Start-ups: what kind of a leader are you?

Almost by definition, the person starting up a new business becomes a leader.  Even if you have no staff, you are still the boss. It’s likely you aspire to be the leader in your field. You probably have contractors you need to work with. You will be the representative of your company at any event, meeting with the bank, conference. 

So – what are your qualities and strengths as a leader? How will you motivate the people you interact with to trust you, respect you, and do great work for you and with you?

You can read any number of management/leadership books and they will talk about authenticity to yourself:  and not trying to act how you imagine a boss “should”.

Emmeline Pankhurst: a leader with strong values

This is good advice – but fiendishly difficult to bring into your everyday life. This is because, in our experience, most people are not especially aware of their own qualities and “drivers” – as a result we all tend to muddle through, reacting to circumstances as we have probably reacted all our lives – with a combination of gut feeling, emotion, drawing on previous experience and some intellectual reasoning. 

Through coaching, it is surprisingly quick to get a sense of your own values, qualities and what drives you – and this can become the first step towards much greater self-awareness.  Good leaders can use this information to understand their “blind spots” more clearly, limit them, and play to their strengths. 

So I repeat: what kind of leader are you?