Business Building and Entrepreneurship Skills to Improve ...gabrielleconsulting.com/docs/EntrepreneurshipSkillsforLeaders.pdf · • Patricia - Motivational Speaker - Life Success

Business Building and Entrepreneurship Skills to Improve Leadership

Gabrielle K. Gabrielli, Ph.D.

For questions, contact [email protected]. Page 1 of 6

Skills Highly Successful Entrepreneurs Share

Systems Thinking • Strategic vision • Project management • Goal setting • Decision making • Process improvement • Critical thinking • Succession planning

People Production • Developing self • Getting the right people on the team • Training and growing others • Recruiting, hiring, and retaining talent • Recognizing and rewarding talent • Coaching and mentoring • Providing feedback and accountability • Delegating

Leadership • Communication • Emotional Intelligence • Innovation • Creativity • Time and priority management • Leading by example • Collaborating • Pragmatism • Risk taking • Humility • Flexibility • Authenticity • Resourcefulness • Resilience • Honesty • Responsiveness to feedback • Asking for help

Organizational Development • Marketing • Finance • Branding • Sales • Culture • Structure • Governance




Decision Making Please take this assessment in advance of our session to determine your decision-making abilities: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_79.htm Your score:

Score Comment

18-42

Your decision-making hasn't fully matured. You aren't objective enough, and you rely too much on luck, instinct or timing to make reliable decisions. Start to improve your decision-making skills by focusing more on the process that leads to the decision, rather than on the decision itself. With a solid process, you can face any decision with confidence. We'll show you how. (Read article to start.)

43-66

Your decision-making process is OK. You have a good understanding of the basics, but now you need to improve your process and be more proactive. Concentrate on finding lots of options and discovering as many risks and consequences as you can. The better your analysis, the better your decision will be in the long term. Focus specifically on the areas where you lost points, and develop a system that will work for you across a wide variety of situations. (Read article to start.)

67-90

You have an excellent approach to decision-making! You know how to set up the process and generate lots of potential solutions. From there, you analyze the options carefully, and you make the best decisions possible based on what you know. As you gain more and more experience, use that information to evaluate your decisions, and continue to build on your decision-making success. Think about the areas where you lost points, and decide how you can include those areas in your process. (Read article to start.)

Six essential steps in the decision-making process: 1. Establishing a positive decision-making environment 2. Generating potential solutions 3. Evaluating the solutions 4. Deciding 5. Checking the decision 6. Communicating and implementing

Interpretation of Scores




Marketing Yourself with a Bio LinkedIn

1. Write a powerful headline • Gabrielle - Speaker | Coach | Trainer | Goal-Getter • Amanda - Association Executive, Speaker • Amber - Nonprofit Change Agent | Servant Leader | Community Builder • Bernice - Leader/Motivator • Caroline - Director with 5+ years of manager experience with a focus

on lean processes and systems • Ericka - Social Innovator | Speaker | Coach • Lola - Servant Leader| Agent of Change • Patricia - Motivational Speaker - Life Success Coach - Trainer -

Philanthropist • Tina - Dynamic Advocate for Veterans / Resource Phenomenon /

Ambitious Optimist • Barbara Ann, Lisa, Lori, Nicole, and Reenee do not have actual

headlines and just have the default of their current job title. 2. Write a description - use keywords prevalent in your industry that would be

used when searching for someone with your skills. If you choose not to write a full bio, write one statement that sums up your impact. • Barbara Ann - Creative, intuitive, ingenious, inventive, productive,

personable, sometimes brilliant, always ethical, many times humorous, forever sincere.

• Bernice - Objective in life is to impact others by giving of myself daily to improve the quality of life for others.

• Caroline and Lori’s are missing completely. Twitter Set yourself apart as an ambassador for your industry. Company Website Blurb Write 1-2 paragraphs sharing your accomplishments, especially at your current organization. Bio - customize your bio for the audience, and have two versions:

1. One pager 2. 150 words




Importance of Critical Thinking • Critical thinking was identified in research as one of the most important skills

needed for job success, and one that is lacking in today’s workforce. • It was rated as the # 1 skill of increasing importance over the next 5 years.

