4.3.5. Working with others

4.3.5. Working with others

Working with others in EntreComp

Thread FOUNDATION Discover – Explore Relying on support from others INTERMEDIATE Experiment-Dare Building independence ADVANCED Improve-Reinforce Taking responsibility EXPERT Expand-Transform Driving transformation, innovation and growth

Accept diversity (people’s differences).

1. I can show respect for others, their background and situations. 2. I am open to the worth that others can bring to valuecreating activities. 3. I can combine different contributions to create value. 4. I can value diversity as a possible source of ideas and opportunities. 5. I can support diversity within my team or organisation. 7. Outside of my organisation, I can find ideas that create value and make the most of them.

Develop emotional intelligence.

Empathy, assertiveness, conflict resolution

Listen actively. (to others’ ideas and to the customers)

Team up.

Build a team 1. I can show empathy towards others. 2. I can recognise the role of my emotions, attitudes and behaviours in shaping others people’s attitudes and behaviours and vice versa. 3. I can express my (or my team's) value-creating ideas assertively. 4. I can face and solve conflicts. 5. I can compromise where necessary. 6. I can deal with nonassertive behaviour that hinders my (or my team's) value -creating activities (for example, destructive attitudes, aggressive behaviour and so on). 7. I can manage conflicts effectively.

1. I can show empathy towards others. 2. I can discuss the benefits of listening to other people’s ideas for achieving my (or my team's) goals. 3. I can listen to other people’s ideas for creating value without showing prejudice. 4. I can listen to my end users. 5. I can describe different techniques for managing relationships with end users. 6. I can put in place strategies to actively listen to my end users and act on their needs. 7. I can pull together information from a wide range of sources to understand my end users’ needs.

1. I am open to working alone as well as with others, playing different roles and taking some responsibility. 2. I am willing to change my way of working in a group. 3. I can work with a range of individuals and teams. 4. I share the ownership of value-creating activities with the members of my team 5. I can build a team based on the individual knowledge, skills and attitudes of each member. 6. I can contribute to creating value by teaming up with distributed communities through digital technologies. 7. I can design physical and virtual spaces that encourage team members to work together. 8. I can build an organisation’s capacity to create value by encouraging people to work together.

Working with others

Work

together. 1. I am open to involving others in my value- creating activities. 2. I can contribute to simple valuecreating activities. 3. I can contribute to group decisionmaking constructively. 4. I can create a team of people who can work together in a value-creating activity. 5. I can use techniques and tools that help people to work together. 6. I can give people the help and support they need to perform at their best within a team. 7. I can work with a remote team of people who can independently contribute to a value-creating activity. 8. I can design working methods and incentives that

Expand your network.

1. I can explain the meaning and forms of association, cooperation and peerto-peer support (for example, family and other communities). 2. I am open to establishing new contacts and cooperation with others (individuals and groups). 3. I can use the relationships I have to get the support I need to turn ideas into action, including emotional support. 4. I can establish new relation-ships to get the support

I need to turn ideas into action, including emotional support (for example, joining a mentor network). 5. I can use my network to find the right people to work on my (or my team's) value-creating activity. 6. I proactively make contact with the right people inside and outside my organisation to support my (or my team's) value-creating activity (for example, at conferences or on social media). 7. I can use my network to bring together different perspectives to inform my (or my team's) valuecreating process. 8. I can design effective processes to build networks of different or new stake-holders and keep them engaged.

enable team members to work well together.

Working with others in the literature

Thread Related competences listed in other frameworks Insights from the literature review

Accept diversity (people’s differences). Respect, value worth of others, value diversity…

Develop emotional intelligence.

Empathy, assertiveness, conflict resolution

Listen actively.

Empathy, listening others’ ideas, managing customers • Deal with social customs. (R) (Tittel & Terzidis, 2020) • Embracing competency of others. (Bird 1995/2019)

• Emotional intelligence. (Bolzani & Lupi, 2020) • Create empathy (P) (Tittel &

Terzidis, 2020) • Assertiveness. (Bird, 1995/2019) • Conflict resolution. (Bolzani &

Lupi, 2020) • Form emotionally positive instrumental relationships. (Bird 1995/2019) • Create empathy (P) (Tittel &

Terzidis, 2020) • Manage customers. (R) (Tittel &

Terzidis, 2020) • Lackéus (2020) states that discussing value with others is not only about selling one’s idea in the early stages. It is also about asking questions and trying to uncover problems that can be solved and needs that can be met. Being entrepreneurial includes being aware of people’s tendency to say what they think you want to hear and through this, give false information, or at least information

• Create teams with complementary skills. • Composition of teams: ability to work in multidisciplinary, also referred to as eclectic teams (Brown, 2012).

