7
2 Comments

How do cofounders with different management styles work it out?

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?

Your management style?
  1. 👹 Authoritarian
  2. 💁🏻‍♂️ Democratic
  3. 👋🏼 Liberal
  4. I'm Sailormoon
Vote
  1. 2

    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.

  2. 2

    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.

Trending on Indie Hackers
Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 19 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments