At Kinfolk, we regularly feature articles from people around the world whose perspectives we believe are important and valuable. Our aim is to help demystify the process of building enduring technology businesses for African founders and leaders.
In this piece, Joanna Lord talks about identifying your leadership style as a startup.
As a startup leader, you can fundamentally change the course of a startup’s life. When mixed with the existing culture, your leadership style will either be a business advantage or an anchor.
So let’s talk about leadership styles. There are a million models and frameworks out there you can use. One of the simplest and quickest to start with is Mark Murphy’s four basic leadership styles. He believes every leader has a prominent approach, which falls into one of the four styles below.
Fun little bonus: let’s work on some pros and cons of seeing these playing out in a startup tech culture.
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Pragmatist: Pragmatists are drivers. They have high standards, and results matter most—competitive, bold, risk-takers.
Pros: Get it done, fantastic ability to create a culture of accountability, and OKRs rarely stand a chance against these types.
Cons: Can miss the cultural nuances required to inspire. Can index on numbers and lose sight of the mission, purpose, and customer’s voice.
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Diplomat: Lead through teamwork, focused on culture and connection between stakeholders—kind, social, conflict resolvers.
Pros: Can rally a team, create a strong “in the trenches” mentality, and be a peacekeeper during stressful times.
Cons: Can lack the cut-throats (shhh, let’s pretend that’s a word) required at a startup. Can over-index on dynamics at play and lose sight of the output needed.
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Steward: The rocks of your organization. Incredibly loyal, ready to help at any time. Stable and dependable.
Pros: Always get it done, you can throw anything at them, and they will lean in and learn it. They do not give up; they exude hustle.
Cons: They can miss the big picture and sometimes fail to raise a hand and ask, “But why?” which is key to being efficient and effective with our startup time.
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Idealists: Visionaries and high-energy types. Positive forces of nature. Eager to learn and grow, charismatic. Their intuition drives them, and they are open-minded.
Pros: They often have the crazy idea, the founding “something” that makes others jump all in. They can carry startups through tough times with sheer idealism.
Cons: They need to be more vital operators or process drivers. Tend to index customer needs and need help seeing business needs.
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Okay. Now that we got that all out there, you can see why it matters — especially at startups. The harmonic energy among a small team trying to make something out of nothing is critical. I think its importance might be trumped by finding product market fit. Because, as we all know, if you’ve got the product, you need the team.
The team at a startup is everything. The mission, customer, results, and culture — it’s all created, cared for, and shared with the world by the team.
So next time you think about your leadership style, you can throw one of these out and create a meaningful dialogue about how you can be additive to the culture. It’s a great time to brag about how it plays out, show the pros, get honest about the potential cons, and ask for support to round out those edges.