Читать книгу Lead Upwards - Sarah E. Brown - Страница 23

As they mature, it's common for startups to bring in leaders from big companies who've proven they've owned a function or profit and loss statement (P&L) successfully before. Once startups get out of what investor and Harvard Business School professor Jeff Bussgang refers to as “the Jungle” stage of startup growth, they're often compelled by the board to bring in “adults” (the phrase makes me cringe, but it's common parlance) who can steer the ship as trained specialists.

In some ways, it's a catch‐22; often you can't get the startup leadership job until you've proven you can do it, and you can't prove you can do it until you've done it. Where does that leave the contributors who've been mid‐level managers at multiple startups, with valuable expertise, but not necessarily that full executive title?

We'll talk about how to make that transition if you don't bring that “experienced big‐company person” background to your startup leadership journey. For now, let's focus on the startup executive who is a serial “big company” person from a larger organization. If you're coming from a larger company, you may have the expertise your startup needs but will have to learn to adapt to a high‐growth environment.