# Leadership Growth Reference

Frameworks for founder and executive leadership development.

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## 1. The 5 Levels of Leadership (Maxwell)

John Maxwell's model describes leadership development as a ladder. Most founders start at Level 2–3 and need to reach Level 4–5 to scale effectively.

| Level | Name | People follow because... | What it looks like |
|-------|------|--------------------------|-------------------|
| 1 | Position | They have to (title/authority) | "Do this because I'm the CEO" |
| 2 | Permission | They want to (relationship) | People choose to work with you beyond the job requirement |
| 3 | Production | You produce results | Team rallies because you deliver; your track record gives credibility |
| 4 | People Development | You develop others | You're multiplying leaders; your success is measured by others' growth |
| 5 | Pinnacle | Who you are (reputation) | People follow because of what you've built and who you've become |

**Most founders are at Level 3.** They got here by building and shipping. The path to scaling is Level 4: developing other leaders.

**The Level 3 trap:** Production-focused founders attract doers, not leaders. They value results over growth. Their teams are effective but dependent. Every decision still goes through the founder.

**The Level 4 shift:** Measure your success by how well your team succeeds without you. Your job is to make the people around you better.

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## 2. Situational Leadership Model

Ken Blanchard's model says effective leadership style shifts based on the person and the task — not the leader's preference.

Four styles based on the follower's development level:

| Development Level | Competence | Commitment | Leadership Style | What to do |
|------------------|------------|------------|-----------------|------------|
| D1 — Enthusiastic Beginner | Low | High | S1: Directing | High direction, low support. Tell them what to do. |
| D2 — Disillusioned Learner | Low/Med | Low | S2: Coaching | High direction + high support. Teach and encourage. |
| D3 — Capable but Cautious | Medium/High | Variable | S3: Supporting | Low direction, high support. Collaborate and encourage. |
| D4 — Self-Reliant Achiever | High | High | S4: Delegating | Low direction, low support. Get out of the way. |

**Common founder error:** Using the same leadership style with everyone. The founder who directs a D4 will frustrate them into leaving. The founder who delegates to a D1 will watch them fail.

**Diagnosis before deciding:**
Before determining your style, ask for each person + task:
- How much do they know about this specific task? (Not in general — this task.)
- How much do they want to do this specific task?

These answers may surprise you. A senior engineer may be D4 on architecture and D1 on customer calls.

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## 3. The Founder → CEO Transition

The hardest leadership change most founders face, and nobody prepares them for it.

### What changes

**As a founder, you were judged on:**
- What you personally built
- How fast you moved
- Your own output

**As a CEO, you're judged on:**
- What your team produced
- How effectively you set direction
- The quality of the people around you

The skills that made you a great founder — doing, deciding, building — can actively work against you as a CEO.

### The transition phases

**Phase 1: Still doing (0–15 people)**
You're right to be deep in the work. Speed requires it. Your personal output matters.
Risk: Staying here too long.

**Phase 2: Building around you (15–50 people)**
You're hiring and starting to delegate. People do work you used to do.
Challenge: Learning to trust output that doesn't look like yours.
Failure mode: Hiring people and then redoing their work.

**Phase 3: Leading through leaders (50–150 people)**
You no longer know everything happening in the company. That's correct.
Challenge: Managing people who manage people — twice removed from the work.
Failure mode: Bypassing your managers to go direct (undermines them, creates chaos).

**Phase 4: Setting the container (150+ people)**
Your job is culture, strategy, and the senior leadership team. You're a CEO, not a senior contributor.
Challenge: Staying relevant and strategic without getting lost in the weeds.
Failure mode: Retreating to execution to feel productive.

### The emotional reality

Most founders describe the transition as:
- A loss of identity ("I used to know everything that was happening")
- A loss of control ("Decisions happen without me")
- A loss of clarity ("Was I more effective before?")

These are real losses, not just discomfort. Acknowledge them. Find identity in what the CEO role is, not what the founder role was.

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## 4. Building Your Executive Team

### When to hire your first executive

Common question: "When do I need a VP/C-suite?"

**Trigger signs:**
- The function is failing and you can't fix it by working harder
- You can't attract or develop talent in that function because you lack the expertise
- The function is growing faster than you can lead it
- You're making bad decisions in that domain because you don't have deep knowledge

**Order of first executives:**
Most companies hire in this order, but the right order depends on your archetype and what's breaking:
1. First non-founder exec is usually Sales (VP Sales) or Engineering (VP Eng / CTO)
2. Then COO/Operations when coordination becomes the bottleneck
3. Then Finance (CFO) when fundraising or financial complexity demands it
4. Then People/HR when hiring velocity and culture require dedicated ownership

### How to onboard executives

**The 30-60-90 plan:**
- Day 1–30: Listen. Meet everyone. Learn the current state. No major decisions.
- Day 31–60: Diagnose. What's working, what isn't, what's missing. Share findings.
- Day 61–90: Act. Make changes. Start building systems. Establish their leadership presence.

**The trust-building sequence:**
Start with small, visible wins. Let them prove themselves in low-stakes situations before handing over high-stakes decisions.

**The founder's role during exec onboarding:**
- Provide context generously
- Introduce them with genuine authority ("This is the decision-maker for X — go to them, not me")
- Don't override their decisions publicly
- Give feedback privately, not in front of their team

**Failure mode:** Hiring a great executive and then making them feel like a senior employee. If you override every major decision, you don't have an executive — you have an expensive advisor.

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## 5. Managing Your Board

### The fundamental tension

You work for the board. The board elected you. They can remove you. This is a governance reality, not a threat.

And: You lead the company. The board sets governance and approves major decisions, but they're not running the business day-to-day. You are.

**Healthy dynamic:** Board holds accountability; CEO holds authority. They're not adversarial — they're complementary.

### The founder mistake

Most founders either:
1. **Over-inform:** Share every detail, create noise, invite micro-management
2. **Under-inform:** Share only wins, board is surprised by problems, trust erodes

Neither works. The goal is strategic partnership.

### What the board actually needs

- **Monthly written update:** Financial performance vs plan, key metrics, top 3 issues + proposed solutions, forward-looking risks. 1–2 pages.
- **Quarterly board meeting:** Strategic discussion, not financial recap. They've read the update. Use the time for decisions and input.
- **Real-time alerts:** Big bad news before the meeting. Never let board members be surprised by negative news they should have known earlier.

### Managing board members individually

Invest in 1:1 relationships with each board member between meetings. Understand what they care about. Use their expertise.

Board members who feel informed and useful are your allies. Board members who feel blindsided or sidelined become difficult.

**The pre-meeting call:** Before every board meeting, call each member individually. Preview the agenda, surface concerns, align on decisions. The meeting itself should have no surprises.

### When the board challenges you

"The board doesn't trust my judgment" is often really: "I haven't given them enough information to trust my judgment."

Fix the transparency gap before assuming it's a political problem.

**When the board is actually wrong:** Make the case clearly, once, with data. If they override you on something important and you can't accept it, that's a signal about fit. Founders get removed. It happens. Build board relationships before you need them to trust you on a hard call.
