2017 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship

On the 14th Annual Skoll World Forum, the 2017 winners were announced, and the Skoll portfolio touches a century mark of social entrepreneurs.

Essentially they are the leaders in the making. These leaders go a bit unconventional in making life sustainable for the society. The changes they bring to the world are significant. A spirit of status-quo breaking is seen in all of them. They have many things in common-  concern for the downtrodden, positive attitude towards life, determination for arriving at a solution. They all show optimism in their thinking and deeds. They give hope for more peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable future is within reach. These four awardees received US$1.25 million core support.

Kola Masha: Babban Gona

Half the young Nigerians are unemployed. Here is where ‘Babban Gona’ could come with an agricultural solution. The business model she presented was giving the youth self-supporting income. Kola Masha helped small farmers a lot. She helped them get training, finance credit, agricultural inputs, marketing support, and other vital services. ‘Babban Gona’ could prove a substantial increase in agricultural yield.

Dr. Elizabeth Hausler: Build Change

Dr. Elizabeth Hausler changed the design concept for buildings in places where natural disasters killed many people. The retrofitting disaster-resistant homes and schools, her organisation ‘Build Change’ increased the survival rate in nations which are vulnerable to earthquakes and typhoons. She roped in seismic engineers to produce low-cost solutions in disaster-resilient construction.

Dr. Rajesh Panjabi: Last Mile Health

‘Last Mile Health’ helps in reducing the infant mortality. Dr. Rajesh Panjabi is associated with Government in imparting training in maternal and child health, family planning, treatment adherence, and surveillance of epidemics. He also trains nurses for remote area services.

Bradley Myles: Polaris

‘Polaris’ run by Bradley Myles aims at reducing criminality and human trafficking by disrupting human trafficking networks.

Reference URL: https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2017/04/2017-skoll-award-social-entrepreneurship/

 

Social Entrepreneurship and Leadership Characteristics

The social entrepreneurship and leadership characteristics are integrated and cannot be isolated. The organisation’s long term goal is oriented around the active leadership implementation. The dynamic situation shall have to be acknowledged to meet the challenges in the balance of growth. The cost benefit ratio, often ignored, should be reworked with the accountability fixed without any ambiguity.

In the process of transformation of a successful social entrepreneurship, ten leadership qualities emerge. They are honesty, delegation ability, communication, confidence, commitment, creativity and ability to inspire. Besides, there is a 4E principle that is universally accepted. They, in turn, can be summarised as envision, energise, enable and empower. This is an equivalent of the 4P principle in management. One of the biggest problems faced in social entrepreneurship is that the people involved are full of vision and energy but no managerial exposure. Just zeal may not bring out the best organisation, but decisive leadership are called for.

This is particularly the case as business procedures need to be implemented, teams built and money earned to run a social enterprise successfully. The role model concept of the successful entrepreneurs shall be percolate down to the lowest hierarchy of followers and employees. Successful leadership is infectious. The follower’s urge to stick will vary with the geographical locations, the concept of teamwork, academic background, age, gender, etc. However, no hard and fast rule can be applied with ease.

The leadership qualities include self-development of the employee and mutually agreed on performance goals. This is the key to unleashing their followers’ potential, engagement and creativity. Managing the leader and the team members with a solid rapport, utilising a common vision and core values, are crucial. As a corollary, an autocratic leadership ill does not flourish beyond a certain extent. Empowering leadership includes aspects such as encouraging independent action, self-development of the employee and mutually agreed on performance goals and is the key to unleash their followers’ potential, engagement and creativity.

Reference URL: http://www.schwabfound.org/…/leadership_in_social_enterprise_2014.pdf · PDF file

http://www.forbes.com/sites/startupviews/2012/06/08/5-essential-qualities…