Some leaders build, others maintain

What makes a good leader? It depends on your business’s growth stage and your long-term goals. There are two primary leadership styles: builders and maintainers. 

Builders are best during growth spurts. They motivate the troops and spark innovation. Maintainers provide stability and consistency when you regroup after a period of expansion. 

Both are indispensable when matched to your objectives. Mismatching can cause friction, dissatisfaction, and halts progress. 

We’re going to explore the difference between builders and maintainers, the risks of misalignment, and how organizations can balance both.

The Builder Leader

Builders thrive in circumstances many would describe as chaos. They navigate change and disruption while driving transformation. However, they can go overboard, implementing changes until you don’t recognize your business anymore. 

Characteristics:

• Builders plunge through resistance, confident they’ll deliver positive results.
• Their idea of fun includes solving problems by devising new systems and processes.
• They can be a bull in a china shop, changing everything in their path.

You want builders on your books when you’re setting up your business or are going through rapid expansion. They can be pretty gung-ho, so you need to rein them in to maintain stability.

The Maintainer Leader

Maintainers are in their element when establishing or maintaining stability and consistency while optimizing systems and processes. However, their delight in stability might mask breakthrough opportunities. 

Characteristics:

• Maintainers can elevate existing systems and processes to new levels of efficiency.
• They focus on enhancing dashboards, reporting, and other business operations.
• They’re unlikely to drive sweeping changes, unless their systems are failing.

Maintainers can turn chaos into calm and excel at establishing reliable, stable, and sustainable processes and operations. Ensure the time is right before hiring a maintainer because they can prematurely halt transformation, causing important changes to freeze half-baked.

The Risks of Misalignment

What happens when you put the wrong person in the wrong job? Things go to pot, that’s what. It’s worse with leaders because they’re in positions of authority where they can do real damage. 

For example:

• Holding onto builders too long can disrupt operations and affect service delivery.
• Bringing maintainers in too early could cost you opportunities for bold improvements.
• Misalignment affects your business’s financial wellbeing, stability, and culture.

Timing is important. Get it wrong and your business suffers. Get right, though, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

Assessing Leadership Mix

It’s not as simple as hiring builders for growth and kicking them to the curb when you need a calming maintainer. Evicting maintainers for builders is just as iffy. Instead, CEOs and boards must evaluate leadership strengths to fit business goals. 

Tips:

• Avoid fancy titles for new hires if they don’t have experience scaling businesses.
• Remember, business is fluid, what worked yesterday might be a disaster tomorrow. 
• Periodic leadership assessments maintain the right mix for your business to thrive. 

No one is entirely a builder to the exclusion of any maintainer characteristics, and vice versa. Be honest in your assessments, so you can match strengths to stability and growth.

Promoting the Right Way

Good work and promising talent should be rewarded, but that doesn’t have to be a promotion. Not all strong performers have their eye on the top of the corporate ladder. They just want to continue to do what they do well (perhaps with bigger benefits).

Remember:

• High performers aren’t necessarily good leaders.
• Promotions should be based on leadership traits and execution skills.
• Recognize strengths and define roles around them.

A balanced approach to promotions ensures the right person is assigned the role. This is essential for a healthy continuance of your company’s culture, morale, and long-term goals.

Smooth Transitions Between Leaders

Shifts in leadership must be managed carefully. Remember, leaders aren’t 100% builders or maintainers. They have skills or insights that still benefit your business. Give them the chance to self-assess to see if they can adapt to changing priorities. 

For instance:

• Leaders should ask, do I still love this role? Will I love it after the transition?
• Provide external mentors for objective and honest feedback.
• Reassign responsibilities while leaders consider their options. Give them a feel for the future, so they can make an informed decision about their future. 

The transition between growth stages and leadership requirements can be managed to preserve momentum and respect leader strengths and their potential as ongoing assets for  your business.

Optimize leadership skills and respect strengths

Builders and maintainers have skills that are crucial for your business’s stability and success. However, their turn to shine comes at different stages during your business’s growth. You can still optimize their strengths by reshaping leadership roles.

In-house promotions can play a big role in maintaining momentum and ensuring smooth transitions. Provided you recognize leadership potential and don’t just promote the highest performer. Not everyone wants to lead.

Aligning leadership skills to growth stages and current and future needs ensures your business thrives over the long-term.