Episode F.010 Entrepreneurial Competencies

ACHIEVEMENT CLUSTER (5)
Opportunity Seeking & Initiative

• Doing things before being asked or forced by events;
• Acts to extend the business into new areas, products, or services;
• Seizes unusual opportunities to start a new business, obtain financing, equipment, land, space, or assistance.

Risk Taking

• Deliberately calculates risks and evaluates alternatives;
• Takes action to reduce risks or control outcomes;
• Places self in situations involving  challenge or moderate risk.

Demand for Efficiency & Quality

• Finds way to do things better, faster, or cheaper;
• Acts to do things that meet or exceed standards of excellence;
• Develops or uses procedures to ensure work is completed on time or that work meets agreed upon standards of quality.

Persistence

• Takes action in the face of significant obstacles;
• Takes repeated actions or switches to an alternative strategy to meet a challenge or overcome an obstacle;
• Takes personal responsibility for the performance necessary to achieve goals and objectives.

Commitment to Work Contract

• Strives to keep customers satisfied and places long-term good will over short-term goals;
• Pitches in with workers or in their place to get a job done;
• Makes a personal sacrifice or expends extraordinary effort to complete a job.

PLANNING CLUSTER (3)
Information Seeking

• Personally seeks information from clients, suppliers, and competitors;
• Does personal research on how to provide a product or service;
• Consults experts for business or technical advice.

Goal Setting

• Sets goals and objectives that are personally meaningful and challenging;
• Articulates clear and specific long-range goals;
• Sets measurable short-term objectives.

Systematic Planning & Monitoring

• Plans by breaking large tasks down into time-constrained sub-tasks;
• Revises plans in light of feedback on performance or changing circumstances;
• Keeps financial records and uses it to make business decisions.

POWER CLUSTER (4)
Persuasion & Networking

• Uses deliberate strategies to influence or persuade others;
• Uses key people as agents to accomplish own objectives;
• Acts to develop and maintain business contacts.

Independence & Self-Confidence

• Seeks autonomy from the rules or control of others;
• Sticks with own judgment in the face of opposition or early lack of success;
• Expresses confidence in own ability to complete a difficult task or meet a challenge.

Problem Solving 

• Define the issue to be analyzed;
• Analyze the problem by identifying the processes involved to isolate the root cause(s);
• Develop and prioritize several solutions.

Decision Making

• Select a solution and implement a limited test;
• Create a tracking methodology to measure progress;
• Incorporate lessons learned and implement organization wide.