Recently I had lunch together with one of my friends who is currently running a startup. From my perspective, he has a mature business model, a group of highly motivated employees, and everything seems on the good track. When we dived more into the conversation, he mentioned an issue related to leadership power that I never thought about.
From the beginning of the startup, my friend said he is lucky enough to find three other co-founders who have a similar interest in solving the gap in the demand and supply between students just arriving at Penn State who need second-hand pieces of furniture and students who are leaving Penn State with a need to get rid of the pieces of furniture. The four team members have different expertise in their area, with two tech experts, one business model expert, and one human resource expert. The team was able to launch their app in the app store six months after they designed the prototype and currently attracts hundreds and thousands of Penn State users. However, after the app was launched, one of the co-founders found a job in a big tech company, and his performance went down a lot. The department, which the co-founder led, raised lots of concern about their future goal setting as the leader didn’t plan the future goals with the group. With the app expanding its customer base, my friend realized that things needed to be changed, and he wanted to bring the other talents to his position. The dilemma he has is how to share the decision with the other co-founder. He told me during the first six months. This co-founder is striving for all his resources in order for the idea to be launched. He is worrying the change of his position will decrease the motivation of other team members and co-founders.
Thinking deep into the problem he is facing. I feel it is a topic that the situational approach can explain. Currently, my friend sees the situation that one of the co-founders is being distracted by the other things going on with life. However, the co-founder and my friend haven’t established a conversation about the issue. This co-founder is stuck in developmental level one, in which he is unable but willing to take responsibility (Commentary, 2021). My friend should intervene by providing direction on whether to increase assistance towards this co-founder or help the co-founder move on. In this way, the startup and this co-founder can both benefit from the clear direction and receive better influence.
Reference
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2021). PSYCH 485 Lesson 5: Style and Situational Approaches. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2132629/modules/items/32790568