There are three elements to thinking critically: evidence, reasoning, and fallacies: 1. Evidence includes everything used to determine or demonstrate the truth. 2. Reasoning means forming conclusions, judgments, or inferences from facts. 3. Fallacies are deceptive, misleading, or false notions or beliefs that use

mistaken reasoning. A fallacy is partially built on facts, but it is not true. To summarize how these three elements work together, when critically thinking you must use reasoning when examining evidence and determine what of that evidence could be a fallacy.

Types of Reasoning • Inductive reasoning - you make observations and then draw a conclusion

based on those observations. This is a bottom-up approach to logic. • Deductive reasoning - you make a conclusion and then determine if you

have sufficient evidence to support the conclusion. This is a top-down approach.

It takes a critical thinker to solve problems in the workplace. Often a problem has more than one underlying cause. In order to solve the problem, we must get at its root. Critical thinking allows us to collect and evaluate evidence in a systematic manner. If we do not think critically, we will most likely miss something important because we are not questioning assumptions.

Eight Qualities of a Critical Thinker 1. Curiosity- Have a natural tendency to ask questions to inform decisions and

the ability to do research to determine facts 2. Creativity - Break patterns of familiarity and think outside the box 3. Rationality - Use reason, not emotion. Follow the evidence wherever it leads

and be more concerned with finding the best explanation for the evidence than with being right.

4. Self-awareness- Are aware of own assumptions, prejudices, and biases 5. Humility- Recognize emotional impulses, selfish motives, and other ways we

might be deceiving ourselves. Admit that we don’t know everything. 6. Open-mindedness- Consider a variety of possible viewpoints, remain open

to others’ opinions, and accept a new explanation if it explains the evidence better. Do not reject unpopular views just because they are unpopular.

7. Discipline- Pay attention to details. Have a plan to determine where the problem exists. Resist manipulation and snap judgments.

8. Objectivity- Weigh each piece of evidence to determine its value, and don’t allow others’ opinions to cloud judgment




Exercise: Creativity Self-Assessment For each statement, select the appropriate response. Be as honest as possible. Try not to second guess how a creative person might respond.

Most of the time

Often Sometimes Rarely Almost never

1. When presented with many

options, I have difficulty deciding which choice is best.

2. After making a decision, I ask other people if they think I made the right one.

3. When dealing with a new project, I prefer to be given specific instructions.

4. I get anxious when I have to make an important decision.

5. I question my intuition.

6. When faced with a familiar problem, I use the same solutions that have worked in the past.

7. After I have made a decision, I find myself wishing I had made a different choice.

8. When I get stuck, I have trouble thinking of new solutions to problems.

9. I change my mind after making a decision.

10. I prefer to work with people whose ideas are practical instead of creative.

If most of your responses were “Most of the time” or “Often,” you may want to work on developing some of the characteristics of highly creative people.




Qualities of Creative Thinkers 1. Value ideas. Creative people know that valuing others’ ideas only helps

them further brainstorm their own new ideas. 2. Explore options. There is never one solution to a problem. Creative

thinkers flourish at the thought of stimulating their imagination about the possibilities and alternatives, and in turn, their creativity thrives even more.

3. Embrace ambiguity. Many people fear uncertainty, but the most creative people actually enjoy using their imagination to make new discoveries.

4. Celebrate the offbeat. Sometimes ideas are unpopular or even peculiar, but the offbeat ideas often result in the greatest successes.

5. Connect the unconnected. Creative people make associations from others’ ideas to think, collect, create, correct, and connect.

6. Don’t fear failure. Creative thinkers do not let past failures cloud their thinking about what is possible.

John C. Maxwell, How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life (2009)

How to Cultivate Creativity in Times of Crisis

• Spend time with creative people. • Look for the obvious. • Be unreasonable. • Practice mental agility. • Dare to be different. • See problems as opportunities.

John C. Maxwell, Cultivating Creativity in Times of Crisis (April 29, 2015)

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Documents

Business Building and Entrepreneurship Skills to Improve ...gabrielleconsulting.com/docs/EntrepreneurshipSkillsforLeaders.pdf · • Patricia - Motivational Speaker - Life Success