| The American spirit and dream is clearly alive and thriving in our community colleges. To maintain a vital economy, college leaders are being asked to act quickly, effectively, and decisively in order to respond to the forces in society that are reshaping the world and the immediacy with which workers will require retraining or updating of job skills. Institutions of higher education, specifically community colleges, will need to reconsider operational strategies and become engineers of innovation and transformation that apply pressure to the external forces that are driving change. Technology, globalization, accountability, recruitment and retention, workforce development, diversity, and accreditation represent full time, compelling work and pose challenges which require new levels of leadership. In today's environment of declining public resources and demands to do more with less, it is important for community colleges to become entrepreneurial.;This qualitative phenomenological study explored the leadership, spirit, and experiences of leaders at community colleges committed to an entrepreneurial leadership philosophy. The literature suggests with the emergence of entrepreneurial language in high education being so recent, there is limited literature on the topic of entrepreneurial leadership. Purposeful sampling yielded eleven community college presidents/chancellors to participate in this study, representing varying institutional type, enrollment size, and geographic location.;The research disclosed the following findings: (a) factors contributing to the experiences; (b) essential leadership competencies; (c) engagement and an entrepreneurial ecosystem; and (d) creating a common definition for community college entrepreneurial leadership. Moreover, if community college leaders aspire to become entrepreneurial leaders, they should consider these imperatives; (a) find ways to study both in content and experiences entrepreneurial leadership and social entrepreneurism; (b) dispel the myth that entrepreneurial leadership cannot be learned; (c) be careful to not chase trends or transplant ideas without consideration of alignment with mission, mandate, and strategic plan; (d) study entrepreneurial leadership outside of higher education; (e) develop the leadership characteristics, traits, and attributes for successful entrepreneurial leaders; (f) expand knowledge on becoming a master capacity builder, change agent, and transformational leader; and (g) evaluate the return on investment.;It is for these reasons of growing enrollments, declining funding, deferred maintenance, the emergence of quickly changing technology, and the immediate demands of business and industry that it is important that we research and understand the dynamics of entrepreneurial leadership at community colleges. |
