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Leadership Lessons from an African Village Headman
When I think of southern Africa, I do not necessarily assume that there are leadership lessons that would be relevant to my U.S.-based entrepreneurial ecosystem. A close encounter and extended conversation with an African Village Headman showed me the brilliance of the solutions they are devising.
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Balancing Macro and Micro Elements
Successfully leading a startup involves paying attention to both the macro trends that define your field of play as well as the micro-actions required to successfully overcome the challenges before you. To succeed, startup leaders must be able to zoom in and out adroitly to keep both the big, out-of-your-control factors in mind, while focusing on those micro elements and…
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Evaluating CEOs
Evaluating employee performance has a certain framework, however, that framework is applied somewhat differently when assessing a startup CEO. A CEO is ultimately responsible for an organization's performance, so the core of a CEO evaluation is fundamentally an organizational evaluation.
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Critical Success Factor: Decision-Making
Startup leaders, especially CEOs, must be effective decision-makers because a huge portion of the job of leading a startup is making an avalanche of decisions in many domains and often with limited context. Decision-making is a skill that can be developed. Yet it also demands the confidence to decide even when context and information are limited. If you are not…
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What is that Light?
Catch Them Being Good
Critical Success Factor: Decision-Making
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Looking through the Keyhole
Investors and Board members can't fully understand a startup's intricate operations, akin to viewing through a keyhole. They should focus on crucial aspects rather than all details.
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The Why Behind
Getting everyone aligned and moving in the same direction is a critical startup leader responsibility and skill. Articulating the “why” behind the direction makes all the difference by supplying the underlying reasons, motivations, or rationales behind a particular direction, decision, proposal, or action.
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Opportunity Costs
The founding CEO of a startup always has more to do than they can fit into their available time – even if they are working every waking hour (which I do not recommend, by the way). That means one of the most significant success factors for such CEOs is their ability to consider opportunity costs and make wise decisions about…
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Drive, Intelligence, and Integrity
One of my favorite investors and mentors said that the essential characteristics he looks for in startup founders -- drive, intelligence, and integrity -- cannot be taught. That got me thinking about why those characteristics are essential to successful startup building and how we might recognize them.
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People Management for Startup Leaders
One of the greatest challenges of founding and growing a startup company is learning to manage a team of people to accomplish amazing things on a shoestring as fast as possible.
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The Value of Being Decisive
Being able to decide without all of the information you might wish for is a critical startup leadership skill. Often, a clear direction to move drives more value creation than taking time and resources to achieve an incrementally better decision.
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It Takes a Village to Build a Startup
A village combines the contributions of many people to build a functioning community, which is an excellent metaphor for what it takes to build a successful startup. And this Thanksgiving season, I am reflecting on how thankful I am for those who have joined the villages I have been part of.
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For Me, It’s Not Just Business
Startup CEOs come in different styles. For some, "it's just business." But, for many founder CEOs, it is far more than that as they pour all their passion into their startup and embody it profoundly. That embodied passion is often the activation energy that propels the startup out of the gate and onto a successful trajectory as it persuades others…
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What is that Light?
There are moments when you are not sure if what you see is a light at the end of a tunnel or an oncoming train.
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The Definition of a Leader
Leaders come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and styles. Some are more effective than others, but in its most fundamental form, the definition of a leader is someone who can attract followers.
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Executive Mindset
An executive mindset does not depend on the job title but on the ability to synthesize, direct, and know when to enforce and when to break the rules.
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Keeping Eyes on Your North Star
Finding the right north star for your startup's stage of development is a powerful focusing tool to maximize your progress.
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Celebrate!
Building a startup can be a long slog. Look for the moments to celebrate. For your and everyone else’s sake.
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Intentionally Empowering Each Other
One of the great aspects of being part of a high-performing team is how each member of the team intentionally contributes to empowering each other, which elevates both our collective process and our combined results.
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Driving for Speed with Finesse
Speed is one of the great advantages of small, talented, focused startup teams – and the driver of the racing startup vehicle is the CEO. Yet like racing, it is essential to drive with finesse to maximize speed while not spinning out of control.
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Play Strengths, Not Weaknesses
Our impulse is that we should improve upon our weaknesses, whether they are yours or your teammates. Sometimes our impulses are wrong.
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Catch Them Being Good
Carrots and honey beat sticks and vinegar every time. When leading a team, pay attention so you can catch them being good.
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The Most Important Thing
Successful startups focus on the most important thing: building a real and successful business.
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Good Leaders Define Reality
One of the critical roles of an effective leader is to define reality for the group they are leading. In doing so, they cast a vision for the future direction of the organization.
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Focus. Execute. Panic is Unhelpful.
The ability to control your reactions and execute under pressure is essential to successfully leading a startup.
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Connecting the Why
The most potent guiding star in sales, decision-making, and leadership is knowing, connecting, and communicating the why.
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Focus Means Saying No
Everyone knows that maintaining focus is essential to startup success, yet distractions are both tempting and endless. A vital tool for the startup leader’s toolbox is the ability to say no.
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The Shift from Hiring Generalists to Hiring Specialists in a Startup
At inception, the founding team of a startup must be small, but mighty. As the company grows, a shift occurs as the team reaches critical mass, and it becomes feasible to start hiring specialists. Recognizing this new stage of growth is essential.
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For Today’s Startup Problem-Solving, Are We Cooking or Baking?
The work of building a startup varies. Sometimes it is more like cooking. Sometimes it is more like baking. Pick the right skill set for the job at hand.
