True leaders realize that, by definition, the word "leader" places the leader at the front, and not the rear. Yet many, many executives try to lead through fear and intimidation. This isn’t really leading at all. It’s pushing. In startups, leading from the front means that you are not afraid to get your hands dirty, pitching in to get the job done.
True entrepreneur leaders see the big picture and recognize that their startup is only a small piece of a much bigger community. They lead their own small community to pull together in a way that galvanizes the entire ecosystem of the market into a win for both sides.
For maximum leverage, every leader has to learn how to delegate. Delegation is a great skill to have, but you also have to lead effectively to earn the right to use it. Intimidating or berating other team members from a position of power isn’t delegation or leadership.
In every startup, people are expected to wear multiple hats, each and every day. An effective leader that wears many hats easily creates loyalty. This is a quality that cannot be bought or bullied. Loyalty must be earned, and startup executives who earn it generally do the following:
- Communicate and demonstrate a clear sense of purpose
- Provide great coaching, mentoring, and tutoring
- Encourage, recognize, and reward achievement
- Ensure credit is given where credit is due
- Be consistently dependable and knowledgeable
- Demonstrate accessibility to everyone
- Treat people fairly
- Listen well
- Show patience and humility
- Helpful and quick to expedite important matters
- Prove loyalty by standing up for the team, defending them to other constituents, and when necessary, to customers
Funny thing about loyal team members - they respond very well to being led from the front. Your team’s level of motivation and attention to detail is always going to have a fairly direct correlation to your ability to keep things moving forward, despite the cyclone spinning around you.
People will make mistakes, so accept it now - certain tasks, even critical ones, can get lost in the noise. The 100% solution is never attainable - so forget about. Strive for 90% and try to get that part right. The rest will come in time.
Communicate effectively and constantly with your team. No news is not good news in times of crisis. Tell the truth even when it hurts. Don’t be caught stuck to your chair while the storm is swirling around you. You must stay on top of everything and everyone. And guess what, you will miss things, too. Get over it.
Unfortunately, a crisis often drives leaders to retreat behind closed doors instead of advancing to the source of the problem. They withdraw to their desk, get inundated with data, overwhelmed by numbers and lose the connection with their people. If one of your executives fits this mold, you need to get rid of them. Otherwise they will kill you in the end, one way or another.
Leadership is about being visible and setting the right example out front on the firing line, in good times, as well as times of crisis. There is no place for the bully, who fails to take the feelings of others into account and insists on his or her way, and no place for the tyrant, who feels superior and needs to rule the roost.
