The triangle within

To build on last week’s "3-Os and 3-Is" of entrepreneurial leadership, let me now present another dimension of the triangle offense, that is, the three centers of excellence that an entrepreneurial leader must balance–the mind, the heart and the spirit.

The mind

This center of excellence focuses on logic and rational thinking. I often refer to it as the mind of a business person that looks at the hard facts and demands logical explanations to situations. It works on the numbers and calls for measurable results. Financial returns, share of market, cost and margins are some of these hard numbers. It is calculating and exacting.

With a knack for details that support summaries or concepts, this kind of mind drills down to the elements to see and understand why. It is purposive. It looks for problems to solve. It is functional yet integrative.

This center of excellence is disciplined. It focuses on the critical few. It gets its strength from analyses and insights that flow out of facts (not assumptions). It is objective, emotionless and professional.

This mind is often found in the bodies of people who have MBAs. It is also often found in people who learned business from the "school of hard knocks". In the old books of management, these are people who practice theory "X". They are often misconstrued as ruthless, but they are just really objective, pragmatic and practical. These minds want to do well.

The heart

This center of excellence considers the full development of people’s potentials as most important. I often refer to this as the heart of the development manager. This heart listens, understands and is full of empathy. This heart is people-oriented.

This center of excellence feels and would like people to lead better lives. This heart gives and gives until it hurt (even if it hurts). It considers qualitative development as more important than the quantitative results. It sees life as more than just a time for making money. It values many other things beyond money, and one of these is quality of life.

Emotional and caring, this heart looks after the disadvantaged. It draws strength from fully understanding the needs, limitations and potentials of the person. This heart is sensitive, sympathetic and kind.

It is often found in the bodies of development managers, those who are at the core of social development-oriented organizations. In the old books of management, these are people who practice theory "Y". They are often misconstrued as softhearted (pusong mamon) when, in fact, they are just really caring, kind and simply people-oriented. These hearts want to do good.

The spirit

This center of excellence is adventurous. It is not content with the status quo. It is a rebel, always in search of something better. I often refer to this as the spirit of the entrepreneur. This free spirit sees opportunities, not problems. It is creative and innovative. It is artistic. It does not ask why. It asks–why not?

The spirit intuits a lot. Often, it develops opportunities that are not logically supported. It prefers to use "gut" feel. It does not allow current conventions to limit growth. It challenges the current limits to test how far the spirit can go.

This center of excellence is freewheeling, observant and feels its surroundings and environment. It cannot, however, explain what it feels. It sees things that are not normally seen. It draws strength from its inner feelings that are inexplicable. This spirit is hard to predict. It is cheery yet competitive.

This spirit is often found in entrepreneurs. They are often misconstrued as rebellious, whimsical, crazy, ridiculous, or out-of-this-world. Actually, they are just really innovative and market-oriented.

The triangle

All three centers of excellence must live in the entrepreneurial leader. Mastery of all three centers is a must. Self-mastery requires the entrepreneurial leader to practice, in an excellent manner, the appropriate center that is correct for the situation at hard.

Self-mastery also requires the entrepreneurial leader to live and balance and fine-tune the apparent contradictions and tensions among the three centers. Akin to the tuning of a guitar, the entrepreneurial leader must set the proper attention of each string. If it is too loose, it will not make a sound. If it is too tight, it will snap. If each string is not tuned relative to a 440 standard, it will create noise. But if the strings are tensioned correctly, the guitar will create good music that will be listened to, appreciated and admired.

The entrepreneurial leader must be able to make the mind, heart and spirit work together. In other words, he/she must continuously innovate in order to continuously do good while continuously doing well. As I always remind my AIM students, one must have the mind of a business person, the heart of a development manager and the spirit of an entrepreneur. This is what it takes to be an entrepreneurial leader.

(Alejandrino Ferreria is the dean of the Asian Center for Entrepreneurship of the Asian Institute of Management. For further comments and inquiries, you may contact him at: [email protected]. Published "Entrepreneur’s Helpline" columns can be viewed on the AIM website at http//: www.aim.edu.ph).