• Entrepreneurial bonding refers to the creation and restructuring of relationships.

The ability and sense of self needed to form emotionally positive instrumental relationships with partners and employees in the early stages, where financial incentives and job security are unlikely is one critical form of bonding. (Bird, 2019).

Team up. “Build a team” • Embracing competency of others. (Bird 1995/2019) • Team building and collaboration. (Bird, 1995/2019) • Develop a team (O) (Tittel &

Terzidis, 2020)

Work together. • Group work and team management. (Bolzani & Lupi, 2020) • Work in a team. (R) (Tittel &

Terzidis, 2020) • Cooperation. (Rasmusen &

Nybye, 2013) • Cooperate and collaborate (R)

inconsistent with how they actually might feel or act. • Venture teaming is becoming more popular among entrepreneurs. Balanced venture teams appear to improve the chances of entrepreneurial success (Timmons, 1990), but a common source of conflict among venture team members is inconsistent or ambiguous motives for the new venture. Awareness of venture partners’ psychological predispositions in areas such as risk-taking could be used to identify and reconcile areas of potential conflict, and enhance the planning process in the small firm. (Stewart et al., 1999). • Create teams with complementary skills.

Some authors point out that a well-balanced team (Timmons, 1990) and showing good performance is as important as the project itself when making a financial decision by investors (Harper, 2008). • Create a balanced team. Experienced entrepreneurs are more likely than inexperienced entrepreneurs to create a balanced management team. (Bird 1995/2019) • Entrepreneurial discovery can be the social result of joint conjecture and mutual evaluation by members of an entrepreneurial team (Harper, 2008). By forming a team, entrepreneurs can create a socially extended cognitive nexus whose computational and problem-solving features are distinct from those of its members. (Harper, 2008). • Size of the team: Entrepreneurial start-up teams that are larger than four persons might be interesting to convince an investor, but are in practice very difficult to run. (Clarysse &

Moray, 2004). • Investors often emphasize the quality of the management team more than any other single factor as they make investment decisions (e.g., Kamm et al., 1990; Cyr et al., 2000; cited in Clarysse & Moray, 2004). • Need of structuring of the team in which everybody gets a role and the attraction of competencies into the team if they were not yet available (e.g., business developer or

CEO). (Clarysse & Moray, 2004). • Importance of teamwork as an explanatory factor of entrepreneurial success (Lee et al., 2016) • Human resources management; training needs identification,; selection and evaluation, training management (Capaldo et al., 2004). • Ability to motivate collaborators; leadership skills (Capaldo et al., 2004)

Expand your network.

(Tittel & Terzidis, 2020) • Exchange knowledge. (R) (Tittel & Terzidis, 2020) • Train your team. (R) (Tittel &

Terzidis, 2020 • Delegation skills (Mitchelmore &

Rowley, 2010; Tittel & Terzidis, 2020) • Monitoring the work of others. (Bird 1995/2019; Tittel &

Terzidis, 2020) • Hiring skills. (Mitchelmore &

Rowley, 2010) • Deal-making skills. (Mitchelmore & Rowley, 2010) • Leadership skills; Lead your team. (Mitchelmore & Rowley, 2010; Tittel & Terzidis, 2020) • Manage human resources. (S) (Tittel & Terzidis, 2020) • Recognising the importance of business relationships. (Bird 1995/2019) • The ability to manage customers. (Mitchelmore & Rowley, 2010) • Building and using networks (Morris et al., 2013). • Use and develop networks. (R) (Tittel & Terzidis, 2020)

OTHER • Interpersonal skills. (Mitchelmore & Rowley, 2010) • Team factors such as team composition (functional heterogeneity, team tenure and size), team group processes, including the team’s actions and behaviors (internal and external communication) and psychological dimensions, and finally, problem solving styles, have received considerable attention (e.g.: Ancona, 1990; Ancona and Caldwell, 1992; Smith et al., 1994; Jehn, 1997).

