Welcome to BUS650: Entrepreneurial Leadership

Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.

 

Course Description

Engage with entrepreneurial leadership concepts by applying the POLC model, motivating people, and addressing leadership challenges in entrepreneurial ventures.

 

Course Introduction

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.

This course includes the following units:

  • Unit 1: Your Role as an Entrepreneurial Leader
  • Unit 2: Motivating Your Team
  • Unit 3: Leadership Styles
  • Unit 4: Entrepreneurial Task and Leadership Challenges

 

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • analyze the differences between various leadership and management theories, such as transactional and transformational leadership;
  • analyze the traits and skills of an effective leader, such as emotional intelligence, conflict management skills, communication skills, and critical thinking;
  • propose a plan to manage challenges that entrepreneurial leaders must handle, such as team dysfunction and change management
  • identify factors to assist in enhancing a businesses talent management focus; and
  • apply common change management models, such as Lewin's Model to guide an entrepreneurial venture to effective change management processes.

Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.

 

Course Materials

The primary learning materials for this course are readings, lectures, and videos.

All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you to understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. 

 

Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score

Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. In order to pass this course, you will need to earn a 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you may take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you have successfully passed the final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.

There are also end-of-unit assessments in this course. These are designed to help you study and do not factor into your final course grade. You can take these as many times as you want to until you understand the concepts and material covered. 

 

Tips for Success

BUS650: Entrepreneurial Leadership is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or set schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 40 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a pace that is comfortable for you and allows you to make regular progress. It's a good idea to also schedule your study time in advance and try as best as you can to stick to that schedule.

Learning new material can be challenging, so we've compiled a few study strategies to help you succeed:

  • Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
  • As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory and will make you more likely to retain information over time.


Technical Requirements

This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and to attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.

  • To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, you will need to be logged into your Saylor Academy account and enrolled in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access some of the course without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.

For additional guidance, check out Saylor Academy's FAQ.

 

Fees

This course is entirely free to enroll in and to access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, are all available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.

Last modified: Wednesday, 4 December 2024, 12:10 PM