My Top 5 Rules for Leadership in a Startup
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What Does a Good Leader Look Like to You?
We all have this vision in our minds of what a good leader could or should look like.
Maybe you envision the person that lights up the room every time they enter and always seems to inspire everyone around them.
Right?
The person that says things in such an articulated and beautiful way that you can't imagine them ever NOT being so eloquent.
Not sure if you remember this movie, maybe it was before your time.
But in Independence Day, mankind is faced with this daunting task of defeating an enemy that has all but already won the war.
On the edge of total annihilation, the President decided to command one of the fighter jets himself and gives one of the more epic cinematic hoorah speeches you'll ever hear.
YouTube it when you're done here, you'll see what I mean.
And maybe some of us view leadership as the Drill Sergeant type that probably isn't well liked but always commands respect and gets results.
This are obviously extreme examples but it often baffles me when I see just how closely we try to emulate these patterns in our own businesses.
And if you're a first time entrepreneur, it's likely you've never been in such a capacity before in which so much depends on you and your guidance.
Truth be told, it took me a long time to fully grasp what was necessary to be the leader my company needed me to be.
And although we were growing by leaps and bounds, what I found was a company that relied way too heavily on my own performance.
Every decision had to come through my desk.
Every new iteration of a system had to be my own brainchild.
Every customer that had a question, I was expected to have the answer.
And at the end of the day, the company was outgrowing what I could feasibly manage in a single day.
The business was consuming my life and more importantly, was limping along because I had become the bottleneck.
But, you see, we have this idea in our minds that NOT being in this role means we're giving up power.
As if taking a step aside or transitioning into a different role means we're no longer a valuable asset to the very thing we've created.
So, here's my Top 5 Rules for Startup Leadership and how you can start becoming what your company needs to take the next steps to a thriving organization.
1. Know and Show Thyself
It's funny to me how many people try to become a different person.
They fixate on playing a role in a movie rather than identifying what it would mean to capitalize on their own strengths and weaknesses.
Maybe you're not the rah-rah type...
That doesn't mean you need to stare in the mirror for hours and frantically try to transform yourself into one.
An honest and transparent conversation with yourself about who you are and what naturally feels right to you in probably what's going to bring out the most authentic version of your leadership style.
People can see right through an act.
What they respect is when someone is able to show up as they are and demonstrate self-awareness about their own abilities and downfalls.
My team knew my mind was going one million miles per hour.
We would joke about how random ideas would just pop into my head.
So, rather than trying to hide that fact, we would have open dialogue about which of those ideas were a worthy pursuit or which were probably a bit too far out of reach for that juncture in time.
As we collaborated as a team, they began to see who I was and what it is I aimed to accomplish with my grand vision for the concept.
In so doing and having involved them in the process, my visions and dreams became shared visions and dreams.
Too many people try to be the uptight, most professional versions of themselves on a 24 hour basis.
But, in my experience, people really resonate with someone that is both authentic but carries themselves with professionalism.
Don't show up in your gym shorts and then wonder why nobody respects you but also don't be afraid to show your true character to your employees.
This builds strong culture and promotes a work environment where people not only feel valued but also a place they enjoy showing up everyday.
2. Be Observant and Talk Less
I always say this about leaders whenever I have the opportunity.
An early-stage leader usually feels like they have to be the voice in every conversation.
They have to always have all the answers.
The solution to every single problem.
The perfect answer to an upset customer.
And in reality, when you do this, you create an environment where you're not just the superstar, you're the ONLY star.
Your job as a leader is to first provide a platform where others can succeed.
Not a place where you can serve your own ego.
If you take nothing from this entire blog, remember just those two lines above.
And we don't do it maliciously.
In fact, we do it because we feel it's what our role entails.
When I tell CEO's or Founders they don't have to have all the answers, I often see a look of relief on their faces.
They've been holding themselves to this high standard for such a long time it has come to a point of total exhaustion.
When problems arise, ask questions to your team.
Gather their feedback and input.
Truth be told, they are closer to the situation now than you'll ever be.
So if you think you have a better answer than someone that does the job every single day, you need to revisit that thought process.
Your job is to get them thinking critically.
