Entrepreneurs often fail to take their startups beyond a certain point mostly because they fail to transition to a leader. A leader has to display qualities which at times may seem opposite to the things that had made entrepreneurs successful so far. This may seem counter-intuitive but in corporate world entrepreneurs have a hard time changing. The biggest change needed for a company to grow is to bring about change in the founders. They need to bring a lot of change in their way of working to take their dream to the next level.

A few key traits that they have to focus on are:

Trust: They need to give up control. Period. This is the biggest change they have to grapple with. In the initial stages the founders know everything, take all the major decisions. As the company grows the decision making gets more widespread and the founders have a feeling that they are losing control over their company. They have to fight the urge to take back all the control and keep the decisions to themselves.

 

Walk the talk: Often the entrepreneur bring in outside talent with promises to give them big responsibilities. But when it comes to actually executing work they want to be kept ‘informed’ of all big decisions. Another example is the values and culture of the organisation. Often the founders openly display behaviors which counter the values and culture which they want their employees to embody. All these result in employees getting disillusioned when their leaders do not walk the talk.

 

Patience: In a startup environment things happens at breath-taking speed, as companies mature the pace may feel sluggish. Any entrepreneur must not push his team too much to deliver results. Often we have seen in the mad rush to grow companies’ compromise on quality and their processes. We are seeing this in all ecommerce companies in India be it Flipkart, Snapdeal or Lenskart. They are now concentrating on quality of customers, rather than just the quantity. No more GMV is the Holy Grail but the cost to serve, revenue per FTE are metrics they have started looking at. Entrepreneurs need to learn that they are running a marathon not a sprint.

 

Motivate: Most of the population in the startup are self-motivated people who do not need constant inspiration and motivation. These guys are usually problem solvers who would jump in at any time things seem out of control. Larger organisations have people who are of different demographics some of whom need constant motivation. A leader has to step out of his shell and inspire these people to keep on working.

 

Delegation: This is one skill which most of the entrepreneur lack in hugely. They hesitate to push responsibility done the organisation as they see this as weakening of their control. Entrepreneurs need to understand they will not be hands on and know detail of everything in their company. They will have to hire experts from outside and hold them accountable for delivering. They should not jump at every crisis and start firefighting themselves, instead they should hold people accountable as per their position. This will also instill confidence in the employees and they will start owning their portions. 

These are some of my ramblings, what are your thoughts? What should I add to the list, any big items I am missing from here? Have you ever noticed any trait which entrepreneurs lack but is an important one for leadership – please share it in the comments section below.

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