Pivoting from an initial product design or business model has become a given in the startup playbook. But even as startup leaders shift their businesses to meet a newly discovered need, they often fail to apply the same logic to themselves — and there they get into trouble. Startup leaders must be willing to pivot their leadership approach, or their board and investors will end up doing it for them; indeed, data shows that venture capitalists replace 20% to 40% of their founders with more seasoned and “professional” managers at critical transition points in a startup’s growth. And well they might: a chief revenue officer who successfully helps the company win an initial group of customers might not have the right skills to actually run a scaled-up sales organization.