It takes a variety of sometimes wildly different personality types to make an organisation succeed. From free-thinking visionaries to dogged legionaries, everyone has a part to play. No organisation can do without people with entrepreneurial spirit and ambition, but not everyone is an entrepreneur. And that’s a good thing.
A healthy talent pool also includes those who prefer to take their lead from others and then knuckle down to get results. Team players who get a kick out of helping others succeed. And the occasional eccentric who just sees things differently and can be relied on to shake things up.
For that matter, not all entrepreneurs are alike. Originality is part of the job description! So visionaries range from revolutionaries who transform whole industries to tinkerers who see a better way to do things and have the determination to see it through. They include big picture guys who are great at delegating, and hands-on types who lead by example.
The point of this article is not to insist that one or other kind of entrepreneurship is the right kind. I simply want to point out that different kinds come into their own in different situations. A classic example is the serial entrepreneur: typically a visionary leader who excels in conceiving and setting up new businesses, but is not necessarily the best person to lead them in the long term. That might be a job for someone who would never have come up with the original idea, but who does have a vision for how to grow the business and adapt it to changing circumstances. That person is no less an entrepreneur, just a different kind.
Founders of new businesses and other organisations often struggle to make the transition to leading a large team. They are used to micromanaging, and feel responsible for every aspect of the organisation. If they do want to stay involved, they must learn to delegate or burn out. That might mean taking a big picture approach. Equally, it could mean delegating the big picture to someone else, so they can get on with doing what they love. That might be focusing on managing a narrower aspect of the business, or they might delegate management altogether to focus on cultivating clients or even working at the coal face.
So founders are not always leaders, and vice versa. But it’s a mistake to assume these are rigid personality types. People change over the course of their careers. This is especially important to understand when it comes to large organisations. And especially important when those organisations are undergoing transformational change. A successful transformation programme starts with a clear idea of where the organisation needs to and where it currently sits. That includes talent.
One key to success is matching up the talent you have with the talent you need. And that means considering not only what people have already achieved with the organisation, but what they could achieve. Sometimes it is necessary to bring in outside expertise and to let others go if they are no longer aligned with what the organisation needs. Often, though, transformational change is an opportunity for individuals to reinvent themselves too.
So let’s not be too fixated on who is a founder, who is a leader and who is neither. Once people start to take ownership of a change programme, it’s not just the organisation that can be transformed for the better.
