Entrepreneurial Leadership

Leadership can be defined as a relationship between a responsible identity and followers whereby both surrender control to foster trust and cohesion in the effort of successfully completing a task.

Entrepreneurship is often defined as the personal embodiment of organizing and managing any enterprise, especially a business, ordinarily encompassing considerably initiative and risk.

Chris Roebuck, professor of Transformative Leadership at Cass Business School defines Entrepreneurial Leadership as “organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal using proactive entrepreneurial behavior by optimizing risk, innovating to take advantage of opportunities, taking personal responsibility and managing change within a dynamic environment for the benefit of an organization." 

For any organization to succeed in the 21st Century, risk needs to be managed, not avoided. The same exact principle stands for any student in any major across Shippensburg University. The Charles Diller Center will work towards encouraging students to take risks. In Chuck’s words “It is very relevant for today’s young adults, in whatever profession they choose, to learn to cope with risk, spot opportunities and have the ability to be innovative. That is why we chose to endow this Center as our contribution to the recent campaign,” said Chuck.

Entrepreneurial Leaders can be found in any profession or any organization. It is a mindset that must be fostered and nurtured. Giants of our time such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Ellon Musk all fit the mold of Entrepreneurial Leaders. It is also the young employee or student who builds up the courage to suggest “perhaps we take a look at how we do X...or maybe Z would run more efficiently than Y.”

The Center Stands ready to mentor, support, and encourage any student who wishes to strike out on their own with an idea, to build the next Ford, Microsoft, Amazon or equally or more importantly, the most trustworthy and innovative mainstreet staple.