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Startups are a complex and often overlooked aspect of organizational performance. The intersection of entrepreneurship with a young, passionate workforce is what makes a promising business venture possible with strong leadership. Startup teams need more specific leadership qualities than established corporations because they have limited financial and human resources, fewer experienced employees, and are often under high time pressure.
How can startup CEOs optimize their leadership style to maximize company performance?
1. Develop and Maintain A Clear Vision
Philosophy is the foundation of every successful startup. It’s the reason why the company exists and what purpose it serves. It is the basis of the company, providing direction, focus, alignment, and unity. While anyone can have a great idea from the beginning, few people are able to properly curate it.
Communicating a company vision to your workforce clearly often and simply is the most important step to fostering it. This will help employees feel connected to the company as well as their work. This also assures lower-level employees that they are making an impact and thereby increases morale, productivity, and positive company culture.
CBInsights’ study found that a strong company vision can help prevent burnout and passion – two of the main reasons for failed startups. A strong vision creates meaning for the team and gives them purpose. This vision supports leaders and employees as they navigate through the uncertainty of increasing workloads and new challenges.
Additionally, eventually has to delegate responsibility and leadership positions. At that point, founder-CEOs will be asked, “Who understands the company, where it is going, and how it needs to get there?” Delegating leadership is like establishing pillars on unstable foundations. This can lead to failure and collapse.
2. Strategic Failure is to be Accepted
My most successful startup leaders have learned that failure is inevitable. They don’t avoid failure but instead face it. Success is not something that can be avoided.
One of the most critical aspects of starting a startup is a strategic failure. CBInsights reported that a lack of funding is one of the main causes of venture business failures 38%. There are many reasons why investors may leave. It all comes down to faith. Inexperienced founders need to practice their pitching skills in the field to instill faith in their startup vision.
Young founders make a common error when seeking funding. They pursue the largest investors from the beginning. They should instead start small and pitch as many investors as possible. This will almost certainly lead to more failures, but it gives young leaders insight, experience, and confidence at a lower risk. Because they made failure their friend, they will be ready to pitch investors who matter most.
3. Eliminate The Ego
Eliminating their egos from the startup equation is another major obstacle for young founder-CEOs. Many founder-CEOs have worked hard on their ideas for years. They are used to taking 100% of the responsibility so that each task and every decision is personal. Once the company is established, however, it cannot be all about them. This inflated sense that individualism can lead to disharmony and team problems, which is why 18% of startup fails.
Being a team player is essential for a successful startup and a motivated workforce. Great startup leaders learn early to stop being so self-centered and realize that they cannot do it all. They share responsibility instead of hoarding it. They create clear managerial hierarchies to avoid competing egos. However, they treat all employees like co-entrepreneurs, allowing them to share responsibility and showing trust in their team.
Only the company can survive if the ego has been removed. A company’s workforce is what makes it great, from its C-level executives down to the analysts and their assistants. In startups, it is the responsibility of the leader to invest in their employees. This means that you must adopt elements of a transformational leader. This methodology was first introduced in 1978 by James Macgregor. It includes an element called individual consideration. This quality is embraced by leaders who embrace mentorship, care for each employee, and encourage growth and development. This is how great leaders in startups can improve company performance and culture through personal engagement.
Most entrepreneurs today neglect to contextualize and consider their leadership practices. Perhaps this is because it seems too simple or irrelevant when compared with more pressing startup issues like market alignment and product efficiency. However, successful entrepreneurs know better. They have a clear vision and embrace failure. They are able to take full responsibility for their actions and use them to improve the performance of investors, employees, and organizations. They realize that startups can be very delicate structures and that every move they make could spell the difference between success and failure. They all fall under leadership.
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