LEADERSHIP INGENUITY, AN IMPERATIVE FOR ENTREPRENEURAL DEVELOPMENT.

Abstract

The place of entrepreneurship as a catalyst of economic development is established citing some countries including the awakening in Nigeria. Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is a child of necessity and opportunities with diverse inaugurated schemes for its promotion and coordination. This paper discusses the problem of leadership as a menace to the sustainability of entrepreneurship. The concept of leadership as the process of influencing people to act towards the attainment of the organisational goals is highlighted. The ingredients of leadership and leader’s attributes are stated. Diverse leadership styles ranging from traits, behavioural to contingency models are explained, but there is no simple and single answer to the best style. However, the leadership continuum concept is embraced as the appropriate leadership style which depends on the leader, the followers, and the situation. The uniqueness of women's style is enumerated making Katherine Hudson a reference point for distinguished women in business leadership. Leadership can be learned hence entrepreneurs can be trained for effective leadership. Certain performance hints are listed for improvement. Recommendations like provision of on-the-job leadership training, sensitizing through radio and television reality shows, availability of subsidized educative leaflets on leadership for entrepreneurs, and so on are proffered.