Methodological Aspects of Studying Leadership Potential in Small and Medium Business Organizations

The objective of the work is to analyze the phenomenon of leadership potential in small and medium business companies and to identify its social components. The authors believe the problem is neglected in Russia. As a result, Russia has little experience in the sphere of leadership potential development. It is on the correct understanding of leadership potential components that making the relevant managerial decisions in a company depends to a large extent, which in its turn determines the company’s focus, growth rates, stability, and competitiveness. The topic of leadership is becoming increasingly popular in economics, as one of the paramount features of a successful company is the presence of a leader standing at the head of the company. As the research methods, the analysis of secondary research data is used and so is the data of sociological survey conducted by the authors in 2016 as a case study of company N where an important place is occupied by such leadership skills components as intellectual capacities, an ability to set goals, communicative and organizer capacities, an ability to act under risk, and the personal qualities that are essential for certain situations. During the studies, the authors succeeded at finding out the structure of personality of the company’s employees having the leadership potential. The results obtained in the work can be used as a basis for working out a system of actions aimed at the development of leadership potential in a company.