My own leadership style has morphed over time. At the beginning, I was “CEO” but that was just a title to have a title. I was really just a co-founder with my friends.
Then we hired people. I started becoming more of the “CEO” that I thought I should be. Sometimes I would get advice (some good, some bad) on how to be a boss. And naturally my own cumulative set of experiences watching other bosses (both in real life and through Hollywood’s portrayal of bosses) had an impact.
Overtime, I have settled into the current structure, which relies more on strongly filtering incoming employees but then giving them as much autonomy as I can to do great things. Oftentimes they are uncomfortable initially with that much autonomy. This current structure is the right structure for our business because the caliber of people is so strong and a “bossy” environment would not produce a more productive outcome. Our people are self-starting already and all super talented. Relative salaries in our business compared to most startups I know are very high. It is just the nature of our work.
However, I have friends that run other types of startups. They need to hire lower-wage, less experienced people. The level of bossiness required in some of those businesses is much higher.
One friend recently sent me a link to this infographic (which I share because it is meant to be shared and attribution is at the bottom of the graphic) that is great about being a good boss. No matter the level of bossiness required in a startup, focus should be on creating a flourishing environment for the team.
What do you do to be a good boss?
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