Leveraging Your Natural Leadership Style
The Three Pillars of Leadership
As your startup grows it becomes critical that you scale your leadership by understanding and refining your leadership style. This will become crucial for survival and success. The journey of a startup founder is both exhilarating and daunting, filled with visions of changing the world but also riddled with pitfalls that can derail even the most promising ventures.
At the heart of effective leadership lie three critical pillars: Visionary Evangelist, Relationship Builder, and Manager of Execution. Each represents a distinct set of skills and attributes that, when balanced, can propel a startup to unprecedented heights.
Best Leader Traits
Cluster into 3 Groups
Visionary Evangelist
Relationship Builder
Manager of Execution
Visionary Evangelists Capbabilities
- Decisiveness with good judgment
- Holding people accountable
- Dependability
- Developing structures, systems and processes
- Emphasizing excellence
Visionary Evangelists - Thier Strengths
- Create motivation with their excitement, enthusiasm and optimism, charisma and ability to communicate and influence people
- Take charge and assume a leadership role when they see a problem or opportunity
- Confident risk takers and change agents who are willing to challenge the status quo
- Paint a vision of possibilities and high level strategy
- Showing people how they will make a dent in the universe
- Feel destined to accomplished great things and are willing to work hard to make a difference
- Encourage followers to keep going when the going gets tough
- Curious learners who bubble with creative ideas
Visionary Evangelists - Thier Weaknesses
- Overly optimistic risk takers who fail to consider what might go wrong
- When focused on their own agenda, can be insensitive and inconsiderate
- Stubborn and don’t always listen or accept input from others
- Often micromanagers who have difficulty empowering others
- Nonconformists who dislike rules, boundaries and social convention
- Can be overly impractical and unrealistic about external competitors and threats
- Frequently fail to follow-through, meet commitments and bring their ideas to fruition
- Often will let things emerge rather than defining expectations clearly
Relationship Builders Capbabilities
- Inspirational role model
- Agent of change
- Taking initiative
- Visionary thinking
- Strategic focus
- Model of commitment
- Praise and recognition
- Self-confidence
Relationship Builders - Thier Strengths
- Create a “family” feeling and strong teamwork by encouraging cooperation, mutual trust, open communication, harmony and creating a sense of “shared fate”
- The “heart” of every organization: put people before task and profit
- Friendly and approachable: value, care about and enjoy people, supportive
- Socially astute: understand what makes people tick
- Diplomatic and build effective partnerships and alliances
- Listen, solicit input, adapt and encourage sharing of ideas
- Know how to get employee buy-in and engagement
- Masters of getting people to like them and building relationships
- Sensitive to employee and customers needs, concerns and perspectives
- Trusting and trustworthy: Try to do the right thing and believe others will do the same
- See the best in people bring it out through praise, support and coaching
- Build followership and personal loyalty by showing they understand and care
- Easygoing, happy, upbeat and even-tempered
Releationship Builders - Thier Weaknesses
- Focus on creating harmonious relationships not getting results
- Too nice: compassion and need to be liked makes it hard for them to be demanding, say “no” and make tough people decisions
- Too tolerant of poor performance and don’t hold people accountable: Too trusting, patient and accepting
- Not creative: Avoid rocking the boat and disruptions of status quo, too conforming and accommodating
- More focused on the organizational “family” than on marketplace
- Make poor presentations: don’t take the time to reflect and give serious thought
- Avoid conflict: strong aversion to disharmony and displeasing people
- Not forceful, take-charge leaders
Managers of Execution: Capabilities
- Building teams
- Creating buy-in
- Building partnerships
- Forthrightness
- Model of Values
- Relationship building
- Informational sharing
- Sensitivity and consideration
- Organizational awareness
Managers of Execution - Thier Strengths
- Focused on getting results
- Superb tactical planners who clarify expectations, goals, roles, milestones and metrics
- Good administrators: efficient, focused, organized, purposeful
- Excel at bringing structure, control and organization to the enterprise
- Dependable, steady and methodical: determined to meet their commitments
- Decisive: make clear-cut, fact-based, rational, tough decisions
- Establish systems and processes to ensure efficiency and quality
- Sweat the details: persistent, rigorous and precise
- Good judgment: pragmatic realists, rarely impulsive or reckless
- Dedicated, committed and very hard working
- Values-driven: conscientious and responsible boy/girl scouts
- High standards of excellence: demanding and hold people accountable
- Take charge; it’s their duty
Managers of Execution- Thier Weaknesses
- Extreme focus on task and results often causes insensitivity and damaged relationships
- Often misread people and organizational/political dynamics
- Can be overly demanding and critical
- Lack diplomacy and awareness of the impact of their behavior and decisions on others
- Can be micromanagers who are obsessed with control and don’t delegate or empower
- Can be stubborn and don’t always accept feedback or listen to input
- Prone to emotional outbursts and unproductive confrontations when people don’t meet their expectations
- Have trouble tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty
- Can see change as a threat
- Tunnel-vision: so focused on the details that miss big picture
- “My way or the highway”
- Too conservative and risk-averse
- Lack creativity
- Create stress and burnout: drive themselves and others too hard
