Which leadership archetype are you?
Recently, WeWork announced the appointment of Sandeep Mathrani as its new CEO. As much as this change appears to be the culmination of a chaotic series of events for a troubled startup, this type of change is pretty typical among startups. In the life of a company, it’s common for the leadership change from builders, to managers, to fixers. As founder, it’s important to understand these archetypal roles in order to ensure the right people are on the team at the right time.
In most companies, the founders are the builder archetype. Builders are obsessed with creating solutions or solving problems. Builders have intense creativity and an innate need to act on it. For example, Bill Gates had an early vision of a PC on every desk. Even today, he’s focused on solving some of the world’s most challenging problems from sanitation to vaccination. As featured in the Netflix documentary, Inside Bill’s Brain, Gates has always focused on creating the future. The ability to envision the next iteration of an industry or an experience and then craft solutions to deliver that vision is at the core of most builders.
Once the solution has been crafted, scaling becomes more about implementing process and cultivating a culture. As a company evolves from disruptor to industry standard, the demands on products and services change. Customers demand improvement, not paradigm change. This is usually left to managers who are adept at driving consistency. Often, this shift requires making a leadership change because builders are stifled by maintenance mode. When Steve Ballmer took over for Bill Gates as CEO, his role was to maniacally manage the bellcow operating systems and productivity products while Gates returned his focus to product. Managers excel at maintaining, and even expanding, on the foundation laid by the builders, but need existing groundwork to succeed.
As exemplified by the Ballmer era at Microsoft, maintenance, without innovation, will eventually erode market share. As such, there will come a time when the manager gives way to the fixer. The fixer is equal parts builder and manager. This archetype can adroitly identify problem areas in the business and devise solutions to address them, like a builder. Likewise, they have the management skill to deliver change in an established culture. In most cases, this doesn’t mean a complete reboot, but it does mean substantive changes to culture and strategy. Satya Nadella has returned Microsoft to dominance by fixing what was broken. From company culture to its view on innovation, Nadella has adjusted the approach for Microsoft to thrive again without abandoning core offerings like operating systems and productivity.
For Microsoft, the progression from builder to fixer spanned four decades. For WeWork, it happened in less than one and skipped a manager. The progression isn’t what’s important, it’s understanding that the needs of a company will change over time and the people that it needs will as well. Founders must understand what archetype they fill, add complementary team members, and give way gracefully. Gates smoothly passed the baton to Ballmer, but the transition from Ballmer to Nadella was bumpy. Be aware of your personal skillset so you can engineer the Gates to Ballmer transition, not the Adam Neumann to Sandeep Mathrani rip and replace.
