299. The Five Stages of Company Growth And The Leadership Personality It Needs.

There are five types of leadership personalities.

You know that. We talked about it last week.

It turns out that there are also five stages of company growth.

Coinkydink? Maybe, maybe not.

In a nutshell, the five leadership personalities are:

• The Visionary
• The Coach
• The Democrat
• The Autocrat
• The Servant Leader

If you haven’t read last week’s missive about these 5 leadership personalities, I recommend you peruse it first. Here ‘tis:

298. The Five Different Leadership Personalities. Which One Are You?

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, let’s have a tiny tete-a-tete about how a company grows.

How A Company Grows

Back in the 1980s, a researcher at Harvard Business School developed a five-phase model of company growth that has become the standard, mostly because it’s true.

Here’s what the complicated version of it looks like.

I’ve got a solid 17-minute set about what this entire image means, but I will save that for a separate seminar.

Instead, today I want to discuss what is actually not mentioned in the model above. And that is this:

Each stage of company growth is best suited for a different leadership personality.

As companies grow their needs evolve and so do the leadership personalities needed to address those needs.

Think of it like a parent-child relationship. The type of parent you are to a newborn is quite different than the type of parent you are to an adolescent. Or it better be.

Companies are like kids… but without the stink and rudeness.

So let’s dive into the five growth stages. I suppose I should first tell you what they are. Fair enough. Here you go:

• Start-Up
• Early Growth
• Mid-Stage Growth
• Established
• Enterprise

Now, as promised, let’s take a deeper dive into the ideal leadership personality needs at each stage of growth.

Leadership for Startup Companies

Ideal Leadership Personality: The Visionary

Here’s why:

Visionary leaders can thrive in fast-moving, less structured environments. As it turns out, that is exactly how you could describe the startup environment.

After all, in the early stages of growth, there is often not much more than a vision. When the company is just an idea looking for traction, it is the leaders’ vision that unites and inspires others to follow.

Once the company starts getting real traction, though, the Visionary isn’t always the best.

Leadership for Early Growth Stage Companies

Ideal Leadership Personality: The Coach

Here’s why:

Early Growth Stage companies have found product-market fit and they are on the path to realizing the vision. The Visionary leader’s primary role is done.

At this point in the company’s development, the important skill needed is to build the right team and nurture talent. That’s where the Coach comes in.

One of the most difficult transitions for an entrepreneur is going from a Visionary to a Coach.

My executive coaching practice is focused on helping leadership teams navigate the founder’s journey - and it begins with this “Visionary to Coach” transition.

The Coach personality has a knack for inspiring others by empowering others. The Coach can build a strong, unified culture of accountability that sets the foundation for company growth. They translate the ever-changing pie-in-the-sky talents of the Visionary, into a unified team that is purpose driven.

This is exactly what an Early-Stage Growth Company needs to reach the Mid-Stage Growth milestone.

Leadership at Mid-Stage Growth Companies

Ideal Leadership Personality: Democratic

Here’s why:

As a business continues to scale, it gets more complex. Suddenly there are separate departments with separate hierarchies and separate goals. A company at this stage can easily turn into separate silos - and that’s not good.

Few things are more important for Mid-Stage Growth companies than collaboration and communication.

That’s why a Democratic leadership personality is important.

The Democratic leader is a master of rallying team members to work together to solve problems. They can create the formal processes needed to foster communication and this, in turn, leads to greater growth.

Leadership at Established Companies

Ideal Leadership Personality: Servant Leader

Here’s why:

Once a company is well-established it gets more challenging to maintain agility and be innovative.

Top-down leadership doesn’t work, just ask Kodak .

Agility and innovation happen when the front-line workers have a voice that is valued. Nobody does this quite as well as the Servant leader.

The Servant Leader knows how to prioritize the needs of their team and to empower them to be their best. They value the feedback of every employee, knowing creativity and innovation can come from any corner.

In doing so, the Servant Leader builds loyalty in an environment where it’s easy to feel like a cog.

And this leads us to the Enterprise environment.

Leadership at Enterprise-Level Companies

Ideal Leadership Personality: Autocrat

Here’s why:

Enterprise companies require quick decision-making from strong leaders. It’s hard to turn a big complex boat without a confident and decisive captain at the helm.

This is exactly where the Autocrat shines.

They combine authority with strategy. They stay informed by their trusted team, then take the data to confidently make the tough decisions that drive the business forward.

Sure they may seem stubborn, but the great ones are usually right.

The Perfect Leadership Personality

So anyway, I’m kinda sorry if I made you think there was one type of perfect leadership personality.

The perfect leader is like the perfect parent: just when you think you’re doing great, everything changes.

As a company evolves, so does its leadership needs. That’s normal.

So, what stage is your company in? And more importantly, do you have the type of leader you need?

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