FastCompany has a special feature on entrepreneurial leadership in their September issue (now available on line). What is interesting to me is that they focus on what I consider to be one of the most important skills that any entrepreneur should learn: opportunity recognition.
What are the elements of this alloy we call “leadership”? Certainly, they include vision and integrity, perseverance and courage, a hunger for innovation, and a willingness to take risks. But in building their list of the top business leaders of the past century, Harvard Business School professors Anthony J. Mayo and Nitin Nohria have unearthed an immutable attribute that’s shared by all of the giants of business: They had an innate ability to read the forces that shaped the times in which they lived — and to seize on the resulting opportunities.
Not all of the 50 great leaders they list are true entrepreneurs, but many are including their top five:
Samuel M. Walton — Wal-Mart
Walter E. Disney — Walt Disney
William H. Gates III — Microsoft
Henry Ford — Ford Motor
John P. Morgan — J.P. Morgan Chase
Although the articles seem to mush great managerial leaders and great entrepreneurial leaders together, it is an insightful set of readings that I highly recommend. Thanks to R.M. Cornwall for passing this along.