Simple Tips to Help Founders Scale their Leadership Skills
By Jane VC, published on Medium
Founding a startup is likely one of the most challenging things you will do in your professional life. Taking an idea and turning it into a successful business is no easy feat. Taking the time to reflect, set intentions and take care of yourself can help you to be in prime mental condition to be the leader you would like to be. And there is no better time than the beginning of a new year to take the time for reflection and setting intentions.
Here is the recap of tips that came out of our recent Founder Workshop on “Scaling yourself as a leader.” Thank you to leadership coach Jess Ratcliffe for leading and to Femstreet and Huckletree for co-hosting. Read to the bottom to see how you can do the same visioning exercise on your own!
Simple tips for scaling your leadership skills
General tips…
Be kind to yourself — we are often much more critical of ourself than others. Give yourself space and recognize things won’t always go as planned.
Be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses, and know when you need a co-pilot to help complement your skills. Spend the time to define who that person is so you have a better chance of finding him/her.
Let go of guilt about asking for things. You will do this a lot as a founder, and most of the time people want to help.
When things get difficult…
Recognize when there are systematic things or factors out of your control that are holding you back. It can help you to take it less personally.
Get specific about what is working and what isn’t (avoid generalizations to pinpoint the issues you need to address).
Founders are typically high achievers who have often never failed. Let go of this fear of failure.
Have gratitude for your journey and personal growth, especially when things aren’t easy.
On fundraising…
Spend your energy to play games you can win. Pre-qualify investors and make sure you tick their boxes. Spend the time on people you think have a good chance of converting. Pitching investors who aren’t the right fit is not only time consuming, but emotionally draining.
Becoming a founder means you will probably face more rejection than you ever have before. Recognize that rejection is just part of the job.
Shift your negative self talk to positive. Similarly, flipping a statement like “I’m not good at fundraising” to “I’m great at sharing my vision” can make a big difference.
Fundraising is a dark art. Just recognize that!
Small tactics that can make a big difference…
Schedule time for personal growth, reflection and goal setting. Having monthly or quarterly goals can make you much more focused and effective as a leader.
Spend 10–15 mins each morning journaling. It can help you get out your nerves, fears and heaviness. It can also feel therapeutic to just get your emotions out.
Create your own positivity bank. Gather all the positive feedback you’ve gotten over the past year. Put it somewhere visible in your office and look at it often.
Stop to celebrate small wins. It’s common for founders to feel like they’re never achieving enough, but if you stop to make a list of everything you’ve achieved over the past year you might surprise yourself.
Summary of workshop on scaling yourself as a leader
For those of you who would like to try taking yourself through the workshop at home, here is a recap of the key points.
Step 1: Map your present state
Write down a description of how you view your present state, specifically your impact, growth, mindset, leadership and overall fulfillment. Then, take the time to reflect: what did you learn? How might you apply it?
Step 2: Map your dream state across the same dimensions
Do this same exercise, but instead write down what your dream state would look like for impact, growth, mindset, leadership and overall fulfillment. Don’t hold back here — be bold in what you would like this to look like. Then, take the time to reflect: what did you learn? How might you apply it?
Step 3: Uncover your limiting assumptions.
What are you assuming that is preventing you from achieving your dream state? Spend the time to write down these assumptions.
Step 4: Choose the assumptions that will serve you well.
Be intentional about re-orienting yourself to assumptions that serve you and your vision. Make a conscious decision to choose your narrative — to notice when you’re living in negative and limiting assumptions and instead, shift to choosing positive and powerful assumptions that serve you. Continually look back at your dream state and work on shifting your assumptions.