Recently, attention has shifted from the lone entrepreneur/founder to the whole entrepreneurial team (e.g., Cooper and Daily, 1996). (Clarysse & Moray, 2004).

• Building and Using Networks: social interaction skills that enable an individual to establish, develop, and maintain sets of relationships with others who assist them in advancing their work or career (Gianesini et al., 2018). • Different studies support the idea that networking helps the firm reduce uncertainty, facilitates access to knowledge, technology and power and helps raise financial funds (Mejri & Zouaoui, 2020). • Social capital is based on the relationships of some people with others (Putnam, 1995) and has the potential to deliver results when it is valued. For the entrepreneur, the network of contacts is an asset that they use in an instrumental way to take action (Hannafey, 2003). The entrepreneur uses and develops networks with which they mobilize resources and generate alliances. • Political competence includes the ability to enhance one’s position, build a power base, and establish the right connections (Pavett &

Lau, 1983). This may be particularly important in start-up firms, because the founder must enlist the support of network members. Dunkelberg et al. (1987) report that business founders in growth firms value information from accountants, lawyers and bankers. Establishing connections with people who control important resources and possess important skills and abilities is important to the performance of the new venture (Aldrich et al. 1987; cited in Chandler & Jansen, 1992). • Ability to manage other people Interpersonal skill; leadership (Baron & Markman, 2003),

• Human relation skills. (Mitchelmore & Rowley, 2010) • Interaction (interpersonal communication competence scale). (Bolzani & Lupi, 2020) • Managing the overlapping family and business systems. (Bird 1995/2019) • Managing transitions in relationships. (Bird 1995/2019) • Managing role conflict. (Bird 1995/2019)

Witt, 1998; Chell, 2013). • Building trust. • Social skills: interpersonal relations, communications, social adaptability (Hood &

Young, 1993; Vesper & McMullan 1988; cited in Morris et al., 2013)

OTHER: Entrepreneurial bonding and instrumental relationships • Entrepreneurial bonding refers to the creation and restructuring of relationships.

The ability and sense of self needed to form emotionally positive instrumental relationships with partners and employees in the early stages, where financial incentives and job security are unlikely is one critical form of bonding. A special subset here are the family business competencies – managing the overlapping family and business systems and cultures and all the complexities that intimacy bring to the workplace (Lansberg, 1983;

Levinson, 1983; Kepner, 1983; Ward, 1985).

Since relationships are dynamic, bonding also encompasses the competency of managing the transition in those relationships (e.g., dealing with obsolete “old times” as the firm grows, dissolving a partnership, and succession planning). (Bird, 1995/2019, p. 122).

Working with others in EICAA According to the literature, there are several aspects related to working in teams in value-creating activities: • Ability to create a team, considering composition (balanced team with respect to complementary skills and personalities) and size. • Importance of the team and the presentation of a strong team to investors (ability to communicate the strengths of the team to others). • Ability to work in teams, especially in earlier stages of the new venture, as it is reflected in thread “work together”. • Ability to manage teams, especially in latter stages of the new venture: leadership, delegation, monitoring the work of others, hiring skills. • Building positive instrumental relationships and managing them. • Ability to manage relationships transitions and role transitions along the process. • Networking, enhancing the power base. • General social skills/social embedding: empathy, conflict resolution, conversation skills, listening, supporting others, providing feedback, building trust, etc.

• In organizations, political astuteness. • Listening and managing customer relationships, as well as other stakeholders. • Negotiation skills (it is already included in thread “mobilising others”).

The next table shows the competence “Working with others” in EICAA-CF containing some rewording and additions according to the reviewed literature.

