Self-governance and freedom are crucial for local teams to operate effectively. ENTREPRENEURIAL FREEDOM engenders effective leadership. This is especially true for successful startups that thrive in a culture of risk-taking, entrepreneurship, experimentation, and innovation. Freedom means independence from overarching structures in terms of decision-making and agenda-setting. This includes teams’ freedom to structure on their own accord and around the more entrepreneurial aspects of leadership.
Example
Mike Duke, former CEO of Walmart, was noted for this, even within a large corporation like Walmart.
“Mike Duke empowers people. He gives them authority to make decisions and one-on-one time to share their ideas.”[v] And, “A lot of autonomy is provided to various associates and they are encouraged to speak their mind.”
How can I grow as an entrepreneurial, polycentric leader?
Freedom
Key to leading in this transnational and multi-ethnic business environment is fostering a free, entrepreneurial spirit.[vii] Do you foster this creative spirit in your life and leadership?
More Information
- Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash
I was sitting in a coffee shop in Beijing Airport waiting for my plane when a red faced airport attendant came up to me and asked,”Are you Mister Rod Denton?” When I replied that I was, he then said, ”I have been searching for you. We have been calling your name. You have missed your flight. Your plane has gone without you.” And the reason I missed my flight was that I could not tell the time. I had forgotten to synchronize my watch with Chinese time. I had made a serious mistake and would now have to suffer the inconvenient consequences. My thesis for this paper is One of the important characteristics of effective leaders is that they can tell the time. For down through the years causes have been won or lost because leaders could or could not tell the time. But I am not talking about time as we in the west usually refer to time. The Greeks have two words for time...