Your job is to utilize your network, resources and research to expedite the process of solution discovery.
In a different but similar manner, take a moment to just observe what goes on in your organization.
Do people look motivated to be there?
Do customers appear to enjoy the environment you've created?
When's the last time you read your online feedback to derive meaningful takeaways?
Sometimes we just have to slow down and watch how the wheels churn to really recognize what's missing.
But we're so busy running around and chasing our own pursuits that we fail to see the answers right in front of us.
I always say this but usually the future of your firm will organically define itself, you just have to position yourself to be their when it happens.
Look at Blockbuster, for example.
Blockbuster completely dismissed this idea of the internet and the power it would have on their industry.
Services like Netflix even reached out to Blockbuster in an attempt to partner.
But, as the story goes, the CEO of Blockbuster merely scoffed and (apparently) laughed at the notion.
We all know how that story unfolded.
Now, I wasn't there in board room meetings but I can almost see exactly how they must have gone.
A whole lot of talking and doing what they had done for years and what had gotten them to where they were but very little honest and candid observance and recognition about where the future of the industry was trending.
This idea of a new, digital frontier challenged their egos and the way they achieved success but if they were smart, they would have identified it was the wave of the future and could still be the stalwart in the industry.
Instead, they almost completely seize to exist.
3. Empower Others
I've talked about this at length of late.
You see, one of my entrepreneur icons and heroes, Elon Musk, is struggling mightily.
His ambitious ideas and revolutionary concepts captured the eyes of the world as he took on some of the largest challenges man has seen in well over half a century (at least).
Sending rockets to Mars, transforming the way people power their automobiles and homes as well as our entire mass transit system.
What's more is he's doing all of these simultaneously.
Or, at least that was the plan.
And for a while, it was seemingly working just fine.
He arrived on the scene as the daring darling of innovation.
Untouchable...
Until recent signs are showing cracks.
Superman appears to have found his Kryptonite.
And it has shown itself as his inability to empower others and share the chain of command.
Your goal should always be to eliminate yourself from the equation.
Or at least as much as possible.
Why?
So you can spend your days gallivanting around the world and visiting the next private beach?
Hardly...
It's so you can move forward and carve out the next path.
By being stuck IN your business, you can't work ON your business, as Michael Gerber explains in his eMyth Series.
But leaders and CEO's have a hard time letting go.
Sometimes it's an ego or control play and other times they just don't know what they SHOULD BE doing.
Will people still respect you the same if you're not needed as much as you were before?
And what if things don't work out the way they did when you were in charge?
All that work and sacrifice so someone else can come in and mess it all up!
And so we convince ourselves we must remain in full control.
It's at this point that the ceiling of your organization just shrank down a few inches above your head.
It's also possible you soon find yourself in the shoes of Elon.
Because, if you have a good concept and things are going well, it's inevitable the business is going to eventually outgrow one person.
Elon said that if there were someone else that could do his job, he'd gladly hand over control.
But what he meant to and should have said was that he's now created a monster that only he knows how to control.
The mess has been made and only he knows where everything is to clean it up.
For someone to come in now, at this juncture in time, would indeed be quite a daunting challenge.
So, how can you avoid this pitfall?
I use this example because I think it's just as much our responsibility for us to learn from our idol's mistakes as it is from their triumphs.
Elon built Tesla around one person at the top...Elon.
If you want to be an effective leader, build people up around you so that you can take on the challenge together.
4. Always Seek Clarity Before Action
Startups are the Wild Wild West when it comes to how much things can change in such a short period of time.
One of the biggest mistakes I see founders make is constant pivoting.
They lunge at every new opportunity, give up on initiatives way too fast and systematically just don't go through the necessary process to make effective change.
That doesn't mean you sit on your hands and fail to act, it means you treat your business like a real organization.
Many big companies can take 18+ months to go through the process of just one new initiative.
And while I think that's what gives the "little guys" a competitive advantage, you also want to take note of the way they approach a big change.
Many meetings are held, first identifying the problem before throwing out solutions.
Multiple solutions are crafted and tested.
Once a final solution has been unearthed and formulated, an implementation strategy is put together.
