Effective leadership is critical to the success of any startup, guiding the team through the challenges of product creation, iteration, growth and inevitable challenging periods…
Developing strong leadership within your startup requires a focused approach to nurturing essential skills and attributes so that your leaders reflect your values, preferred ways of working and ambitions.
"The most important thing is the founder(s) take leadership development seriously. It’s sometimes that case that founders themselves aren’t that good at the leadership part, so accommodations need to be made if this is the case to ensure the pipeline of high quality leaders."
Roxana Dobrescu, Chief People Officer
at Commercetools, Brighteye Mentor
1. Understanding Leadership Roles in Startups
There are three key types of leaders within startups:
Founders and Executives: Key decision-makers setting the vision, strategy, culture and direction of the startup.
Team Leads and Managers: Individuals responsible for guiding and supporting teams to achieve project and organisational goals.
Emerging Leaders: High-potential employees identified for future leadership roles and responsibilities.
Top Tip: Once they’re identified, you should prioritise their retention and ensure their access to senior level meetings when appropriate, so they are able to build their confidence in senior level situations and also their familiarity with what you expect of your leaders.
2. Identifying Leadership Competencies
A ‘leader’s’ profile will vary within each company, but there are several common traits you would expect in your leadership pool:
Visionary Thinking: Ability to set a clear and compelling vision for the future, inspiring and aligning the team towards common goals.
Strategic Planning: Skills in developing and implementing strategic plans to achieve organisational objectives.
Decision-Making: Proficiency in making informed, timely, and effective decisions, even under uncertainty.
Top Tip: Jeff Bezos is renowned for his assessment of leaders’ roles: ‘leaders and senior level execs are paid a lot of money to make a small number of important, high-quality decisions. You want people in these roles that will make the right calls every time, or as frequently as possible, based on the information available at the time of the decision.
Communication: Strong verbal and written communication skills to articulate ideas, provide feedback, and foster open dialogue.
Emotional Intelligence: Awareness and management of one's own emotions and the ability to empathise with and motivate others.
"I’ve spoken to founders in the past that thought they could learn leadership by reading a book over a weekend - it does not work like this! It’s also the case that you can be a great manager but a terrible leader, with a horrible culture. If the CEO is understanding that leaders are change agents and catalysts/ accelerators for the organisation’s development, then progress will definitely be made."
Roxana Dobrescu, Chief People Officer
at Commercetools, Brighteye Mentor
3. Leadership Development Programs
Aspiring and existing leaders want to feel trusted and like you’re invested in their development. You should provide development opportunities for all team members (future leaders don’t always reveal themselves at the same time!), but you should provide particularly coherent and practical opportunities for your leaders.
Workshops and Seminars: Organise regular workshops and seminars focused on leadership topics such as strategic planning, decision-making, and emotional intelligence.
Mentorship Programs: Pair emerging leaders with experienced mentors who can provide guidance, support, and insights into effective leadership practices.
Leadership Courses: Encourage participation in online or in-person leadership courses and certification programs to enhance leadership skills.
"From a practical perspective, how do you ensure that the next wave of leaders stay close as a group and learn from each other? They need to understand that they are part of a peer group in other functions, as opposed to part of their function - i.e. the head of finance needs to see their team as the heads of product, of marketing, etc. These are the people on your level that you need to be working with on collective goals. For many people, this realisation needs to click - it becomes an A-HA moment that leadership development groups need to be working as groups and not only in their silos.
This works best when you’re at a scale where you’re big enough to have leaders of all teams that are capable of functioning without the full focus of the leader because they need space to focus on collective projects. To activate these teams, you can host monthly leadership meetings, all-hands for leaders and off-sites for leaders. It’s important to make sure your aspiring leaders are involved in decision-making processes as early as possible so they can build a leadership community around company goals.'
Roxana Dobrescu, Chief People Officer
at Commercetools, Brighteye Mentor
4. On-the-Job Leadership Experience
Leaders gradually take on more responsibility, often meaning broadened responsibility of teams both within their immediate function and sometimes in adjacent functions. It’s important they are equipped to lead these cross-functional teams by the time the opportunity arises. How can you facilitate these opportunities?
Role Rotation: Implement role rotation programs where employees can gain experience in different functions and develop a holistic understanding of the organisation.
Project Leadership: Assign emerging leaders to lead key projects or initiatives, providing them with opportunities to demonstrate and refine their leadership capabilities.
Cross-Functional Teams: Create cross-functional teams for specific projects, allowing leaders to collaborate with diverse groups and broaden their perspectives.
"In our case, we have a central leadership map - this represents a literal development map for leaders. The North Star of the company is on the map. It’s designed to make them accountable, without telling them what to do - simply to point them in the right direction."
Roxana Dobrescu, Chief People Officer
at Commercetools, Brighteye Mentor
5. Feedback and Continuous Improvement
Feedback is essential to coherent personal and professional development. Your leaders will be capable enough to evolve their approaches and styles of leadership in response to feedback – they will also likely be very keen on feedback because of their keenness to develop and advance in your business.
360-Degree Feedback: Utilise 360-degree feedback tools to gather comprehensive feedback on leaders' performance from peers, subordinates, and supervisors.
Regular Check-Ins: Schedule regular one-on-one meetings between leaders and their supervisors to discuss progress, challenges, and development goals.
Personal Development Plans: Collaborate with leaders to create personalised development plans that outline specific goals, actions, and timelines for leadership growth.
"We like to measure our leaders - this involves coming up with a simple leadership scorecard. This can vary in your case depending on the maturity of the organisation. You can choose some metrics that align with your priorities - in the team-focused section, indicators could be regrettable vs. Non-regrettable turnover, mention of key staff, ENPS, span of control, promotion rate, and leadership satisfaction, among others. We track these quarterly - we would expect you to have taken measures to address issues if scores have worsened for two consecutive quarters. The scorecards at a macro level can be discussed at the CEO level."
"For a startup tackling these areas, I would keep it super simple. If you have less than 100 employees, I would start with a fun 360 that is built by individual team members, using their own typeform account or similar. Then, they can get feedback on key strengths, weaknesses and broader feedback. When I’ve done this previously, we would self-appointment experts based on identified strengths - for example, if time management was a key strength, you’d become the time management expert! Everyone would be an expert in one of their key strength. This way, you avoid needing a fancy trainer immediately- you can save this for a future day… You can also find great people in your network to support these sessions - people are often keen to impart their expertise, so give them the chance!"
Roxana Dobrescu, Chief People Officer
at Commercetools, Brighteye Mentor
6. Fostering a Leadership Culture
A leader’s (growth) mindset is not the reserve of existing senior leaders. You will want to foster and empower your team to be strong and independent contributors. Building an intentional leadership culture should aid your identification of possible leaders.
Lead by Example: Encourage current leaders to model the behaviours and values they wish to see in others, setting a positive example for the team.
Empowerment and Delegation: Promote a culture of empowerment where leaders delegate to members of their and to each other to ensure that strengths are played to.
7. Addressing Leadership Challenges
Leading a startup is rarely plain sailing, so your leaders need to be resilient to challenges and willing to rise to challenges as they arise.
Conflict Resolution: Train leaders in conflict resolution techniques to handle team disputes and maintain a positive work environment.
Change Management: Equip leaders with change management skills to navigate the startup through periods of growth, pivots, and other transitions.
Stress Management: Provide resources and support for leaders to manage stress and maintain their well-being.
8. Measuring Leadership Development Success
To make informed decisions on your future leaders, it’s helpful to develop a leadership rubric that helps you select the most appropriate leaders for your growing business.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Define KPIs to measure leadership effectiveness, such as team performance, employee engagement, and retention rates.
Feedback Surveys: Conduct regular surveys to gather feedback on leadership development programs and their impact on the organization.
Success Stories: Document and share success stories of leadership development within the startup to inspire and motivate others.
Developing strong leadership within a startup is essential for navigating challenges, driving growth, and fostering a positive and productive work environment. By identifying key leadership competencies, implementing structured development programs, providing practical experience, fostering a leadership culture, offering continuous feedback, addressing challenges, and measuring success, startups can cultivate effective leaders who will guide their teams to success.
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