Today, on the mentoring course, three management styles of founders were analyzed and bright signs for their identification:
👹 Authoritarian style. The founder alone makes decisions and is dismissive of employees.
💁🏻♂️ Democratic style. The founder coordinates the goals with the employees. Decisions are made jointly with the team. Informal communication with the team is the norm.
👋🏼 Liberal style. The founder avoids making decisions. The team is informed about something or only if they themselves ask.
I looked at myself through this prism and realized that my style is not authoritarian for sure, since I trust the tasks and solutions to the team members. Otherwise, why hire people for a team who you don't trust and don't let you do your job? I do not dismiss the team. The liberal style is more likely not to a greater extent, since I do not avoid making decisions, but I felt that I was communicating with the team in a metered manner. I think this is a point of growth - now I will pay more attention to it and become better.
As a result, I defined myself more in a democratic management style.
How do co-founders with different management styles work together? Are they getting along or is it hard? Or do they not work at all? What is your management style?
Yeah it's a tough balance to strike. Within my team, we follow a democratic style, but whoever has "ownership" over the decision ultimately makes the final call as authoritarian. It helps that each of us as a founding team has a clear sphere where they know the most.
One of the things I learned is that defining responsibilities really helps. In my previous startup both my co-founder and me were technical and we had endless discussions... We then decided that I became the "CEO" and he the "CTO". We could still discuss, but the person who was responsible for the topic would make the final decision.