This includes all necessary individuals involved with the effective roll-out and instructions for making the change.
It also includes effective dates for the new start.
Once initiated, they are prepared to test how successful the roll-out was.
Given these results, tweaks and revisions are made accordingly.
Startup founders, on the other hand, usually take a fly-by-night approach to these changes.
They wake up one morning with a new idea and then all of a sudden, out of the clear blue sky, expect everyone to just adopt this new practice.
That, or they just want to see how it would work.
And while I'm certainly not opposed to BETA testing, you need to approach it more systematically and as we referenced above.
The reason this made my Top 5 Rules is because founders end up firing some of their best talent when they get this wrong.
I'll give you a scenario.
I was a fly-by-night guy.
The way my brain operates is sometimes a scary place.
One million ideas all at the same time.
And so I expected others to just operate at the rampant pace.
And this isn't to say they're slow...it's to highlight how crazy entrepreneurs can be.
What I was visualizing in my mind was difficult to articulate.
And so my testings were never conducted as I had imagined the would.
Rather than recognizing the impossible task I was asking, I just blamed the individual responsible for that role.
"How do they not "get" what I'm saying!?"
I'd eventually find a replacement or run them off to a new job only to realize just how valuable they actually were.
I never gave them, nor the idea, a legitimate shot at success.
I also never involved them in the R&D phase so it was just a paycheck to them, not a chance to empower them and take ownership of their position.
When people are involved with change, the job becomes something bigger to them.
But when you just throw around all these crazy demands and expect them to get it perfectly on the first try, they start to become frustrated with you.
That, and they also stop taking your ideas seriously.
Because usually what happens is this half-thought ideas happen about 10 times per week.
So, you just become the boy who cried wolf in their eyes.
"Oh, this is just another one of his wild ideas," they say.
And what you then find is the business is stuck.
It desperately needs your innovation but you've created a friction that is now making it hard to see if this is a REAL thing or just ANOTHER thing.
Make sense?
Ideas are great, never lose that...
But ideas aren't worth a damn without strategy and execution.
Calm down, brainstorm, let your team help you and roll out your plans in initiatives whereby everyone is on the same page.
5. Never "Make It"
This rule applies to more than just leadership.
This is a mentality that can cause death to any organization.
When you've MADE it.
When you feel like you've learned all their is to know about leadership, your industry and how you guys are successful.
What got you here won't get you there, is the famous phrase I love to use.
Good, effective leaders are constantly evolving both themselves and the businesses they run.
Go back to my Blockbuster example.
They "made it" in their own eyes.
And in so doing, dismissed any notion that someone could knock them from their pedestal.
I see smaller companies do this quite frequently.
They hyper-focus on what's worked for them and lose their eye for innovation and evolution.
The best companies push their industries forward, they don't wait for them to change.
They ARE the change.
The thought leader is always the one that becomes the example by which everyone else aspires to be.
If you can master both, meaning what's working and what's going to work in the future, you will go far.
But, as the visionary leader of your firm, much of that is dictated by you.
Steve Jobs is the most obvious example of this.
Apple still sold computers, they always will.
But Steve had this idea of putting 15,000 songs in your pocket.
And then he had this idea to put all of your needed entertainment and functionality on your cellular device.
In so doing, he created the smart phone wave we've now seen for the past two decades.
He created an entirely new segment of the market, if not an entirely new market altogether.
But, guess what, Apple still sells Mac's and MacBooks.
And for you, it doesn't have to be a revolutionary product that ends up in the pockets of billions around the world.
You just have to be one step ahead of your industry or right there on the cutting edge of change.
So many leaders get lost in the shuffle of their work that they have no time to think and grow.
Hanging on for dear life would be a good way to describe their days.
But this is where you can dictate whether your company not only makes it but goes from a company of a few to a company of thousands.
Make sure to listen and subscribe to the podcast for more on this!
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Rocky Romanella, Author and Keynote Speaker, drops by to chat about his involvement with the Global UPS Store overhaul and his book on how to be an effective leader in a startup.
Resources:
Tighten the Lug Nuts: By Rocky Romanella
To learn more about Rocky, drop by 3sixtymanagementservices.com