bulwark:
- a solid wall-like structure raised for defense
- Breakwater, seawall
- A strong support or protection
A leader is a bulwark to uncertainty.
Especially in the early days, a startup (or any new venture) is a series of steps into the unknown. Some people are better than others at handling uncertainty. And some work is better done within bounds of assurance. The leader’s job is to stand between the team and the abyss, shouldering as much of the uncertainty as possible, so that the team can get their jobs done instead of having to worry about things that are, in the end, not their responsibility.
This can mean that the leader, without ever crossing into deceit, should hide certain information from the rest of the team. Not sure if a big deal is going to close? If an investor is going to write an additional check? If someone is right for the job? These are open questions for the leader, but the team doesn’t need to be thinking about them.
Working within this uncertainty, there are countless ups and downs. But morale is inherently dependent on momentum, and momentum is a subjective view of the ratio of ups to downs. Part of the leader’s responsibility is to keep morale high.
Every disappointment is tough to endure for anyone. By the time people realize this, they’re usually pretty close to empty, but everyone has a limited number of disappointments that they can take before losing morale. The leader must inherently be able to take a much higher number of disappointments than the rest.
I used to believe in utter transparency, but now I see that as a naive way to avoid leadership. It is a trade, doing something un-alone at the cost of multiple people feeling the downs instead of one. At times, maybe necessary or for certain things, unavoidable.
But if there going to be a certain number of disappointments and victories, as a leader I can ‘hide’ as many disappointments as possible unless absolutely necessary to share, and share every victory for everyone to celebrate. That’s hard, because it means not sharing some hopes, in order not to get others’ hopes up on things, until they are confirmed.