Leadership isn’t a skill that a founder should start thinking about after they’ve hired a full team and have their business in full swing, says Harvard Business School lecturer and Atlanta entrepreneur Archie Jones. Instead, it is something that entrepreneurs should start working on even when they are in the idea stage.
It all comes down to building your leadership capital with the Five “C”s, says Jones, founder of theleadership development firm NxGen Coach Network.
Here’s how Jones breaks down those Five “C”s:
Making It Work: Building Your Leadership Capital
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Capability (AKA, your superpower)
A founder can only lead a strong team if they themselves understand what individual strengths they bring to the table. Then the real talent comes from helping others teammembers figure out their own capabilities.
“Successful startup leaders not only need to recognize what [their] superpower is, [they] also have to recognize those in their team as well. And they have to start to find complementary skills and gifts,” said Jones.
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Culture
Defining company culture is something that is top of mind for later-stage startups and corporations. But the best founders are the ones that start defining that culture early.
For Jones, company culture isn’t just about figuring out PTO policies and whether or not you are going to have free snacks in the breakroom. Instead, culture should evolve from “melding together” all the assets that your people bring to the team.
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Communication
The most successful leaders are the ones that nail down their communication style, both inside and outside of the organization.
“There’s a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs to engage their team by having them tell the story that they’re excited about,” he added. “There’s also the external story of what you are telling the customers, your shareholders, and other stakeholders. And those two stories need to align. You can’t keep two separate stories.”
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Connection
The fourth C, connection, is all about leveraging relationships and figuring out when and where to partner with others.
“That’s probably the thing that’s most valuable for startup leaders,” Jones added. “They start with these big missions…and a huge total addressable market. [They’ve] got a big idea and a lot of opportunity. But they can’t get all of that by [themselves]. I think one of the things that we don’t talk about as often that’s usually wildly valuable for young organizations and leaders is leveraging partnerships.”
Jones added that it is important for entrepreneurs in the early stages to spend time with other entrepreneurs who are further along in the business journey than they are. Those people can serve as important informal advisors and coaches as an idea gets off the ground.
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Confidence
The last “C” Jones talks about is confidence. That means not only building confidence in yourself as an entrepreneur, but also instilling in your teams the confidence to take “entrepreneurial risks inside the organization” as a way to grow personally while also growing the business.
What Hurts The Most: Ineffective Communication
Even leaders with the best of intentions can get derailed. Jones said that in his experience, ineffective communication can be the biggest hindrance.
“It can start at the founding or CO founding level,” he added. “It can start with those tough conversations on how we’re going to divide and conquer the work, how we’re going to divide the equity or the upside…or what specific role and opportunities there are for new employees.”
Jones added that the startup leaders need to “get comfortable” with having these tough conversations early.
“These aren’t the type of things where you can kick the can down the road. It doesn’t get better over time.”
