Leading By Example

In Bandung, Indonesia I recently had a few opportunities to share my journey as an entrepreneur. Now note that I’m far from the term “successful.” But I believe I do know a thing or two about starting and leading a company.

From young crowds of student-entrepreneurs, one of the most commonly asked questions is interestingly about leadership and management. Or specifically – “How can a young entrepreneur actually lead a team?” More often than not, the folks who you work with are older than the founders. And you know, in Asia, age matters and people see that as a mark of experience.

I led a team of 30 staff at my previous startup. And while the company grew quickly, people didn’t really like me. I was kind of a dick, pushing people hard to hit target numbers. But we all have bad runs and I learned from that experience. So I moved on to found this very blog that you’re reading now. I’m not from the any school of journalism nor I have previous professional writing experience.

So we needed to hire. And folks who write well are generally smart and come with strong journalistic experience. Interestingly, the first three team members who we recruited were folks who are not just brilliant but are also older and way more experienced than myself. I have a lot to prove as a leader. I’m not the best writer among this team, nor am I the smartest or most experienced. But one thing I believe I did right was to really work my arse off to lead my guys by example.

There are many ways to communicate a message. You could write a corporate memo, talk to a staffer on a one-to-one basis or simply tell them off. But what I find most effective is to communicate by actions. Be ruthless to yourself first, work and run with your team so they will, in return, run the team with you. If you expect your team to work 90 percent harder, as a founder, you probably will have to work 120 percent harder. It’s just the way it is. But that shouldn’t be too tough if you’re really passionate in what you’re doing anyway. That said, if the founder is lazy, the rest of the team is likely to follow suit. That’s leading by example for you. Have fun, but do take care of the team’s well-being too.

[Image: catnkitten.com]