Authoritative

How do we recognize leaders? Often, it is the fact that they speak authoritatively, which flows from their confidence, decision-making, and vision-casting. This matters in startups because all startup stakeholders are looking for someone who will hopefully lead an extraordinary value-creation process. 

Organizations depend on strong leaders to direct them along their path. Yet, what does leadership look like? How do we recognize it? Perhaps one of the strongest markers of a corporate leader is being authoritative as they chart a course and encourage their team and stakeholders to follow and grow along with them. Authoritative leaders motivate their followers, provide clear direction, and help everyone get the job done.

Underpinnings

So let us break down what the underpinnings of an authoritative leadership capability are:

• Visionary – Essential to leading is being able to discern the right path to take. This demands possessing the vision and the dynamic ability to react when the situation changes. We rely on leaders to clearly see where we should go, and to know why that is the right direction.
  
  
• Expertise and Experience – Discerning a direction depends, in part, on having relevant domain expertise and experience. No one is born knowing a particular business landscape well enough to chart a successful path. Part of successful startup leadership is being able to learn enough about the crucial factors in a new area to see the contours of the potential opportunity and then being able to figure out what steps are needed to capitalize on that opportunity. Relevant expertise, transferrable experience, the ability to learn and integrate critical new information quickly, and translate all of that into a path forward is all enabled by what the leader brings to the table that enables them to decide and speak with authority.
   
• Goal-focused and Driving – A leader must discern and prioritize competing goals, and then be able to motivate and drive the team towards accomplishing critical milestones. Often the pace is set by the leader’s sense of urgency and prioritization decisions, so this is a essential element of an authoritative leader that others look to for deciding what and how to accomplish the critical path at hand.

• Decisive – Once the leader has identified potential directions, often with input from others, making a clear decision is essential. It is a failure of leadership to leave the situation muddy and confusing, so the ability to define and then decide between competing options is critical. This is especially true when the terrain is often foggy and confusing.
  
  
• Clear, Effective Communicator with a Strong sense of Self-Confidence and Executive Presence – A person may have vision, expertise and experience, be decisive, and goal-focused, but if they cannot communicate clearly and with a strong sense of self-confidence and executive presence, they will struggle to motivate others to follow their lead. Speaking clearly and with conviction is the essence of being an authoritative leader – and what investors, potential team members, customers, and other stakeholders look for when asking themselves if they trust this individual to lead the charge.

If the underpinnings above do not come naturally to you, consider strengthening these characteristics and deepening your background so that you can exhibit them in a way that others recognize and are willing to follow. You will know that you are there when others willingly jump on your train and seek to become part of this grand adventure, and it will help you as you seek to recruit team members, investors, and customers to your cause. 

On the other hand, If these underpinnings are really not you, then perhaps you might be a better fit in a different role in the startup. If you are a founder, then perhaps you consider recruiting a co-founder or an experienced CEO who can bring authoritative leadership to bear on building success.

Pitfalls

Assuming you have the authoritative leadership capability I have just described, consider being aware of and intentional about managing the following related pitfalls. While there are significant advantages to having a robust and authoritative leader at the helm of a startup, those very strengths also come with some downsides:

• Overwhelm and Intimidate – An authoritative leader can often easily overwhelm those with quieter, more reflective personalities. Authoritative leaders are often comfortable extroverts who think on their feet. Yet the very speed of their verbal processing and the authority with which they declare their decisions can overwhelm someone with a gentler, more thoughtful personality.  Do that too much and you will quickly find that some members of your team just opt out of contributing their insights. This can create dangerous information gaps and lead to mistakes. Overcoming this tendency requires intentionally pausing, seeking and taking the time to digest contrary input, and being very aware of differences in thinking and communication styles. Valuing these diverse approaches can allow the leader to reap the benefits of the team being greater than the individual.
  
  
• Impatience with More Considered Decision Processes – One of the advantages of an authoritative leader is that they tend to decide quickly and drive intensively toward the next critical path goal. This can mean that they run roughshod over those on their team who see a need to gather more facts, consider a range of alternatives, and approach decisions more analytically. Sometimes, a slower pace will result in better decisions, so striving for a balance here is important. Do not habitually drive forward, especially when there is a window of opportunity to gather more information and make potentially more nuanced decisions. Be intentional about checking in with those around you who approach problem-solving differently and take advantage of their more thorough approach when possible and appropriate.
  
  
• Empower Trusted Colleagues – It is common for authoritative leaders to be a bit oblivious to how they are impacting others around them. One way to combat this pattern is to identify a trusted and aware colleague or two who can be on the lookout for some of the downsides of a driving authoritative leader and ask them to alert you if they see some of these pitfalls emerging. Empower them to interrupt the flow and take a lead role in pushing back on the authoritative leader to make sure the organization is getting to the best result. Often such a colleague will need to have strong confidence themselves so that they feel comfortable stepping in to redirect in real-time. This will demand trust and discipline on the part of the authoritative leader so that they can respond constructively in the moment.

Authoritative leaders are rightly sought after for startups and, to a degree, these skills can be developed. However, authoritative leaders should also be aware that the very characteristics are a double-edged sword that they need to manage with awareness and intentionality so that their strength does not turn into an organizational weakness.