January 10th

Transitioning from management to leadership

A mentor and I recently had a great conversation about leadership at a startup versus leadership at a mature company. In a nutshell, it’s hard to be a leader at a startup, and it’s not solely because of inexperience. It’s all about the environment. When your company of three is just getting started and you’re wearing twenty five different hats, deeply involved in every one, it’s very difficult to lead effectively.

Here’s a breakdown comparing the key differences in leadership at a startup and leadership at a mature company:

Startup:
  • Consciously incompetent
    You know nothing. You know you know nothing. You’re learning as fast as you can.
  • Smart
    When you make a mistake, you can figure out how to fix it quickly.
  • Long hours
    18-hour days with no break are regular occurrences.
  • High risk tolerance
    You’re used to the roller coaster and can commit to decisions despite the risk being high, or unknown.
  • Short-term focus
    Your thoughts center on things like, “how do we make payroll next month?”
  • Tactical
    You’re wearing many hats and are knee-deep in each department.
  • Self-centered
    The company represents you, and you’re focused solely on growing it.
  • Manager
    You make decisions when you’re forced to, rather than deciding at will.
  • Multi-tasking
    Many hats. Many, many hats. Simultaneously.
Mature company:
  • Consciously competent
    You’re deciding when to execute, why and how, confidently.
  • Wise
    Your decisions are based on experience, not solely on your smarts.
  • Works in spurts
    Productivity is peppered with sections of deep thought, walks, contemplation on where to go next.
  • Calculated risks
    A decision that goes wrong has a more measured effect on the company, so every decision is made carefully.
  • Longer term focus
    Making decisions today that will affect the company three, five, ten years from now.
  • Strategic
    Big-picture thinking, delegating tasks instead of being knee-deep in them.
  • Develops others
    Identifying others to take the lead on major aspects of the company and helping them achieve their goals.
  • Defined role
    Your have a single role: leader.

If things are going well, things should naturally transition into a leadership role. The key indicators that you’ve successfully crossed the chasm:

  1. You’re delegating more than doing things yourself.
  2. You spend most of your time developing others in their roles.
  3. Your role is defined (i.e. one hat).

My company is absolutely still in startup mode, but it’s exciting to see the transition happening in some areas already; glimpses of what’s coming down the road.