Category: Leadership

“How many of you have deadwood on your staff? Did you hire them that way or did you kill them?” – W. Edwards Deming

How can you argue with this logic? Deming pretty well puts the responsibility of the team squarely on the leader. Jim Collins would say get the right people on the bus BEFORE you even know where the bus is going.

Any compromise you make on choosing your team will come back at some point and you’ll have to deal with it. It may be worth it. But it may bring your company down.

The intangibles include integrity, persistence, taking responsibility and fearlessness.

Be clear about your expectations and your culture, in addition to the specific skills you need. If you’re not sure about these things, spend the time to figure it out. Cut the deadwood early.

Blogging Gazelle is published daily by Shawn Carson

“If you want to give a man credit, do it in writing. If you want to give him hell, do it over the phone” – Lee Iacocca

This is old school advice but it’s more relevant now than ever before. Negative comments can be replicated now exponentially and they last forever on the web.

It’s a cowardly thing to blast somebody anonymously on social networks. And when you decide to own it and sign your name, then a decision made in a moment of heated emotion can last a long time.

When the news is bad, or the situation dire, you need to be there, own it and be discrete. When the news is good, tell everyone!

Blogging Gazelle is published daily by Shawn Carson

“If you build fences around people, you get sheep.” – William McKnight

If you get the wrong people on board, then you spend a lot of time, energy and money managing them. You then create rules and bureaucracy to more efficiently manage your people.

Rules and bureaucracy create limits to effort and creativity; in other words, the boundaries get defined. You get the minimum you expect, no less; but you also lose maximum potential.

Defined boundaries are really fences. Sheep do well in fences. Sheep don’t care much about making the world a better place. Highly self motivated people cannot thrive as sheep in fences.

Motivate and inspire rather than contain and control.

Blogging Gazelle is published daily by Shawn Carson

“Make yourself unnecessary to the running of your company.” – Derek Sivers

You will never grow your business until you figure out how to let other people take the reigns.

Your time is limited and you have to sleep
Your brain can only process so much information
Your skills and expertise only go so far

Mind the fact that you have to pick the right people; but instead of pulling your hair out while trying to determine how to do more, spend that time finding great people. That’s the only way to multiply your efforts.

Get the right people on the bus!

Blogging Gazelle is published daily by Shawn Carson

“You can make employees be satisfactory but you can’t make them be excellent. That is their choice.” – Adrian Gostick

This is the problem I have always had with incentives and performance evaluation systems. As soon as you write down a performance objective, you set a standard and you tend to get exactly that; no more no less. And no matter how high you set the standards, they become the focus rather than the organization’s mission. This is the essence of bureaucracy.

When the incentives involve pay, there is rarely upside. Usually it’s a disincentive when people don’t get what they expect.

People have to choose to be excellent.

It comes down to Jim Collin’s Hedgehog Concept and a culture that communicates it like a constant drum beat. You have to measure what fuels the organization’s economic engine and center everyone’s attention on achieving it.

Those that don’t believe need to leave.

Blogging Gazelle is published daily by Shawn Carson

“Leadership is a choice. It’s the choice not to do nothing.” – Seth Godin

We often think of great leaders in terms of iconic figures who are captains of industry or heroes of war or quarterbacks of football teams. They inspire their followers and the rest of us marvel as they “lead” toward a cause or goal. They also give great speeches.

But I am coming to believe that leadership has much more humble and lonely origins. It starts with a problem, perhaps one that affects a lot of people. Most of us, when confronted with a problem, are content to suffer along, wishing someone would come up with a creative solution. Maybe it’s a crappy service or a product that has defects. Or maybe it’s a disaster or an oppressive culture.

The reason we tend to do nothing is the status quo is a powerful force that resists change. It has everything to lose. Change is hard.

The leader is the one who decides it’s no longer acceptable to remain in the status quo, if for no other reason than to change his or her personal circumstances. Sometimes others take notice and join in. That usually happens when they sense less risk.

So the leader is the one who decides there is a better way and sets about finding that way. They take on the risk and find a solution. Others then follow.

Oh, wait…

That’s what entrepreneurs do…

Read “Tribes” by Seth Godin

Blogging Gazelle is published daily by Shawn Carson

“You don’t deal with egos. You use them.” – Steve Neumann

Sooner or later, you will have employees, a Board of Directors and perhaps investors. You will also have customers.

Everyone has an ego. Some people will force their egos into the relationship for reasons that are incomprehensible. And firing them is not always the answer or even possible.

The challenge is to figure out how to use a person’s ego to get the value of what they have to offer. Channel them into roles where their ego is an advantage. Isolate them from circumstances when their personality is detrimental.

If a board member is prone to outbursts during a board meeting, meet them for coffee ahead of time and preview the issues with them to gauge their reaction. If it’s going to be negative, you’ll know and they won’t hear it for the first time. On the positive side, this person will help you sell your idea if you include them in the conception of the idea (make it theirs).

“Collaboration and planning are the opposite of speed” – Rob Wiltbank

Collaboration builds consensus and that’s a good thing. But it’s not a substitute for decision making and it’s expensive in the most precious resource – time.

The CEO’s job is to decide and move forward. Wasted time is gone forever.

Get good feedback from customers and the team but as soon as you see a direction, go! If you hit a snag, that;s what pivots are for.

Rob Wiltbank spoke at the 2013 SSTI Conference in Portland

“Chaos happens at 15 and 45” – John Morris

As your startup grows, transitions will be necessary. Two early milestones will occur when you have around 15 employees and then again around 45 employees.

At 15, the CEO has reached her capacity to keep a handle on everything and everyone. At that point, division of responsibility has to occur and the level of trust has to go up.

45 employees brings about the introduction of middle management. Management Processes take over as the CEO’s primary tool rather than central control of the decisions.

In each transition stage, be prepared to turn over control and decision making to your team.

“Entrepreneur, Fire Thyself” – Kerrie MacPherson

This is a great article on the Harvard Business Review Blog.

Entrepreneurs who are control freaks will run into trouble. Your job is to work yourself out of a job… in order to find the next one. It doesn’t mean you lose control, it means you learn to share it.

Of course you have to find the right people…

Here’s the link:

http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/10/entrepreneur-fire-thyself/