“So how do you know when you’ve got the right team around you?”
prove their leadership selves, and one of the most proven ways to do that is to find a mentor. A great leader/mentor who’s walked the road you’re on, can truly help you fore- see issues that would have perhaps blindsided you before. Obviously, needing a mentor is tantamount to saying that you don’t have all the answers, which contrary to popular opinion, can also be very freeing for a leader. Asking for help is seldom easy, but getting guidance and advice in tough situations can be vital. There are also formal train- ing programs for leadership that can pay huge dividends, (literally, too!) especially those where roleplay is involved. Practicing effective communication, working on those soft skills, while proactively sharing knowledge for the benefit of others and the company, provides huge benefits, not the least of which is greater trust from your employees. And here’s the scenic two-way street of trust: it enhances the quality of followership and inspires gratitude, which in turn boosts the confidence of new leadership. Check! Team matters. (The right team) The small quadrant of Mr. Venn’s diagram that entrepre- neurs and experienced company executives share, falls into the “plays well with others” category, in that both have realized the value of a good team. For the entre- preneur it’s possible that the folks who spent months hunkered in the ideation lab were a near and dear crew, friends from school or close associates who came together around building something cool. Special bonds are often formed in this scenario, comrades in innovation, trade secrets crafted, a close-held process developed with great hopes for the future. Powerful stuff, that got the project off the ground and on the way to the next level. The question then becomes — is this the team for the next level? Sadly, and often, it’s not necessarily true. As company’s grow, necessary roles are defined based
are required to be evangelists for the cause, to use that passion in a very intentional way, and isolationists can struggle to fill that role. As your company grows, it will also likely draw other passionate people, driven for their own reasons, to work with you. It’s your job as a leader to focus their passions, their drive, so that it aligns with your own, and the vision for where the company is going. What may also be problematic is learning how to com- municate that passion, those ideals, so that those in your charge understand them. For brilliant isolationists, ideas can live in their heads for weeks at a time before the need to share them, but good company culture is transparent, open culture, with necessary information flowing and focused when it needs to be there. Silence from the top is not helpful. Learning to delegate can be another issue, as entrepreneurs may be used to solving all the problems themselves in their very specific way. This too is a recipe for leadership failure, manifesting in micro-managing leaders who don’t trust their people to execute the little stuff, which in turn leads to their people not trusting them. And if leadership is lost in the weeds with the little stuff, it’s pretty sure bet that the next blind corner gets a little more interesting. If you’ve spent your professional career looking down- ward and inward for the next great idea, it’s pretty natural that your upward and outward may be lacking. But the good news is that entrepreneurs who grow into leaders are better at scaling because they are open to learning. They want to be molded by new experiences and to im-
44 Harbert Magazine, Spring 2025
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