If the Shoe Fits: the Duplicitous Founder
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here.
If anything has changed in the 21st Century it’s the recognition that culture is everything — the true “make or break” for any company.
Knowing that, founders, of all people, should know better than to do anything that undermines their culture.
And yet they do it all the time.
One of the worst is also one of the commonest — having two teams
- the one to which they pay lip-service and talk about in public; and
- the one that has their ear, takes priority and stays front and center in all decisions.
Founders constantly refer to their “team” and it’s taken to mean all the company’s employees.
But, for those the shoe fits, it actually refers to their stars, their pets and all (most?) of their direct reports.
This was a common attitude in larger companies, but at least it was honest; bosses were ‘us’, workers were ‘them’ and everybody knew where they stood.
The changes started when Volvo focused the world on the power of teams, research showed that productivity increased when people were more invested and engaged in their work and terminology was introduced that is inclusive and empowering.
Fast forward to now and that language is in common use, but, as with most things, it can be distorted and perverted.
Founders, like other bosses, fall in two categories.
- Those who buy it, own it, use it and mean it;
- and those who use it to keep everyone in line who’s not on the ‘real’ team.
Which are you?
And before you claim the first bullet take a good look at your past actions.
In fact, get some feedback from someone you know will tell you the truth, as opposed to what you already “know” or want to hear.
Image credit: HikingArtist
