We talk a lot in entrepreneurial circles about helping founders identify and compensate for their limitations. But what if the founder’s “strengths” are the problem?
Courage, creativity, decisiveness, initiative, optimism, results-focus, confidence… All of these qualities – and more – are desirable founder attributes.
At the same time, taken too far or applied in the wrong context, these same strengths can sabotage not only your personal and professional dreams, but the entire company.
In fact, one of the most common “open secrets” in many startups is that their biggest liability is their founder.
The founder is likely to be one of the smartest people in the room. Their vision, creativity, and energy produced the product, service, or business model that is the entire basis of the company.
Yet, those same strengths in “overdrive” can stifle the company’s growth, even resulting in its failure.
Some examples:
- Creativity in overdrive can result in endless option-generation that gets in the way of deciding on a course of action.
- In contrast, Decisiveness in overdrive combined with the Initiative so common in entrepreneurs can result in rash decisions that keep your team scrambling.
- Critical Thinking in overdrive can stall action by shooting down every new idea before it’s had time to be fully-considered.
- The Confidence that is essential for embarking on and surviving the entrepreneurial journey can blind you to your limitations and cause your team to perceive you as arrogant and uninterested in feedback.
All strengths are a double-edged sword – or precious instruments, to use a less-violent metaphor.
Kept in tune and played with skill, they contribute to and enable your team to produce a symphony of results.
Out of tune or played loudly in the wrong contexts, they become liabilities, another source of noise and distraction on an already challenging journey.
Reflection Questions
– What are YOUR strengths?
– When are they most helpful to your team?
– When might they get in the way of team effectiveness?
