Article
The 10 Things Stakeholders Want Founders to Change
September 15, 2024
Being a founder is tough, and if you’re reading this, you know it. You’ve got vision, drive, and creativity. These are your natural strengths and the reasons you started this journey. But where do you need to grow to avoid hitting the wall like most founders do in the long run? Your direct reports, investors, advisors and key employees know the answer.
Our data from 122 founders based on feedback from their teams, reveals a hard truth: You need to change. Based on coworker and investor ratings of the importance of 46 different competencies, this blog examines their priorities, the gaps between what they want and what you are doing. These aren’t just skills that would be nice for you to have. These are the areas where your key stakeholders are feeling frustrated, where they see you dropping the ball. When you fail to improve in these critical areas, you’re not just holding yourself back—you’re hurting your company. The people you work with are counting on you to step up, and when you don’t, it’s creating friction, delays, and missed opportunities.
1. Disciplined Decision-Making: Better Judgment and Overcoming Bias
Founders often thrive in fast-paced environments, but when decisions are made hastily, they risk being driven by bias rather than sound judgment. Whether it’s hiring the wrong person or choosing the wrong strategic direction, poor decisions can derail your company’s growth. Or, founders decide too quickly and impulsively and then must remake their original decision, leading to accusations of waffling. Direct reports get frustrated with reactive decisions and inconsistency, feeling confused about priorities. Investors get anxious when they see indecisiveness or impulsive decisions wasting resources. Effective decision-making requires discipline, not just instinct. Founders need to recognize their cognitive biases and tendency to be reactive and take deliberate steps to gather data, seek diverse input, and weigh all options before committing to critical decisions. How to develop it:
You’ve got big ideas, but without a clear, strategic plan, those ideas remain daydreams. Too often, founders confuse activity with progress, mistaking endless pivots for growth. Your team needs to know where the company is going, and you need the discipline to execute. They get discouraged when they see you spinning your wheels with little tangible progress in turning your grand vision into a concrete plan. Investors expect execution and get frustrated when you focus too much time on pig-picture thinking without a clear path to implementation How to develop it:
Most founders try to do too much and end up spinning their wheels. The result? Burnout, team frustration, and a company that’s stuck in neutral. If you’re not laser-focused on the right things, your startup is doomed to drift. You can overwhelm your team with too many initiatives leading to burnout and lack of focus. Investors lose confidence when you jump from idea to idea without delivering the results that matter the most. How to develop it:
You can’t scale without the right team, but many founders struggle to find, attract, and retain top talent. Hiring the wrong people—or worse, keeping the wrong people—can cripple your company’s ability to grow. Poor hiring decisions or a failure to let go of ineffective team members can create a dysfunctional environment and drag the team down. If key roles remain unfilled or the wrong people are in critical positions, investors will lose faith in your ability to scale the business. How to develop it:
In the early days, it’s easy to rely on a scrappy, all-hands-on-deck mentality. But as your company grows, that approach doesn’t work anymore. Teams need structure, defined roles, and accountability to scale. A lack of structure and clear roles leads to confusion and inefficiency, leaving employees feeling unsupported and unclear about expectations. Investors worry that if you can’t build a cohesive team, the company will stagnate. How to develop it:
Founders often struggle with delegation, feeling that nobody can do the job as well as they can. But this mentality only limits growth. To scale, you must empower your team to take ownership. Your employees will get frustrated with micromanagement and your failure to trust their abilities. This can cause you to become a bottleneck in decision-making. Investors will see your refusal to delegate as a sign that the company is too dependent on your decisions, limiting its scalability. How to develop it:
Accountability is a dirty word for many founders, but it’s what separates the dreamers from the doers. Without accountability, projects stall, and growth falters. Your team needs to know that you’ll hold them to their commitments—and that you expect the same in return. A lack of accountability can result in complacency where people are not held to high standards. Teams get frustrated if you don’t hold people responsible for missed deadlines or poor performance. If investors feel that you are not addressing underperformance, they may begin to doubt that you can maintain operational discipline and deliver on promises. How to develop it:
Founders often avoid difficult conversations, whether it’s giving tough feedback or resolving team conflicts. But dodging these issues only creates more problems down the line. To build a thriving company, you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Employees will feel unsupported when you avoid giving feedback. Without clear guidance, team members are left to flounder, which negatively impacts morale and performance. Investors may see your avoidance of having tough conversations as a lack of the leadership skills needed to drive a high-performing team. How to develop it:
Startups thrive on flexibility, but scaling requires discipline. Without systems and processes in place, chaos will eventually ensue, and your growth will stagnate. A chaotic or inefficient work environment frustrates employees, as they constantly face obstacles that slow them down. Investors worry when companies grow without proper systems in place, and see it as signaling the operational inefficiency that can stifle growth. How to develop it:
Founders often sidestep conflict, but unresolved tension drags down performance. Healthy teams have hard conversations, and great leaders create environments where those conversations happen constructively. Unresolved conflicts drag down performance and morale. Employees get frustrated when they see you not addressing tensions and let festering issues damage team dynamics. Investors worry that unresolved conflicts within the leadership team or with key employees could lead to bigger problems, such as leadership turnover or productivity losses. How to develop it:
The choice is yours: keep struggling in the same ways or evolve into the leader your company needs to scale. Developing these skills won’t be easy, but it’s the difference between staying stuck or thriving. Are you ready to step up?
