Startup Leaders: You’re Probably Lacking This Critical Skill
Because you probably haven’t had to use it yet, but you will
In this week’s issue of Teaching Startup (#68), I answered a question from a former corporate leader turned first-time entrepreneur about how to deal with the loss of a key employee for an indeterminate length of time for personal reasons.
I laid out an answer as best I could about replacing key functions and how early stage startups especially have to spread that risk of loss across all their resources. I also talked about separating the emotional response from the business response, but also clarifying that separating the emotional response doesn’t mean removing it.
In other words, if empathy isn’t in your arsenal of leadership skills, it’s time to get up to speed really quickly.
Don’t Be Steve Jobs, Because None Of Us Are
The fact that this startup leader reached out for help in figuring out how to handle this situation is a sign that this person cares about that employee. And that’s an upset in my book, considering where this startup leader came from and how little experience they had running such a small organization.
