22. Founder Mode vs. Manager Mode is the Wrong Question

If you’ve been on LinkedIn this past month, you’ve likely seen at least one post (or more than you’d care to) about “founder mode.”

Presented as a counter to “manager mode” (meant to represent highly bureaucratic leadership rife with micromanaging and delegation), “founder mode” is all about championing the pioneering, hands-on behaviors of startup founders scaled to organizations of any size. And sure, when these are the only choices, anything that’s not “manager mode” sounds like a good option.

But show us a binary, and we’ll respond by asking tough questions. This week Rodney and Sam dig into how “founder mode” actually shows up in practice, whether it causes more organizational harm than good, and what it means when real leadership seems to be left out of the discussion entirely.

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Mentioned references:

• Diane from Cheers
• Founder Mode, article by Paul Graham
• either/or thinking
• Kim Scott's op-ed about founder mode
• "people positivity episode": AWWTR Ep. 21
• "strategy episode": AWWTR Ep. 2
• "futures thinking" BNW Ep. 34 with Kevin Kelly
• Depthfinding
• John Cutler
• Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety
• Andon cord