In years past, the keywords for leaders were confidence, single-minded purpose, and strategic planning. But today’s vastly complex, globalized, and fast-evolving world requires a different kind of leadership. This game-changing book details a new approach—entrepreneurial leadership—developed at Babson College, the number-one school for entrepreneurship in the world.
Entrepreneurial leadership is inspired by, but is separate from, entrepreneurship. It can be applied in any organizational situation, not just start-ups. Based on two years of extensive research, it embraces three principles that add up to a fundamentally new worldview of business and a new logic of decision making.
First, rapid change and increasing uncertainty require leaders to be “cognitively ambidextrous,” able to shift between traditional “prediction logic” (choosing actions based on analysis) and “creation logic” (taking action despite considerable unknowns). Guiding this different way of thinking and acting is a new view of business, where simultaneous creation of social, environmental, and economic value is the order of the day. Finally, entrepreneurial leaders leverage their understanding of themselves and their social context to guide effective action.
Each chapter offers concrete examples of how educators across all disciplines are integrating these ideas into their courses—and even their entire curricula. The New Entrepreneurial Leader lays out a comprehensive new paradigm for reinventing management education in order to mold leaders who will shape social and economic opportunity.

In years past, the keywords for entrepreneurs were confidence, single-minded purpose, and charge-ahead thinking. But in our vastly more complex globalized, networked, post-crash world this isn't enough. This game changing book details a new approach Entrepreneurial Thought and Action developed at Babson College, the number one school for entrepreneurship in the world.

Leaders today must be "cognitively ambidextrous," able to shift between analytic and action oriented approaches and know when to take action even when all the variables aren't known. They must look beyond the traditional balance sheet, creating social, environmental and economic value. And they need a deep awareness of how their decisions are impacted by who they are their values, biases, background and capabilities as well as the social and cultural context in which they operate.

Greenberg, McKone-Sweet and Wilson, along with some of the top faculty at Babson, outline this new model in detail, explaining precisely how both educators and entrepreneurs can hone these three core competencies for coping with the demands and uncertainties of the modern world.

“The Babson team cracked the code on global entrepreneurial leadership for the 21st century. Their three principles—cognitive ambidexterity, responsibility and sustainability, and self- and social awareness—are the bedrock for winning on the competitive global playing field of tomorrow. A conceptually sound and very practical guidebook for leadership success.”
—Noel Tichy, Professor and Director, Global Citizenship Initiative, University of Michigan, and coauthor of Judgment (with Warren Bennis)

“Helps us understand the imperative for developing leaders who create both economic and social value. Importantly, this book offers a blueprint for how educators across the curriculum can prepare students to have the vision and ability required to achieve integrated value.”
—Nancy McGaw, Deputy Director, Business and Society Program, Aspen Institute

“Precisely what our turbulent and uncertain environment requires: a new leader with good self-knowledge and passion, able to reconcile the apparent contradictions (in the yin-and-yang tradition of the Chinese) brought by complexity. The model will be a source of inspiration, and action, for all those concerned about leadership today.”
—Henri-Claude de Bettignies, Emeritus Professor of Leadership and Responsibility, INSEAD, and Emeritus Professor of Global Responsible Leadership, CEIBS

“Working with Babson College, we’ve seen how its entrepreneurial approach to management education can unlock the growth and job-creation potential of small businesses across the United States. The New Entrepreneurial Leader is a must-read for anyone who is interested in positioning American students and businesses owners as the cornerstones of this country’s economic recovery.”
—Dina Powell, Global Head of Corporate Engagement and President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, Goldman Sachs Group

“As business schools reconsider their point of arrival and their future destinations, The New Entrepreneurial Leader provides a vocabulary and conceptual road map for those institutions that consider entrepreneurship and innovation as the way forward. The book both provides a toolbox and shows the power of a core focus on entrepreneurship in developing a distinctive educational program that has implications for all business schools.”
—Rakesh Khurana, Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Harvard Business School, and author of From Higher Aims to Hired Hands