I have been working on Leadership Development of the executive teams of several start-ups, most of them based in Bangalore. Having also worked in start-ups in the Bay Area, California in the capacity of a software developer, following is what I have observed.
Start-ups move very fast. They need to fail quickly, iterate, reitirate, chuck business plans, create new plans, take somethings from the old plans and move on. Most start-up executive teams comprise of very young leaders, although I do think they will benefit from some seniority just like Google did when it brought in Eric Schmidt.
What young start-up leaders have going for them are :
- Energy ( trust me, loads of it ).
- Passion.
- Support of Venture Capitalist’s, which includes access to a lot of great advice and guidance from mentors.
- A certain kind of agility and adaptability.
- Access to information and knowledge like never before.
They also seem to be fairly detached at times because of youth and knowing that there are a lot of opportunities out there for them.
The area of Leadership development that start-ups need most is
- Maturity
- Decision making
- Leading others [ Developing,Collaborating, Influencing,Delegating]
- Risk taking
- Executive Presence
- Organization, Structure and Time management
- Managing Self
I integrate and weave the leadership development in their work schedule, since taking time away for them is such a constraint.
Finally, as with any other vertical, it depends on the commitment of the individual or team on how much ownership of growth they take upon themselves.