Leadership Skills for Startup Founders: Effective Communication with an adaptive Leadership Style

Effective Communication and Team Alignment

Communication is the most important task of being an entrepreneur. As the founder you always know where you want to get to, you are months and years ahead of your team. Keep that in mind when communicating with your team which is probably dealing with the challenges of today.

 

“If you’re a founder, you’re already way ahead in your mind. A big learning is to stay communicating clearly about the challenges of today with your team, and about tomorrow with your stakeholders” Desmond Boateng, CEO DGTLbase

 

A big learning is that Internal communication is usually not done well enough when scaling up. Founders are often overwhelmed with rapid growth and are not doing enough focused internal communication. Do this instead:

•  Be clear towards the team – even though you think you might be clear, sharpen and simplify your message even further. This takes time. It’s time well spent.
• Ask more open questions – Listen as much as possible.
• Go with people individually through important information. If people don’t understand the WHY behind big changes, the changes won’t be implemented. 
• Tailor the Message to the people. The better you know them, the better you can deliver the message.
• Continuously remind people where you are going. Repetition is key.. Kicking off each meeting with: What are our values? What is our mission?

 

Often founders refer to 2 different stories they are telling. One is towards investors. It’s about the future, the high-level product roadmap, and all the great things they want to achieve. The other one is internally, towards the team. Which is more honest and focuses on daily challenges and how to reach the next milestone. Be clear about when you tell which story. Both stories are equally true. Therefore be careful which story you start to believe more.

 

As a leader, you have to be the buffer between the stress/panic from investors and calm execution in your team. You have to absorb the chaos and pressure and not hand it through to your team. Communicate often, but keep a steady course without conflicting priorities for the team. 

 

Adapting Leadership Styles and Authenticity

I once learned that “There is no such thing as leading teams, there is only leading individuals”. The individual relationships you have with each team member, the board, investors, and your own leadership team are what is at the core of leadership. Always be yourself, do not fake it, but adjust your skills and the messaging to your audience. 

This means, that you have to Adjust your leadership style to who is in front of you. You need to know each person you want to lead personally. Ask yourself what drives them? What does their home situation look like? If you don’t know, ask!

 

“Leadership is the most over-talked thing in history. The one thing you need to remember about leadership is ultimately to stay yourself. Don’t try and become the type of leader that you’re not.” Mark Seall

 

Andreas Fischler, an experienced founder, said: “I give them full freedom and trust. No limits. They come to me to share updates or to check when they feel uncomfortable with a decision”.