Topic outline

  • COURSE INTRODUCTION

    Collapse all Expand all

    • Time: 40 hours
    • Free Certificate
    Do you know why leadership is so important to an entrepreneur? In this course, we will learn about your role as an entrepreneurial leader and address the behaviors and traits it takes to lead your business to success. What does it take to successfully lead an entrepreneurial venture, whether you have a staff of two or 200 people? In this course, we will answer this question.

    Some of those skills involve the POLC model, that is, the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling aspects of the day-to-day management of your business. Part of your success as a leader in your business means understanding how best to motivate a team and ensure diversity and inclusion in your organization. As a leader, we also want to use the right style, such as servant leadership and authentic leadership, to help us motivate our team and make our business as successful as possible.

    In addition, we will address some of the challenges you might face as a leader in your venture. For example, we will learn about strategies to best manage a team and help lead them in making decisions. We will also discuss how to address any performance issues within our teams and how to set goals to ensure we apply the POLC model in the best way possible. At the end of the course, you will understand how you will go about leading your organization into growth and success.

  • Unit 1: Your Role as an Entrepreneurial Leader

    As an entrepreneurial leader, you will likely take on many roles. One such role is that of a manager who oversees the business's day-to-day operations. This role ensures effective planning, organizing, leading, and controlling so your business meets its goals.

    Several theories cover the traits and behaviors that will make an entrepreneurial leader successful. For example, do you know that positive leadership traits include knowing yourself and being empathetic? Did you know that the behaviors of leaders include being able to set clear goals and be motivational? In this unit, we will address the idea of trait theories and behavior theories, along with a discussion on the POLC model of management. In addition, we will address the fact that there are many types of entrepreneurial leaders, including intrapreneurs who show creativity and drive within an organization, along with traditional entrepreneurs who start their own businesses.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 6 hours.

  • Unit 2: Motivating Your Team

    As you learned in the last unit, one way to be a leader in your newly created entrepreneurial venture or your intrapreneurship venture is to ensure people are motivated. For the most part, entrepreneurs cannot bring their vision to fruition alone; they rely on people to help them. Because of it, we need to understand what motivates people and implement actions that help us motivate and retain the best people to see our vision through. In this unit, we will address some basic motivation theories and how communication styles and methods can affect employee motivation. We will also address ethics and why people want to work for ethical leaders that put social responsibility at the forefront. We will also discuss diversity and inclusion as a motivator because diverse organizations have higher profits, and inclusion means everyone feels valued. Finally, we will address strategies to invest in human capital and develop your talent. You already know that the organizational culture you create will be necessary to execute your vision, so we will also address how to create a culture that helps you meet your goals as an entrepreneur.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 13 hours.

  • Unit 3: Leadership Styles

    Now that you've considered the qualities and characteristics of a leader in an entrepreneurial venture and you've learned how to motivate your people, we will take a look at leadership styles in this unit. But what exactly are leadership styles? A leadership style is how you engage with your people to ensure the most creativity and productivity possible. Of course, without your people, it will be hard to make your business grow. We will look at several motivating styles in this unit, including leveraging a situational leadership approach and focusing on being a servant to your people. We will also look at the idea of authentic leadership and address ways you can implement these styles as you lead and manage your business.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.

  • Unit 4: Entrepreneurial Task and Leadership Challenges

    As a leader in your organization and as an entrepreneur, you will likely experience challenging times in this role. This unit focuses on taking the knowledge you've learned thus far about traits and characteristics of leaders, motivation, and leadership styles and applying them to challenging situations you might face.

    For example, do you know how to make good decisions or make a change happen in your organization? We will address this process as it applies to an entrepreneurial leader. We will also discuss building an effective team, since you depend on your people to execute your creative vision. Sometimes, our teams may not meet our expectations, so we will also provide tools for managing employee performance. We will also look at how to set goals that will guide the direction of your company.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 16 hours.


  • Study Guide

    This study guide will help you get ready for the final exam. It discusses the key topics in each unit, walks through the learning outcomes, and lists important vocabulary. It is not meant to replace the course materials!

  • Course Feedback Survey

    Please take a few minutes to give us feedback about this course. We appreciate your feedback, whether you completed the whole course or even just a few resources. Your feedback will help us make our courses better, and we use your feedback each time we make updates to our courses. If you come across any urgent problems, email contact@saylor.org.

  • Certificate Final Exam

    Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.

    To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.