Leadershi in Start-Up and Sme

Leadership in Start-ups/SMEs

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Startups are forms of entrepreneurial and new business ventures designed to explore for a replicable and sizeable business model. SMEs, on the other hand, are business ventures whose number of personnel are under given limits. Both forms of business are charged with the responsibility of driving innovation and competition in major sectors of the economy. The aim of these ventures is to become global entities shortly. However, the success of startups/SMEs is determined by the leadership governing both its internal and external dealings. Currently, the majority of entrepreneurs initiate innovative enterprises, but once they start off their businesses the business ends up failing. This problem is common to all startups, thus hindering them from executing their full potential. According to business analysts, such enterprises fall because there is an absolute difference between an entrepreneur and a leader (Feinleib, 2012). Both aspects have opposing ends and the leadership extended to a start-up company dictates how successful it will be and how soon the business will realize its full potential. The rationale of this reflection essay, therefore, is to analyze the interactions between startups/SMEs leaders with their organizational structure and identify how this leadership evolves and the impact it has on these ventures.

Types of Leaders Most Effective in Startups

Thoughtful Leaders

Thoughtful leaders believe that there are undiscovered talents and untapped resources at their disposal. They thus seek at unleashing the full potential of their employees for the business to go beyond their previous thoughts. These leaders strap up the power of ideas to actualize business dynamics.  Their effectiveness is seen as they stretch to reach out to their followers and to help them envision new business productive strategies. For startups, new ideas have an incremental change. Thoughtful leaders are those that use technological advances in disseminating their ideas more swiftly on a broad platform (Kouzes & Posner, 2012).

Servant Leaders

Servant leaders employ a culture of employee involvement in their businesses and their active participation in all business affairs. The decision-making process is not the sole responsibility of the leader, but a collective responsibility of all business affiliates. These leaders care deeply about the welfare of their followers. Employees are an integral part of the business because without them there are no operations. The way a leader treats his employees tells how the employees will treat clients in return. Effective leaders for a start-up venture seek at removing business barriers and obstacles that hinder the entity from exploiting its full potential. As such, they create a conducive working environment for increased productivity of their employees. This is quite attractive and motivates the workforce to abide by changes that help them eliminate obstacles standing in their way of personal growth and development (Cottrell, 2000).