Founders often thrive in fast-paced environments, but when decisions are made hastily, they risk being driven by bias rather than sound judgment. Whether it’s hiring the wrong person or choosing the wrong strategic direction, poor decisions can derail your company’s growth. Or, founders decide too quickly and impulsively and then must remake their original decision, leading to accusations of waffling. Direct reports get frustrated with reactive decisions and inconsistency, feeling confused about priorities. Investors get anxious when they see indecisiveness or impulsive decisions wasting resources. Effective decision-making requires discipline, not just instinct. Founders need to recognize their cognitive biases and tendency to be reactive and take deliberate steps to gather data, seek diverse input, and weigh all options before committing to critical decisions. How to develop it:
- Learn the difference between intuition and impulse: Founders often act on a hunch, mistaking impulse for valuable insight. Recognize that while intuition can guide you, it should be one data point among many. Treat your instincts as signals to investigate further rather than definitive answers.
- Define the problem clearly: Before jumping to a solution, spend time carefully defining the problem. Often what seems like a symptom is indicative of a larger issue that requires deeper analysis.
- Create a decision framework: Categorize decisions into high-impact ones that need careful analysis and low-impact ones that can be made quickly. For critical decisions, gather data and consult others. For smaller ones, act swiftly. This balances thoughtful decision-making with maintaining momentum.
- Build a “star chamber” of advisors: Surround yourself with experienced voices who challenge your thinking before you make a fatal leap. Ask disconfirming questions to challenge assumptions and avoid bias: Instead of seeking validation, ask your team, “What am I missing?” or “Why might this idea fail?” These questions surface concerns, generate alternative solutions, and encourage open dialogue. This approach reduces bias and fosters a culture where diverse perspectives improve decision-making.
You’ve got big ideas, but without a clear, strategic plan, those ideas remain daydreams. Too often, founders confuse activity with progress, mistaking endless pivots for growth. Your team needs to know where the company is going, and you need the discipline to execute. They get discouraged when they see you spinning your wheels with little tangible progress in turning your grand vision into a concrete plan. Investors expect execution and get frustrated when you focus too much time on pig-picture thinking without a clear path to implementation How to develop it:
- Turn Vision into Actionable Steps: Break down your long-term vision into smaller, actionable milestones. Create clear, measurable goals for your team so that the grand vision is not just a distant ideal but a series of achievable steps.
- Delegate Decision-Making Authority: Empower your teams to make decisions on execution. Founders often struggle with letting go, but successful implementation requires trusting your team with ownership over how goals are executed.
- Institute Regular Review Cycles: Schedule frequent check-ins and progress reviews. These are not just for status updates but for course correction. Review data, analyze outcomes, and adjust strategies as needed to ensure that execution stays aligned with the broader vision.
- Communicate the Why Behind the What: When assigning tasks, always explain how each piece of execution ties back to the bigger picture. Connecting the team's efforts to the company's overall vision keeps everyone motivated and aligned on priorities.
Most founders try to do too much and end up spinning their wheels. The result? Burnout, team frustration, and a company that’s stuck in neutral. If you’re not laser-focused on the right things, your startup is doomed to drift. You can overwhelm your team with too many initiatives leading to burnout and lack of focus. Investors lose confidence when you jump from idea to idea without delivering the results that matter the most. How to develop it:
- Learn to say no: Founders often get excited about every opportunity, but you need to say no to distractions that don’t align with your core priorities. This discipline is key to maintaining focus and driving meaningful progress.
