A social entrepreneur is a person who possesses a certain social mission that, in one way or the other, is fundamentally related to everything he does. For entrepreneurs who launch a startup to generate profit, being successful depends on money, whereas for social entrepreneurs, success depends on social change. They consider wealth as only a means to achieve a goal.
There are some essential leadership characteristics that a social entrepreneur must possess in order to make a social entrepreneurship venture successful. These characteristics define a successful social entrepreneur.
Some of them deserve mention here:
1. Being Revolutionary
Social entrepreneurs are able to challenge the existing state of something and come up with improved and unique solutions to tackle social or environmental issues.
Also, they can easily ignore all environmental constraints and do not tie themselves up to any particular ideologies.
Thus, successful social entrepreneurs have the willingness to break free of established structures.
2. Having a Rock-Solid Self-Belief
For building a successful social enterprise, it’s important to have strong self-belief. Having a strong belief in yourself protects and guards you against all the refusals and hold-ups you might face.
This self-belief often irritates others, but without it, no venture can be established.
3. Knowing the Art Of Delegation
Successful social entrepreneurs know exactly when they have to delegate. Since they have endless zeal within them, social entrepreneurs are often cautious about allowing someone else to carry out the work.
This is usually because they are either not sure that a particular task will be carried out in the same manner in which it should be carried out, or they are scared that they will lose power and control.
They know that delegation is important to help founders concentrate more on other significant tasks.
4. Working Silently
Studies show that a number of social entrepreneurs have been only recognized after some real hard work on their ideas in complete anonymity.
Successful social entrepreneurs usually prefer to work silently in their own spaces.
5. Being Result-Oriented
Another essential leadership trait of successful social entrepreneurs is that they are focused on the end results; they are solution oriented.
They continuously endeavor to make changes with a limited amount of resources with the help of creativity and innovation.
They always come up with a practical solution to a problem in order to get effective results.
6. Being an Opportunity Seeker
A real social entrepreneur sees an opportunity in everything. Social entrepreneurs take advantage of the opportunities that others usually miss.
They have the ability to challenge the way things are done.
Successful social entrepreneurs seek opportunities even when they don’t have any resources available.
7. Risk Taking
Social entrepreneurs are likely to be risk-takers. They love to take risks and try something new but in a calculated way.
Others might back off while seeing a risk in a particular situation, but a real social entrepreneur is never discouraged by the presence of any risk.
However, they don’t take risks blindly. Successful social entrepreneurs know how to make calculated decisions on the basis of the balance between risk and reward.
All the above-mentioned leadership traits are important for becoming a successful social entrepreneur.
The key point to note here is that each one of these traits is something that people can develop with time and practice. It’s not important for anyone to be born with these traits.
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