Characteristics of an Entrepreneur - Day 2

Yesterday I introduced what I learnt from my research i.e. the 16 characteristics of an entrepreneur. I also published my understanding of the first 4 characteristics. So, below are the next 4:

      5. Decisiveness

This is the true mark of leadership especially when done with flexibility but a leader must lay down the law for everyone else to follow and this necessitates decisiveness. Again the central theme is knowing your vision; aims & Objectives; and the strategies to achieve them. This enables you to make decisions with confidence but decisiveness comes into its own when the decision maker is under pressure.

You need to be decisive when
a) Negotiating
b) Delegating
c) Communicating
d) Being Flexible
e) Leading
f) Risk Taking

      6. Delegation

All levels of management need to delegate work. The ultimate responsibility remains with the manager. In the past, managers used to delegate authority to do work according to a set remit with the ability to make decisions within certain limits known as tolerances. Nowadays, although this practice still exists, delegation has shifted a gear and responsibility, within stated tolerances, is also delegated but control is retained by the manager.

In order to achieve that control, the manager sets milestones with clear targets and monitors progress independently of the people doing the work e.g. by interviewing the recipients of the products/services as well as asking for progress reports. In other words managers are taking a strategic view and allow the people, to whom work is delegated, to take care of the operational issues.

Most managers are operational managers in that they're responsible for implementing strategic plans. However, when they delegate work to lower levels, they create strategic plans for this to be controlled. These are called "operational strategies" and can be created at all levels. This is reminiscent of functional decomposition where a large problem is broken into smaller problems which themselves are broken into even smaller problems or problemettes. This gave rise to the top-down approach which is difficult to accept - it's still waiting for wider acceptance. The solutions of these problemettes has to be communicated up the hierarchy using a bottom-up method.

      7. Drive

My research found that what this implies is that you've got to have the energy to see tasks / projects through to completion. You need to be fit and healthy in order to have that energy.

      8. Flexibility

Managers at all levels need to be flexible and seriously consider other people's input to solutions. This implies that such people need to be involved in the planning phase so that their input can be used in the right context. Shopfloor workers have experience of what works and what doesn't and this is very valuable info for the planners as it can result in more realistic estimates and the shopfloor workers would feel involved which means there's no more them and us. This is not just about flexibility but also common sense.

See you tomorrow for the 3rd instalment.