- Stop prioritizing quantity over quality: Avoid the trap of busy work. Ensure that your time and energy are directed toward high-impact activities that genuinely move the company forward.
- Set ruthless priorities: Start each day by asking, “What’s the highest-impact thing I can do today?” Focus on one bottleneck at a time.
- Delegate non-critical tasks: You can’t do it all, and you shouldn’t try. Hire experts for areas outside your zone of genius.
You can’t scale without the right team, but many founders struggle to find, attract, and retain top talent. Hiring the wrong people—or worse, keeping the wrong people—can cripple your company’s ability to grow. Poor hiring decisions or a failure to let go of ineffective team members can create a dysfunctional environment and drag the team down. If key roles remain unfilled or the wrong people are in critical positions, investors will lose faith in your ability to scale the business. How to develop it:
- Use a disciplined hiring process: Create a structured approach to interviewing and hiring. Include input from multiple team members, ensuring the final decision is based on facts, not just gut feelings.
- Hire for the team, not just the position: Consider how each new hire will fit within the broader team dynamic, ensuring a cultural and functional match that supports long-term growth.
- Be strategic about hiring: Focus on the roles that will have the biggest impact on your company’s next stage of growth.
- Invest in leadership development: Top talent wants to grow. Create opportunities for development within your organization, or they’ll leave.
In the early days, it’s easy to rely on a scrappy, all-hands-on-deck mentality. But as your company grows, that approach doesn’t work anymore. Teams need structure, defined roles, and accountability to scale. A lack of structure and clear roles leads to confusion and inefficiency, leaving employees feeling unsupported and unclear about expectations. Investors worry that if you can’t build a cohesive team, the company will stagnate. How to develop it:
- Promote psychological safety: Encourage open dialogue within your team by creating an environment where people feel safe to share ideas without fear of retribution. This fosters creativity and problem-solving.
- Clarify roles and responsibilities: As your startup scales, clearly define everyone’s role to avoid confusion and ensure that everyone knows what they are accountable for.
- Foster a culture of collaboration: Your job is to align the team and ensure they work toward the same goals. Communicate openly and frequently.
- Encourage Diverse Perspectives: Make diversity of thought and background a key component of your team-building strategy. Diverse teams tend to be more innovative and can tackle challenges from multiple angles, leading to better problem-solving and creativity.
- Create Clear Feedback Loops: Establish a culture of continuous feedback, where team members feel comfortable providing and receiving constructive criticism. Clear feedback ensures that performance issues are addressed early, and improvements are made continuously.
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Founders often struggle with delegation, feeling that nobody can do the job as well as they can. But this mentality only limits growth. To scale, you must empower your team to take ownership. Your employees will get frustrated with micromanagement and your failure to trust their abilities. This can cause you to become a bottleneck in decision-making. Investors will see your refusal to delegate as a sign that the company is too dependent on your decisions, limiting its scalability. How to develop it:
- Push decision-making down: Empower your team by delegating decisions to those who are closest to the issue. Trust that your team can make better, faster decisions when given the authority.
- Practice devolution: Encourage your team to take ownership of key tasks, allowing them to grow into leaders while freeing you up to focus on strategy.
- Delegate with trust, not oversight: Empower your leaders by giving them the freedom to make decisions.
- Set clear expectations: Ensure your team knows what success looks like, then get out of their way.
Accountability is a dirty word for many founders, but it’s what separates the dreamers from the doers. Without accountability, projects stall, and growth falters. Your team needs to know that you’ll hold them to their commitments—and that you expect the same in return. A lack of accountability can result in complacency where people are not held to high standards. Teams get frustrated if you don’t hold people responsible for missed deadlines or poor performance. If investors feel that you are not addressing underperformance, they may begin to doubt that you can maintain operational discipline and deliver on promises. How to develop it:
- Create a culture of accountability: Use metrics and milestones to track progress. Hold regular reviews to discuss what’s working and what isn’t.
- Model accountability: As the founder, lead by example. If you want your team to deliver, make sure you’re following through on your own promises.
- Create a team operating system: Implement a disciplined process to ensure that your team is held to high standards of excellence. Use objective data and milestones to track progress.
