to solve any type of problems that might occur in the future.

5.0      Conclusion of Contemporary Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs