Leadership is generally a process whereby a person influences others to accomplish a set of goals or objectives within an organization. Leadership and authority can be confused with each other. Authority describes the assigned power one person has over another; however, having authority does not make someone a leader—it makes him or her a boss. Effective leaders have the ability to cause followers to want to achieve desired outcomes, so the exercise of power becomes less important. Herein lies the art of leadership. Leadership in new or entrepreneurial ventures may be considered as a special case or subset of leadership in general.

The conditions affecting new ventures may be sufficiently different from those of established businesses to favor individuals with specific leadership traits or styles. A ...