- Publicly recognize achievements, privately address failures: A culture of accountability flourishes when success is celebrated, and mistakes are handled in a supportive, private manner.
Founders often avoid difficult conversations, whether it’s giving tough feedback or resolving team conflicts. But dodging these issues only creates more problems down the line. To build a thriving company, you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Employees will feel unsupported when you avoid giving feedback. Without clear guidance, team members are left to flounder, which negatively impacts morale and performance. Investors may see your avoidance of having tough conversations as a lack of the leadership skills needed to drive a high-performing team. How to develop it:
- Have tough conversations: Use frameworks like Radical Candor to give direct but empathetic feedback.
- Encourage open dialogue: Create an environment where your team feels safe bringing up issues before they snowball into larger problems.
- Practice active listening: Show that you value your team’s perspectives by actively listening and considering their ideas before making decisions. This not only improves trust but also fosters a culture of collaboration.
- Invest in development: People want to grow but they need to know where and how. Don’t just throw them in the deep end and expect them to swim. If you don’t feel qualified to coach them, then get outside help.
Startups thrive on flexibility, but scaling requires discipline. Without systems and processes in place, chaos will eventually ensue, and your growth will stagnate. A chaotic or inefficient work environment frustrates employees, as they constantly face obstacles that slow them down. Investors worry when companies grow without proper systems in place, and see it as signaling the operational inefficiency that can stifle growth. How to develop it:
- Don’t wait for things to break: Proactively address inefficiency and mistakes.
- Document processes early: Standardize repetitive tasks so your team can focus on what matters most.
- Adopt agile methods: Implement frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to keep your company adaptive but focused, ensuring that systems scale as your company grows.
- Regularly review and iterate: Your systems must evolve as your company grows. Continuously assess and refine your processes to ensure they remain effective and efficient.
Founders often sidestep conflict, but unresolved tension drags down performance. Healthy teams have hard conversations, and great leaders create environments where those conversations happen constructively. Unresolved conflicts drag down performance and morale. Employees get frustrated when they see you not addressing tensions and let festering issues damage team dynamics. Investors worry that unresolved conflicts within the leadership team or with key employees could lead to bigger problems, such as leadership turnover or productivity losses. How to develop it:
- Address conflicts early and openly: Avoiding tough conversations allows small issues to grow into bigger problems. Founders often sidestep conflicts due to discomfort or time constraints, but this avoidance can harm team dynamics. Address issues with empathy and a focus on solutions, ensuring problems don’t escalate.
- Regulate emotional reactions: Emotional outbursts can fuel conflict rather than resolve it. Founders often react with frustration or impatience, which only intensifies tensions. Practice emotional control during disagreements, giving yourself space to process and focus on finding solutions rather than letting emotions dictate actions.
- Train your team in conflict resolution: Equip them with tools like active listening and negotiation to handle disagreements productively.
The choice is yours: keep struggling in the same ways or evolve into the leader your company needs to scale. Developing these skills won’t be easy, but it’s the difference between staying stuck or thriving. Are you ready to step up?
As a founder, you possess the vision and drive that sparked your entrepreneurial journey. But to truly unlock your company’s potential, you need to address the leadership gaps that are holding you back. The good news? You don’t have to navigate this transformation alone. My leadership coaching is designed to supercharge your abilities in the critical areas where you need growth, from disciplined decision-making to effective delegation and beyond. Imagine turning your leadership challenges into strengths and your strategic plans into executable results.
If you’re ready to evolve and lead with unparalleled effectiveness, let’s work together to turn your vision into a thriving reality. Discover how my tailored coaching can help you overcome obstacles, inspire your team, and achieve lasting success. Get in touch today to learn more and take the first step toward a transformative leadership journey.
If you’re ready to evolve and lead with unparalleled effectiveness, let’s work together to turn your vision into a thriving reality. Discover how my tailored coaching can help you overcome obstacles, inspire your team, and achieve lasting success. Get in touch today to learn more and take the first step toward a transformative leadership journey.
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Founders live in a world of chaos. It’s exhilarating, intense, and downright terrifying. You’re constantly shifting between the thrill of new ideas and the crushing weight of responsibility. Every decision feels like a life-or-death moment for your company, and the stress is unrelenting. Yet, amid this madness, there’s one thing that determines whether you’ll thrive or crash and burn: personal grounding.
