Entrepreneurial Leadership Instrument

The Entrepreneurial Leadership Instrument was designed by Dr. Michael Goldsby and Dr. Rob Mathews to help entrepreneurs, innovators, project managers, leaders, and executives learn about and embrace their entrepreneurial type and leadership style. 

Understanding your entrepreneurial style

The Entrepreneurial Leadership Instrument measures your unique blend of preferences for the four overarching leadership and execution needs of an entrepreneurial venture or project: Artist, Scientist, Builder, and Evangelist.

These preferences are plotted on a two-dimensional graph. The highest percentage quadrant on the graph represents your preferred style, while the sizes of the other quadrants represent supporting preferences in percentage proportions. The resulting unique blend of styles is your entrepreneurial profile and leadership style.

How do you think about and act on opportunity?

Opportunity is at the nexus of entrepreneurship. Some people prefer to think about opportunity abstractly (big picture), while others are more interested in the concrete details. Likewise, some entrepreneurs like to explore opportunities, while others prefer to exploit opportunities. These significant differences in how leaders and team members think about and pursue opportunity form the foundations of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Instrument (ELI).

Purpose of the ELI

Until recent years, tools to help entrepreneurs understand themselves and other members of their team were few and far between. The ELI helps entrepreneurs and corporate innovators know and embrace their unique leadership style. It also helps them make sure they put a team around them that complements their style. It can also be used in conjunction with other tools that measure entrepreneurial talents (Builder Profile-10), entrepreneurial personality and skills (Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile), and innovation and problem solving style (Basadur Profile) to form and empower entrepreneurial teams to create, build, and sustain successful ventures (for-profit or non-profit) and corporate innovation teams.

Origins of the ELI

The ELI is not a personality test. It measures states and styles as opposed to traits. Because it measures functional preferences, results may or may not change over time for a given individual. No one style is better than another.

The ELI framework is based on the Basadur Innovation Profile, and is used with gracious permission from our friends at Basadur Innovation. Visit basadurprofile.com to take the Basadur Innovation Profile.