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Startup Managers

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Kai Nicol-Schwarz
Sifted, 2022
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8

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Start-ups tend to elevate young founders into executive level positions. This boosts a new company’s ability to innovate, but in some cases, forces employees to work with a leader who lacks professional experience and emotional intelligence. Kai Nicol-Schwarz shares insights from the Sifted community survey about new company managers. He recounts the reports of employees who truthfully and openly outline their personal experiences. Nicol-Schwarz reveals the most common shortcomings of bad leaders, what good leaders do differently and what to do if you find yourself in a toxic start-up culture.

Summary

Bad start-up managers don’t set targets; they micromanage and fail to communicate productively.

Fully 83% of people who took part in Sifted’s community survey said that only a few start-up leaders have the capacity to be good managers.

One of the respondents’ concerns was micromanagement, which 67% of employees identified as an issue. Participants noted that this fault is especially prevalent among lone entrepreneurs, because they had become accustomed to functioning how they please and have difficulty making the transition to different workflows and processes when their company expands.

Half the participants did not receive sufficient personal support from their start-up’s leaders. Respondents observed that...

About the Author

Kai Nicol-Schwarz is a reporter covering healthtech and community journalism at Sifted, the FT-backed media platform covering start-ups and tech in Europe.

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