Founders often carry a mythic aura, celebrated for their vision, charisma, and relentless drive. They are the bold risk-takers who disrupt industries, change lives, and will entire markets into existence. These narratives—as addictive as they are—often lead to an unfortunate misconception: that sheer genius is enough to scale a startup. It isn’t. Vision alone might get you through the knife-fight phase of a startup’s life, but when it’s time to scale, your brilliance can become a bottleneck. Founders who cling to the illusion that they can power through scaling challenges with charisma and creativity often fail spectacularly. This blog is a wake-up call for founders, potential founders, failed founders, and investors alike: genius alone will not carry you to the finish line. What separates the startups that thrive from those that crumble is not brilliance but the ability to build enduring systems, structures, and processes. Let’s dispel the myths and explore the unseen and often unglamorous work that founders need to master if they hope to turn a scrappy startup into a billion-dollar business. Myth 1: Vision Is Everything Most founders are natural Visionary Evangelists. They see around corners, spot market opportunities, and inspire teams with their bold ideas. Investors bet on these qualities, and for good reason: vision is what ignites the startup engine. But as the company grows, the same traits that propelled its early success can become liabilities. Vision without structure leads to chaos. Founders can’t just "will" their companies to scale. At some point, the organization’s complexity will outstrip the founder’s ability to manage it. The lack of clear systems and processes creates bottlenecks, frustrates teams, and erodes trust. Reality Check: Vision is critical, but it’s not a substitute for operational rigor. Scaling requires founders to translate their big ideas into actionable, repeatable systems. Without this bridge between strategy and execution, even the most promising startups will stall. Myth 2: The Founder’s Hustle Will Carry the Team In the early days, startups thrive on heroic efforts. Founders wear multiple hats, pulling all-nighters and stepping in wherever there’s a gap. This scrappy hustle becomes a badge of honor, an identity. But as the team grows, this approach becomes unsustainable and even destructive. Here’s the problem: many founders struggle to let go. They micromanage, make unilateral decisions, and refuse to delegate. Why? Because they’ve convinced themselves that no one else can match their passion or capability. This creates a toxic dynamic where the founder becomes the bottleneck, stalling progress and demoralizing their team. Reality Check: Hustle is not a scalable strategy. Founders must transition from being the hero to being the architect of systems that empower others to execute effectively. This means delegating, coaching, and trusting their team to own outcomes. Myth 3: Startups Should Avoid Bureaucracy The word “bureaucracy” sends chills down the spines of most founders. Isn’t the whole point of a startup to move fast and break things? Isn’t bureaucracy the enemy of innovation? Not exactly. While startups should avoid unnecessary red tape, the absence of structure often leads to inefficiency and burnout. Teams waste time reinventing the wheel because there’s no documented process. Priorities shift on a whim, leaving employees confused and disengaged. Founders who reject all forms of process in the name of agility often end up with chaos instead of speed. Reality Check: Scaling startups need “just enough” process to provide clarity and direction. Think of processes as guardrails, not handcuffs. They should enable agility, not stifle it. Myth 4: Scaling Is About Adding More Resources When startups hit growing pains, the instinctive reaction is to throw more resources at the problem: hire more people, buy better tools, raise more money. While these are sometimes necessary, they’re rarely sufficient. Scaling isn’t just about doing more; it’s about doing better. Consider this: doubling your team without clear systems in place will only amplify inefficiencies. Throwing money at problems without solving root causes leads to waste. Founders who equate scaling with “more” often find themselves with bloated organizations that are slow and unprofitable. Reality Check: Scaling is about improving efficiency and effectiveness. Before adding more resources, founders need to optimize their existing processes to handle greater complexity. What Successful Founders Do Differently So, what separates the founders who successfully scale their startups from those who don’t? Here are the key actions they take: 1. Re-engineer Inefficient Processes Successful founders don’t just patch over inefficiencies; they dig deep to redesign broken systems. They prioritize scalability from the start, asking questions like: “Can this process handle 10x growth?” If the answer is no, they fix it. 2. Shift from Doer to Leader Founders who scale learn to let go of day-to-day tasks and focus on strategic leadership. This means empowering their team to own decisions and outcomes while providing clear guidance and support. 3. Invest in People and Culture Scaling isn’t just about systems; it’s also about people. Great founders invest in hiring top talent, developing their team’s capabilities, and creating a culture that aligns with their values and vision. 4. Embrace Feedback and Adaptation Scaling is a messy process that requires constant iteration. Founders who thrive are those who actively seek feedback from their team, customers, and investors—and use it to refine their approach. 