The Fallacy of the "Strong Leader"
The strong leader fallacy that problems equal weakness
This week's article is for all those leaders who have felt like they need to be crushing it all the time.
“Our growth rate is good, but everything else is a shitshow,” the founder, a series A stage CEO of a fast growing tech startup, told me. “Our product keeps breaking and customers are starting to get pissed. Engineering and sales hate each other right now, and it sucks coming into the office. I think we have a good plan, but it’s a slog.”
I figured he would include all this in the deck for his upcoming board meeting, but as he showed me the slides, all I saw were bar graphs going progressively up. “Am I missing something?” I asked. “I don’t see any of that in your board deck.”
“I’d never tell my investors about all that shit,” he said. “They expect me to handle things. They don’t want problems. They expect strength from me. If I show any weakness, they’ll decide not to invest in our next round, or worse yet they’ll think I’m not up to the job of scaling this company.”
If you’ve ever felt like this, navigating the cognitive dissonance of thinking your company could be huge while also knowing it will probably (statistically) fail, know that you are not unique. Growing a startup is messy. Nobody is immune to doubt, fear, and the rest. Elon Musk feels uncertainty and wonders if things will work. It’s not just you.
The best investors and employees, they understand that this is the journey. They know that, whatever the business, it’s going to be a rocky ride. It’s tough to build an airplane while you’re flying it. Turbulence is a part of the deal. Things will break, you’ll hit your five WFIO moments, and then after all that, if you’re still alive, the business will be totally different three years in than it was at launch.
You don't look as strong as you think you do...
That’s startup life, as anyone with any experience well knows. So when you project a veneer of smooth success to your investors you may see smiles (after all, who doesn’t want up and to the right?), but savvy investors know you’re either naive, or spinning. So while they’re smiling, what they’re really thinking is “this founder is onto something. Isn’t this exciting? I wonder if he’s the right guy to lead it when the going gets tough.”
This is worth repeating. To folks who know the journey, your story of consistent, clean, up-and-to-the-right reads as either luck (in which case they see founder risk when things inevitably get challenging), or positioning (in which case they wonder how much they can trust you). Either way, not the image a CEO projecting strength and competence is going for.
(It’s probably a good time now to mention that there are investors that dig the simple, strong, no issues CEO. You can imagine how hard it is to work with those investors when you actually have an issue with which you need help. Having had one of these guys on my board, I strongly suggest avoiding.)
Savvy investors see a “strong leader” as an untested one
The thing is, most leaders who project this masque of certainty and strength are, in fact, pretty doggone strong. They solve intractable problems every day. They save the company from certain doom, over and over again. They get shit done, and their companies are often as successful as they are primarily because of their leadership.
But by obfuscating all the problems they solve behind a mask of “everything’s great,” these badass leaders transfer all their success to their company. In the minds of their investors, these leaders are untested commodities riding a company that might outpace them. Knowing that no ride is smooth, savvy investors and followers see the iron wall of strength as yet another founder risk to manage.
Investor communication is hard. It’s complicated. And the right answer is not to vomit problems on your investors, either. But if you find yourself prepping for board meetings by spinning all the messy craziness of the last quarter into a neat little package of smooth sailing success, stop it.
It doesn’t make you look strong. It makes you look naive.
Things I read this week
One: Solitude and Leadership (American Scholar)
I'm limiting my links to only one this week because this one is a must read for leaders. If you read nothing else this week, my wish is you give yourself the space to soak in this one, a commencement address at West Point. *chef's kiss*
LINK >>
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