Hands-on Leadership

At a high level, leaders at startups focus on inspiring, empowering, and enabling people on-ground. Which basically means, they set ambitious targets, give directions, and enable their teams to achieve these targets. In short, they are the strategists. But, I strongly feel that leaders shouldn’t stick to just strategy. They should be hands-on too.

If you’re a CTO, your team should see a great tech leader in you. And, your team should also see you as a fellow engineer. They should see you setting up a solid tech strategy and also see you on the floor in an API design debate once in a while.

So, micromanage the team then?

Nope. Not at all. I don’t want leaders breathing down on everyone’s neck or fiddling with every tiny detail. A leader should navigate this fine line between hands-on involvement and micromanagement.

Leaders should be present on the floor too and lead by example. That doesn’t mean micromanage the team. As a marketing leader for example, don’t just set the next best marketing strategy. Help the team brainstorm on the next GTM plan. Write content once in a while. Etc.

And the same logic applies to founders too. Just because a founder has hired a product leader today doesn’t mean they stay aloof from product development starting tomorrow. As someone on the ground, I’d love to see the founders’ comments on my PRDs, my raw design files, and my team’s endless Slack thread debates.

In conclusion, if you’re a leader at an org: Inspire your team. Empower your team. Enable your team. Direct your team. And most importantly, be hands-on once in a while and lead by an example.

Also, the landscape is forever changing. It a no-brainer for leaders to get into the trenches once in a while to stay relevant and to stay in-sync with their teams.

Disclaimer: Hey! These are my unfiltered thoughts, kind of like a stream of consciousness. I’ll be honest, I haven’t done extensive research. So, take all the information with a grain of salt. It’s mostly based on my personal observations and perspectives.

Hope you enjoyed the read! If you have feedback or a different perspective, I’d love to know. Catch me on Twitter or mail me at me@chettyarun.com Thanks!