5. Build Operational Discipline This is where many founders falter. Operational discipline means setting clear goals, tracking progress, and holding people accountable. It’s about creating a rhythm of execution that ensures the company delivers on its promises. A Challenge to Founders If you’re a founder, ask yourself: Are you still trying to do everything yourself? Do your teams know their priorities, or are they constantly scrambling to figure out what matters most? Are your processes built to scale, or are you just winging it? Be honest. The answers to these questions will reveal whether you’re truly ready to scale your company or if you’re standing in your own way. For potential founders: Don’t romanticize the hustle. Building a startup requires more than just a big idea and hard work. Be prepared to master the unsexy, behind-the-scenes work of creating systems and structures that enable growth. For failed founders: Reflect on where things went wrong. Was it a lack of vision, or was it the inability to scale operations? Use those lessons to rebuild stronger. For investors: Stop glorifying the lone genius. Look for founders who are not just visionary but disciplined in execution. Invest in those who are willing to grow alongside their companies. The Takeaway Scaling is not a magical process that happens when you raise enough money or hire enough people. It’s a deliberate, disciplined effort to build the systems, structures, and processes that allow your company to grow sustainably. Vision might light the fire, but operational excellence keeps it burning. For founders willing to do the hard work, the rewards are immense. The ability to scale beyond genius is what separates the unicorns from the also-rans. The question is: are you ready to put in the work?
In a recent Founders Keepers newsletter entitled “When Their Moral Compass Fails, Leaders Fail: How Greed, Power, and Pressure Can Destroy Founders” I discussed how the pressure of investor demands, and the corrosive effects of power and greed can erode a founder’s moral compass. These challenges are not limited to startup founders; they affect leaders across all industries. However, our research on nearly 2,000 executives, including the top 200 leaders who emerged as the “best” based on 360-degree feedback ratings, provides a critical insight: the best leaders are unwavering models of integrity and values. This is not just an ideal to aspire to—it’s a requirement for sustainable success. When leaders prioritize integrity and live by a clear set of values, they build trust, inspire their teams, and create a foundation for enduring impact. This post will delve into what it means to lead with integrity, how the best leaders embody these principles, and actionable steps you can take to align with these ideals. Integrity: The Cornerstone of Leadership Integrity in leadership is about much more than honesty. It encompasses consistency between words and actions, ethical decision-making, and a commitment to doing what is right, even in the face of adversity. Leaders with integrity act as a moral compass for their organizations, guiding decisions and behavior through a clear ethical lens. Our research on the best leaders revealed several defining characteristics of integrity in leadership: Consistency in Actions and Words: The best leaders “walk the talk,” ensuring their actions align with their stated values. This predictability fosters trust and reduces organizational uncertainty. Ethical Decision-Making: These leaders prioritize ethical considerations, making decisions that align with their values rather than taking shortcuts for short-term gains. Accountability: They own their mistakes, modeling humility and responsibility for their teams. Take Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, as an example. Schultz demonstrated integrity by prioritizing ethical sourcing, offering healthcare benefits to part-time employees, and fostering a culture of respect and inclusion. His leadership not only built a globally respected brand but also created an environment where employees felt valued, and customers felt connected to the company’s mission. According to a comprehensive review of the literature, leaders who demonstrate integrity cultivate stronger trust among their teams, improve morale, and enhance overall organizational performance. The ripple effects of their behavior extend to organizational reputation, customer loyalty, and financial success. Values as the Leader’s Guiding Light Values are the principles that define what is most important to an individual or organization. For leaders, values serve as a decision-making framework, shaping their behavior and influencing their teams. Leaders who model and promote core values create a strong organizational culture where employees feel aligned and inspired. In our study of the best leaders, the following behaviors stood out: Leading by Example: The best leaders don’t just articulate values; they embody them. Their behavior demonstrates the standards they expect from others. High Standards of Conduct: These leaders maintain impeccable personal and professional standards, setting a tone that permeates their teams and organizations. Promoting Organizational Values: By aligning their behavior with the organization’s mission and vision, these leaders reinforce the importance of shared values. Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, exemplified these principles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with difficult decisions, Chesky ensured that laid-off employees received generous severance packages and career support. His transparent and empathetic approach reinforced Airbnb’s values and preserved the company’s reputation during a challenging time. The literature supports these findings, emphasizing that when leaders align personal and organizational values, it leads to increased job satisfaction, higher productivity, and reduced turnover. Trust: The Currency of Leadership Integrity and values contribute to the most critical currency a leader possesses: trust. Leaders who consistently demonstrate integrity earn the confidence of their employees, stakeholders, and customers. This trust forms the foundation of effective collaboration, open communication, and organizational resilience. Our research showed that trust was a hallmark of the best leaders. They were described as dependable, reliable, and fair. Their actions consistently reflected their commitments, which inspired loyalty and respect. Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, is a shining example of how integrity builds trust. Polman led Unilever with a focus on sustainability and social responsibility, proving that profitability and ethical practices can coexist. His leadership attracted like-minded stakeholders, enhanced the company’s reputation, and set a benchmark for ethical corporate governance. Building trust, however, is not a one-time effort. It requires continuous reinforcement through ethical behavior, transparency, and accountability. As one executive in our study remarked, “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.” The Downside of Losing Integrity The stakes for leaders who fail to model integrity are high. Our review of business failures, including infamous cases like Enron and Theranos, highlights how a lack of ethical leadership can lead to catastrophic outcomes. Leaders who compromise their values for short-term gains risk not only their reputations but also the viability of their organizations. The Enron scandal was rooted in accounting fraud and ethical violations by top executives who prioritized personal gain over organizational integrity. Similarly, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos allowed ambition to override honesty, leading to the downfall of a once-promising company. These examples underscore the importance of ethical leadership in avoiding reputational and financial disaster. Expanding the Legacy: The Ripple Effects of Integrity Leaders who model integrity extend their influence far beyond their immediate teams. They create a ripple effect that shapes organizational culture, industry standards, and even societal expectations. A consistent pattern in our research is that ethical leaders inspire ethical behavior at all levels of the organization, amplifying their impact. For instance, Satya Nadella’s leadership at Microsoft has transformed the company culture from one of cutthroat competition to collaboration and innovation. By prioritizing empathy, inclusion, and a growth mindset, Nadella has demonstrated how values-driven leadership can rejuvenate a global organization and inspire employees worldwide. This ripple effect is not accidental; it requires intentional effort to embed integrity into every aspect of leadership. Leaders must ask themselves: How can I ensure my values are reflected in the decisions I make, the systems I design, and the culture I cultivate? Actionable Steps for Leading with Integrity So, how can leaders ensure they remain models of values in the face of challenges? Here are actionable strategies based on our research and the broader literature: Clarify Your Core Values: Take time to reflect on your principles and create a personal mission statement. Ensure your values align with your organization’s mission. Lead by Example: Demonstrate your values through consistent actions. Be the behavior you wish to see in your team. Be Transparent: Openly communicate your decisions and the values guiding them. Transparency builds trust and accountability. Own Your Mistakes: When you fall short, acknowledge it. Use failures as an opportunity to model humility and resilience. Seek Feedback: Regularly solicit input from your team to understand how your behavior aligns with your values. This fosters self-awareness and continuous improvement. Promote Organizational Values: Reinforce the importance of shared values by embedding them into your organization’s culture and decision-making processes. Practice Ethical Decision-Making: Develop a habit of evaluating decisions through an ethical lens. Ask yourself how your choices align with your values and their impact on others. Amplify Your Influence: Leverage your position to mentor others, advocate for ethical practices, and inspire your industry to prioritize integrity. An Inspiring Legacy The best leaders are not only successful but also admired for their integrity and values. Their influence extends beyond organizational performance to leave a lasting legacy of trust, inspiration, and ethical conduct. As leaders, we must constantly ask ourselves: What kind of legacy are we building? In the words of one of the best leaders from our study, “Leadership isn’t about being in charge; it’s about taking care of those in your charge.” By prioritizing integrity and living by our values, we can inspire those around us and build organizations that stand the test of time. As you reflect on this, revisit the challenges I outlined in Founders Keepers —the pressures, greed, and power that can erode integrity. Let this serve as a reminder to stay grounded in your values and lead with unwavering commitment to what is right. Success is fleeting, but integrity endures.
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