Focus
The participating entrepreneur is primarily concerned with the active involvement of all members of an organization in its ongoing operations. Specifically, the participating executive seeks to expand and improve communication, both up and down the organization. Her attention next turns to management of the conflict that inevitably arises from a more open flow of communication.
Attention then turns to problem-solving and, in particular, the acquisition of problem-solving skills by members of the closely-held enterprise and to the design of organizational structures that encourage effective problem-solving. Finally, participating entrepreneurs turn to decision-making processes. They seek to expand the capacity and opportunities of all members of the organization to participate in appropriate decision-making processes. The participating entrepreneur is also concerned about full and appropriate use of all resources in the organization. This includes acknowledging the contributions made by assertive, inspiring and thoughtful executives. Not only does the participating entrepreneur encourage executive functioning at all levels of the organization, the participating entrepreneur may herself come from any level of the organization.
As Heifetz suggests, “many people daily go beyond both their job description and the informal expectations they carry within their closely-held enterprise and do what they are not authorized to do. At a minimum, these people exercise executive functioning momentarily by impressing upon a group, sometimes by powerfully articulating an idea that strikes a resonant chord, the need to pay attention to a missing point of view.” These executives who come from the “foot of the table” rather than the head provide or help to generate new information and provide unique, timely perspectives on the information that is generated. These executives from the foot of the table help to articulate key values or (even more often) exhibit and exemplify these key values through the actions they take. Emergent executives, according to Heifetz, articulate new ideas that strike a resonant chord.
