The Kind Of Leadership Start-ups Need Right Now

The last few years have been nothing but crazy — pandemic, rebound(-ish), crypto crashes, inflation, and not least of all “Airmageddon” at Heathrow.

Please, someone make it stop. 🙈

But the last few years have also proven to be of the best lessons in good leadership. Whether we like it or not, we have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of our leaders — political, business or otherwise.

As someone who has the (dubious?) pleasure of being in some form of “middle management”, I have seen others be, and been, responsible for leading others. Sometimes I have been inspired. And sometimes I just wanted to close my eyes before I witness that train crash.

These are not cosy times, and whether due to economic dynamics, or because a company is scaling “super fast” (how many claim that to be the fastest growing now?), we are leading in a crisis situation. Nothing about this is regular. Nothing goes at “normal speed” or “according to plan.”

Here are a few things that the great crisis time leaders for our times do:

• they are hands on: regardless of title — C-level or VP level — most effective leaders purposefully design and re-learn their organization. They know they are operating in a crisis and dig in the right places, set the right frameworks and guardrails, help people in the trenches. Regardless of how fast their team and wider org has grown, they know what each of their team members does. What they don’t do is hide behind ego, and assume giving “autonomy” to their team will cut it. I will give you hint — it won’t.
• they are a part of a leadership team: they work well with their peers. This means they agree on and communicate common company strategy and goals. Noone in the teams sitting underneath another C-level doubts what’s being worked on, and has any competing incentives to undermine the work of other C-level’s team members. If a C-level says “Yes”, it means “Yes”, and other C-levels, and their teams know it. These leaders don’t say “Yes” for no reason, or due to wishful thinking. They scope, defend and grow the work of their teams.
• they are restless: they don’t assume what worked in their previous company works in the here and now. No matter whether they came from Uber, Salesforce, DoorDash, Dropbox, Snap, or Apple. They create fast feedback loops within their org. They once again scrutinize the data, create a strategy, and commit to its execution. Only after tests come in and new information is known do they change course. They don’t assume that “we are start up, therefore we can change strategy every week.” In due time, they scrutinize again, evolve the strategy… you get the point. They are steady with the general direction, and restless about how they deliver.

And a bonus…:

• they know when to say No: they make the hard decisions. With humanity.

I think the opportunity to lead others should not be taken lightly. We owe it to the people we lead — to the people whose livelihoods we hold in our hands — to be responsible and to look out for the best interest of the people we serve: our teams, and by extension our customers.

Now swallow that ego, roll up your sleeves, and lead on.