5 Leadership Lessons Learned on EO's Path of Leadership

October 3, 2025

Published in:

Leadership & Management

A group of EO leaders at the Regional Leadership Academy 2025 in Athens. — Photo by Entrepreneurs' Organization

As an entrepreneur, you lead your employees and your company to success. But imagine yourself sitting around a table populated by your EO peers -- brilliant entrepreneurs, each with their own bold ideas, proven solutions, and powerful energy. Unlike leading the team you hired in your company, there’s no hierarchy, no paychecks, and no guarantee anyone will follow your lead.

EO’s Path of Leadership is your opportunity to explore next-level leadership, where influence, collaboration, and emotional intelligence are the keys to success. Working side by side with other successful EO member leaders will unlock your next level and enhance your leadership skills while shaping the future of our global community of entrepreneurs.

Five EO member leaders share their experiences on what happens when you apply to EO’s Path of Leadership:

1. Imposter Syndrome Disappears

If you ever had imposter syndrome, EO’s Path of Leadership will stop it in its tracks.

“I have developed a lot —from someone who had a huge case of imposter syndrome and seeing myself as a ‘small fish in a big pond’ to actually seeing how I can, every year, improve my leadership skills, do things that are easy for me and hard for others, and grow and grow and grow,” explained Andreas Konstantinou (EO Greece).

If you ever had imposter syndrome, EO’s Path of Leadership will stop it in its tracks.

The adage, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future,” has empirical evidence to support it. Indeed, Andreas levelled-up his leadership amid so many other successful leaders:

“It's like every year I see the ceiling is here at one level, and then the next year, the ceiling is way up there at another level. I keep on growing by how I'm interacting and learning from others around me.”

2. Leadership Skills Evolve

Simply put: You raise your game when surrounded by strong leaders and personalities — you transition from leading through power in your own business to leading other leaders with influence and encouraging them to align.

“One massive challenge for me was learning how to lead other leaders. In my business, it's much easier because I get to choose who I surround myself with, and it makes it much easier to lead them,” shared Nathan Donaldson (EO New Zealand).

To be fair, while employees don’t always perform exactly as a leader hopes, for the most part, as employees, they execute on your leadership ideas and direction without too much pushback.

“But when you're sitting around the table with other entrepreneurs, sometimes with quite strong personalities, it makes you lift your game in leadership,” Nathan continued. “It's that idea of creating a shared vision that we can all step into and create something that's truly special, which has really driven me as a leader.”

3. Leading with Influence vs. Power

Leading leaders is a lot different than leading people who aren't in leadership roles in their own respective lives or businesses. You must dig deep and learn the nuance of how to lead with influence vs. power – which can grow your emotional intelligence quotient or “EQ”.

You learn to listen, reflect, and create a shared vision; you learn to lead with influence vs. power while simultaneously developing your empathy, patience, and cross-cultural understanding.

“I've had to learn how to get a lot more buy-in using emotional quotient (EQ) and getting people to understand experience share and show them, ‘Hey, this is a good thing; not because I'm telling you but because I'm showing you or I'm leading by example’,” said Jesse Tarr (EO South Florida).

You learn to lead with influence vs. power while simultaneously developing your empathy, patience, and cross-cultural understanding.

“When you're leading leaders by example, the bar is just that much higher,” Jesse said. “It has resulted in a lot of personal and professional growth on my end.”

4. You Grow While You Help EO Grow

EO is a peer-to-peer community organization formed by leaders, for leaders. When you join EO, you become a part of something that is bigger than yourself.

“For those leaders who have not started the Path of Leadership, my message is that it's a beautiful journey. I started on the local board for two years, then on the regional council, and now I'm going into a global portfolio,” said Valentina Humar (EO Bogota). “In each one of those steps, I've gained so much knowledge, many friendships, and I also feel that I'm giving back to a community that has given me so much.”

“Being part of the Path of Leadership is not only the way that I grow, but I help EO grow — and I think we'll be stronger together if we all give a little bit to this amazing organization,” Valentina stated.

5. It is Both a Privilege and a Responsibility

It’s not always easy to lead other leaders. But as an entrepreneur and EO member, you have proven that you’re up for the challenge. In fact, when you challenge yourself, that’s when you grow the most authentically and in the areas you will benefit from the most.

“Leading other leaders takes a lot. It takes inspiration, it takes a whole lot of listening, and it takes continual learning,” said Erwin Szeto (EO Toronto).

“I just love learning from others. There is so much difference we can make. By leading others, we learn to lead ourselves, we learn to lead our families, and we learn to make a difference in the world,” Erwin continued.

“I highly encourage you to do it,” Erwin said of applying for EO’s Path of Leadership. “Not only will it help you to become a better leader, but I feel like we have a privilege to do so, and we therefore have a responsibility.”

Apply to EO’s Path of Leadership

EO members have the exclusive opportunity to shape the member experience and co-create the future of the organization across a variety of local, regional, global, and functional roles through EO’s Path of Leadership.

Are you ready to step into a new level of leadership?

Path of Leadership applications for FY26/27 opened on 1 September and are due 15 October for Tier 2 roles including Regional Council Members, Standing Committee Members, and Portfolio Team Members.

On 1 October, POL applications for the Tier 3 role of Experts opened and are due 1 December. Learn more and submit your PoL application today.

By Anne-Wallis Droter, EO Staff Writer