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Characteristics of an entrepreneur
Personal characteristics of entrepreneurs
Developing leaders quizlet
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Recommended: Characteristics of an entrepreneur
Biographical information:
Good Evening, my name is Michael Dell and I am the founder and CEO of Dell, Inc. I am 43 years old and live in Texas with my beautiful wife Susan and our 4 children.
Abilities, traits, and experiences:
You may not believe this but my fondness of computers started when I was 15 when I took apart an Apple computer and rebuilt it. Well obviously there were no classes on being an entrepreneur in high school, so I had a lot to learn on my own. Later on while attending the University of Texas I started a computer company called PC’s Limited in my dorm room. When I first started what is now Dell, Inc. My small dorm room company was a success so at the age of 19 I dropped out of college to run my business full time with the help of a small loan from my grandparents. I had no experience and no background in running a business, but at 19 who did. According to Kinicki & Kreinter (2008), trait theorist believed that leadership traits were not innate, but could be developed through experience and learning (p. 348). What I did have was business instincts. I wasn’t born a business man and yes I had quite a few setbacks while learning along the way; I did however learn that the more mistakes I made the faster I learned. I tried to surround myself with smart and innovative people and often tried not to make the same mistake more than once. In 1992 I became the youngest ever CEO to head a fortune 500 company and at the age of 31 I was a billionaire. In 2004 I stepped down as CEO of Dell, Inc but remained the Chairman of the board and turned the business over to Kevin B. Rollins. There were some issues and Dell, Inc wasn’t as strong as it use to be so I returned as CEO in 2007. According to Kinicki & Kreitner (2008), by emphasizing leader behavior, something that is learned, the behavioral style approach makes it clear that leaders are made not born. Over the years my business instincts became better and my business excelled tremendously from a dorm room business to a multi million dollar empire.
Specific challenges and opportunities:
All of these traits begin with the individual realizing who he is and where he stands to become a leader. Like Jack Welch said, “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Works Cited Machiavelli, Niccol. The Prince of the Sea.
Behavioral approach to leadership suggests that leaders are made not born; it is the direct opposite of what the trait approach suggests (Cherry n.d.). Like I mentioned earlier, the behavioral approach focuses on what the leader can do with their positions rather than the qualities they posses (Cherry n.d.).
All leaders start somewhere in life, whether if it’s in a garage or in the basement working with dad. There is the, one-and-only leader who took innovation through his own ideas. This leader took steps beyond his wildest dreams. This immense leader was demoted from his own company. Many say his ego got in the way of true life and visions, but this leader is the seed to the blueprints of ideas that he had created visions of a leading company. This leader created a legacy; he is the action of a revolutionary breakthrough.
Trait theorists believe that leaders are born that way and leadership is part of an individuals DNA. In the 19th century, Thomas Carlyle, a historian proposed “The Great Man Theory” based on his research of many great men such as Gandhi, Lincoln, and Alexander the Great. He believed that these men were destined ...
With most leaders, leadership cannot be taught, but learned through experience and ingenuity. Learning from mistakes is one of the greatest ways to obtain knowledge as an individual is able to develop the wisdom to make good decisions and choices for the organization. While making the wrong decisions leads an individual to obtain experience from his failures. He is able to use this experience to make good decisions because he is conscious of his mistake and know what to do in order to not make it happen again. Experience is one of the best tools to become a leader as the wisdom obtained from it serves as a guide to making good decisions. Secondly, a leader’s personality can determine his leadership style and his willingness to be a leader. With a high degree of certain personality traits, a leader is able to be formed as a high degree in these traits allow him to be able to handle a number of factors. To become an effective leader an individual must be able to adapt from his mistakes and inspirational to execute ideal decisions that can move an organization forward.
The leadership is a result of a combination of traits, with special emphasis on the personal qualities of the leader, which he should possess certain personality traits that would be special facilitators in leadership performance. This theory shows that leaders are born as such, there is no likelihood of 'making' them later with personal development techniques.
As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.
The trait leadership theories assume that people inherit certain abilities and traits that make them better suited for leadership than others (Stroup, 2004). The trait theories originated from an earlier impression called the “great man” theories pop...
On October 28, 1955 William H. Gates III (nicknamed "trey") was born in Seattle. His father was a lawyer (William H. Gates II) and his mother was a schoolteacher. He also had two older sisters who were in high school when Bill was born. Bill attended a public elementary school before he moved to a private school in North Seattle named Lakeside. Lakeside's strong academics enabled Bill to actively get involved with computers (which were the love of his life next to baseball) and use his superior intellect. This was the beginning of a long and successful career in computers. Bill combined his intellect and visions of technology along with his active participation in may charities to make our world a better place.
The global leader I have selected has so many qualities that words are not enough to describe his success and his effect in the way we live and see life. His name is William Henry Gate III or as we all know him as Bill Gates. William Henry Gate III was born in Seattle on 1955 and was raised in a wealthy family. His father was a successful attorney and his mother was a top executive at a national bank. This upbringing gave him the opportunity to study in the most prestige school on his state where he discovered his love for computers.
Trait theories are theories that consider personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate leaders from nonleaders." Early results aimed at confirming this theory were inconclusive. Many research studies were conducted and each identified key traits supposed to differentiate leaders from nonleaders. The problem is that they didn't get the same results, thus failing to discover common traits, which should have shown in each research study. When applying the Big Five Personality framework (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience) to the study and research of leadership traits, results were more encouraging. They showed that the most important trait for leaders was extraversion. Still, this founding sh...
According to Wart (2013), this theory states that leaders can succeed in instituting changes in structure, procedure, ethos, technology, or production (557-558). From this, we can gather that some people are better at being leaders during a transitional part of a company. When a company is going through changes either through infrastructure, how they operate or adapting to technological changes, there has to be someone in charge in order to keep order and structure during these times. This might be a chaotic time period for the company and without a strong leader at the helm, it can go bad really quickly. An example of this could be when the internet was starting to take off in the United States. During this change in technology companies had to quickly adapt and change how they operated. No longer would they just be local or get the word of mouth about their products through the news or word of mouth. Now they had new venues to spread the word and sell their products. Several studies have been done over the past few years on leaders under this theory and the results show that they share some characteristics that are not often found under other theories. Some of these theories include according to Wart(2013), energy, determination, vision, and risk taking (558). This is interesting because our world is constantly changing and people need to adapt or risk being irrelevant. Also without having the energy or drive a company can falter and lose customers. It is why leaders should always strive and continue to try new things, reach new heights, and never being satisfied with their current
After understanding the theory behind both the trait and skill approach, I was eager to evaluate and reflect on my own leadership traits. It was interesting to see how the trait approach allowed me to better understand whether or not I have certain traits considered to be important for leadership, while skills approach allowed me to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses in the technical, human and conceptual skills. From completing the Leadership Trait Questionnaire (LTQ) and the Skills Inventory, I was able to reflect more on how I behave towards others in a leadership context, as well as the skills that I currently possess. As a naturally extroverted person, I have been taking on leadership roles from a young age. The findings from these two
Maxwell maintains that the leading leader is born with leadership qualities and has seen leadership modeled throughout life. The leading leader has learned additional leadership skills though training and practices self-discipline. The “learned leader” is described with the same characteristics of the “leading leader” with the exception of “being born” with leadershi...
"Bill Gates is a modern business phenomenon: the greatest of the cyber-tycoons. His is not simply a story of technical brilliance and enormous wealth; it is one of remarkable business vision and an obsessive desire to win. It is also about a leadership style that is radically different to anything the business world has seen before."