Table 29. Competence “Working with others” in EICAA-CF

Working with others in EICAA-CF

Definitions:

• Human competence is the ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both individually and in groups (Pavett & Lau 1983; cited in Chanlder & Jansen, 1992). • Entrepreneurial team: group of entrepreneurs with a common goal which can only be achieved by appropriate combinations of individual entrepreneurial actions. (Harper, 2008). • Leadership in entrepreneurship refers to the ability to influence others to strategically manage resources so that the best problem-solution fit is achieved in the search for the opportunity and the best supply-demand match is reached in the search of a competitive advantage (Covin & Slevin, 2002; cited in Ireland et al., 2003). • Entrepreneurial bonding: creation and restructuring of relationships; creation of emotionally positive instrumental relationships with partners, employees and family members; managing the transitions in these relationships (Bird 1995/2019). • The networking competence is defined as “the ability of entrepreneurs to develop and maintain long-term relationships with customers, suppliers, and other interested stakeholders” (Sajilan & Tehseen, 2019: p. 192; cited in Mejri & Zouaoui, 2020). • Building and using networks: social interaction skills that enable an individual to establish, develop, and maintain sets of relationships with others who assist them in advancing their work or career (Gianesini et al., 2018). Hint: • Team up, work together, and network. Descriptors: • Work together and cooperate with others to develop ideas and turn them into action. • Network. • Solve conflicts and face up to competition positively when necessary. • Manage instrumental relationships. Thread FOUNDATION Discover – Explore Relying on support from others INTERMEDIATE Experiment-Dare Building independence ADVANCED Improve-Reinforce Taking responsibility EXPERT Expand-Transform Driving transformation, innovation and growth

Accept diversity (people’s differences).

Accept differences inside and outside of the team and enrich the value creating activity Show respect for others, their background, and situations. Respect different social and cultural norms.

Value and use

diversity as a source of ideas and opportunities and as a source of learning. Support diversity within my team or organisation. Develop strategies to

enrich my team’s work with diverse

ideas from outside the organisation and turn them into valuable new solutions or products. Effective at getting the

most out of the diversity in a team, while also managing

the cultural barriers and risks.

Develop

emotional intelligence.

Empathy, assertiveness, conflict resolution Show and develop empathy towards others. Express my (my team’s) value-creating ideas assertively.

Help others develop

empathy and assertivity. Effectively deal with nonassertive behavior. Effectively manage team dynamics and

conflicts effectively.

Listen actively. (to others’ ideas Discuss the benefits of

listening to other

people’s ideas for Describe different techniques for listening and I can put in place

strategies to actively listen

to my end users and act on I can pull together information from a wide range of sources

and to the customers)

Includes managing customers

Team up.

Build a team achieving my (or my team’s) goals. Explain strategies to listen to other stakeholders.

Open open to work alone as well as with others, playing different roles and taking some responsibility.

managing

relationships with end users. their (implicit and explicit) needs.

Work with a range of individuals and

teams and know which role fits me best in a team. I can compose the best team for a project based on the individual knowledge, skills, and attitudes of each member so that the team is balanced (has complementary skills) for the value-creating activity. to understand my end users’ needs, and (re-)

interpret their needs according to meaningful insights.

This is related to listening beyond the words of the users (to emotions and feelings) and they willingness to say what you want, and delve into the real needs. Able to communicate the team’s potential to develop the valuecreating idea to get the necessary support from investors and other stakeholders. (intrapreneurship) Build an

organisation’s capacity

to create value by encouraging and fostering people to work together.

Work together. Involve others in my value-creating activities (peers, and stakeholders). Select a team of people who can work together in implementing a business idea.

Structure a team by identifying roles and tasks to achieve the goals of the business idea.

Manage instrumental relationships (Entrepreneurial bonding)

Expand your network.

Explain and identify

instrumental

relationships that provide value in a value-creating activity. Explain the meaning and forms of association: cooperation and peer-topeer support (for example, family and other communities). Open to establishing new contacts and cooperation with others (individuals and groups). Creation of

emotionally positive instrumental

relationships that support the valuecreating activity.

Establish new

relationships to get the support needed to turn ideas into action, including emotional support (for example, joining a mentor network).

Be effective at networking with new contacts as well as

building strong ties

with existing contacts.

Manage emotionally positive instrumental

relationships, including investors, partners, peers and family members.

Proactively and regularly make contact with the right people inside and outside my organisation to support my (or my team's) value-creating activity (for example, at conferences or on social media).

Design working methods and

incentives that enable team members to work well together.

Managing the

transitions of the instrumental relationships along the process (dissolving partnerships, succession planning…)

Use my network to bring together different

perspectives to accelerate and enrich

my value-creating process. Design effective

processes to build and

manage networks of different or new stakeholders, assign them roles and keep them engaged.