When it comes to finding the proper person to helm a startup, there are many different approaches. All companies have their own personality, as do CEOs, but there are some general rules that an executive candidate can follow to make their CEO tenure more effective, especially when the business is at a formative stage.
A piece for Entrepreneur written by Vance Loiselle, the CEO of a cloud management company called Sumo Logic, explores some of the qualities that an incoming startup CEO might need.
This includes identifying closely with the company, as well as taking the capital invested by others seriously. At the same time, this executive also needs to have a high sense of self-worth, Loiselle says, to demonstrate that they have the authority to stick to their guns and see tasks through to completion.
"Though it is difficult, accepting the isolated nature of being a leader is important," he says. "This acceptance will embolden you to move forward with your work rather than exert energy to seek the understanding or acceptance of others."
Not surprisingly, others agree: Sean Morris, the CEO of a company based in St. Louis, identifies one key part of CEO success as "believing" in the work that they do. In his view, executives need to be confident and think of themselves and the "big picture" at the same time.
Startup CEOs need to have a positive sense of themselves and the business they're leading in order to make a mark on the business world, and an experienced executive recruiter will be able to spot this quality immediately in a candidate.
Finding people is easy, but finding the RIGHT people is not. YES Partners helps companies FIND the right people – for all company functions, across many industries and globally.
