You can’t have autonomy without alignment
Autonomy.
Many people mention it in their narrative of how they’ve built their company.
Just hire good people and get out of their way, right?
It’s not that simple.
Scenario 1:
It’s only you and your idea. You share novel upon novel of what you’re building to anyone who will listen.
You come across someone who feeds into your excitement and shares a similar energy toward your solution. They join you as Co-Founder.
The real work begins. Weeks and months go by with nothing but hurdle after hurdle. The honeymoon phase concludes, and conversations become uncomfortable with heavy debate. Your co-founder eventually leaves.
You tell people it’s because you each wanted to take the company in a different direction. That’s true. Both of you had autonomy and were working on your interpretations of building the company.
But somehow, your brains weren’t synced. Your co-founder didn’t see exactly what you did. You couldn’t see what they saw. No one had enough clarity to paint the perfect picture for the other. No clarity meant no alignment.
Scenario 2:
It’s you and a co-founder. You’re aligned. You meet someone who feels like a good fit for your budding company. Let’s say someone with a marketing mind, whereas neither founder has that skill.
You extend an offer to a person in your network who loves marketing. Instead of a generic entry level title, you give them the title of Chief Marketing Officer.
With the title and product, they should now be off to the races in spreading the gospel for just how awesome your company and product is.
But instead of running—or even walking—they’re crawling. You become angry that they’re not the CMO you thought they were. It’s as if they can’t live up to their title. You eventually part ways.
This scenario happens frequently around college-aged incubators and accelerators. That CMO is usually a friend or peer from the incubator or accelerator network. You give them autonomy (via the title) without aligning them with the opportunity to earn and grow into a position.
Scenario 3:
The team is growing. You’ve had 3 months of stellar growth. You’re on top of the world and staring at your hockey stick graph as if it’s the one ring to rule them all and you’re in possession of it. Then things start to plateau the following month. There goes your precious hockey stick graph. While searching for solutions, someone casually mentions that you should hire a salesperson to get you back on track. After all, the founder CEO can’t do sales forever, right?
A couple weeks later and you’ve brought in an experienced salesperson and agreed to a salary over budget.
You share the sales targets needed to get back in possession of hockey stick graphs.
A month goes by, and the salesperson has fallen short of the targets you set. You question their ability. They tell you you’re unrealistic. If you’re lucky, you realize the problem right then and there. You hired them and got out of their way. But you forgot to do a reality check on making sure you were both aligned.
You cannot have autonomy without alignment.
From my experience, the further along you are on your company’s journey, the more clarity you have. The more clarity you have, the fewer times you need to check in and reassure that everyone is aligned.