Everyone Starts As a Lousy Leader

Key Takeaways

• Everyone starts short as a leader, and that’s universal. It’s also not a character exercise — complete leaders grow revenue faster, so it shows up in the numbers.
• Three elements: compelling vision, executive presence, time-tested character. Remove any one and you get a recognisable profile with real strengths and one blind spot.
• The Graceless Pioneer (missing presence) leaves people behind and people stay to debrief after they leave the room. The Fragile Achiever (missing character) has success that outpaced its foundation, where one mistake could unravel years. The Wandering Companion (missing vision) runs on consensus and looks collaborative from the inside, circular from the outside.
• Each profile is two-thirds of the way there. “Be a better leader” is useless; naming the missing element and its symptom gives you something to work on.
• The Wandering Companion is the most common among founders and the hardest to spot, because everything about it feels like being a good person.

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Just ask your first employee.

Seriously. Go find the first person you ever hired and ask them what it was like working for you in year one. If you are still on speaking terms, you will get a story you did not know existed.

That is the bad news, and it is universal. Nobody is a great leader at the start. We all start short.

The good news is that you can become a complete leader over time, with the right actions and the right feedback. The better news, and the reason this belongs on a business site rather than a personal development one: complete leaders are better at growing revenue. This is not just a character exercise. It shows up in the numbers.

The three elements

A complete leader has three things working at once.

• Compelling Vision. A dream with an invitation.
• Executive Presence. Behavior that inspires trust.
• Time-Tested Character. Unimpeachable credibility.

Almost nobody has all three early. Take away any one of the three and you get a specific, recognizable kind of leader, with real strengths and one obvious blind spot.

There are three lousy leader profiles. You are probably one of them right now.

The Graceless Pioneer

Vision and character. Missing presence.

What is genuinely good about you. You have direction. You get there fast. You have a heart of gold and good intentions and no private agenda. Nobody who works for you is worried about being knifed.

The problem. Your passion gets people in the door and your clumsiness makes them leave. You move quickly and you leave people behind, because tact takes time you do not think you have. You are honestly confused by how people respond to you. Why can’t they just follow?

Here is the tell. When you leave the room, people stay behind to debrief what just happened. Not because you were malicious. Because you were unclear, or fast, or blunt in a way that needed decoding.

It is not what you are doing or why you are doing it that gets you in trouble. It is how.

The move: slow down, and bring people with you.

The Fragile Achiever

Vision and presence. Missing character.

What is genuinely good about you. People are quick to follow. When you speak, people buy in. People boast about following you. You are smooth and well spoken and the big vision is captivating.

The problem. Your success has outpaced your foundation. Growth has happened faster than wisdom. The vision is real, and you have been taking shortcuts to reach it, and the shortcuts have worked so far.

Which means one mistake could unravel years of progress. Not because the world is unfair, but because there is less underneath the reputation than there appears to be, including to you.

The phrase that lives in this leader’s head is “never go wrong.” It has been true for a while. That is what makes it dangerous.

The move: build character before you need it. You cannot build it in the moment you need it. That is the entire nature of the thing.

The Wandering Companion

Presence and character. Missing vision.

What is genuinely good about you. Very well liked. People listen to you. You treat people well. You are good at solving problems and you create a genuinely great culture. You sit around the campfire with your team rather than off in the distance somewhere.

The problem. You have become one of the people. More peer, less leader. And because you are humble and collaborative, your primary method for making decisions is consensus.

Consensus rarely works. What it produces is a team where people know where to go before you do, and then wait for permission you are trying to source from them.

From the inside it feels collaborative. From the outside it looks like going in circles. Wandering, pleasantly, and not making progress.

This is the most common one among founders I work with, and the hardest to see, because everything about it feels like being a good person.

The move: get clear on your destination first. Then bring the collaboration into getting work done, not deciding on every strategic crossroads.

The good news

Notice that each profile has a real column of strengths. Every one of these leaders is two-thirds of the way there.

• The Graceless Pioneer has vision and character
• The Fragile Achiever has vision and presence
• The Wandering Companion has presence and character

These are not bad leaders. They are incomplete ones, and the incompleteness is specific enough to name and therefore specific enough to work on.

“Be a better leader” is useless.

“You have vision and character, you are missing presence, and the symptom is that people debrief after you leave the room” is something you can actually do something about.

Two questions

Which element of complete leadership is strongest for you?

And which one is weakest?

Most people answer the first one quickly and take a while on the second. 

If you’re stuck, go back to that first employee. The’ve been holding that story for years.