Category: Leadership

“Do something hard and lonely.” – Jeffery J. Fox

Distance runners, cabinet makers, cyclists, solo musicians all have something in common. It takes time to be good at what they do and no one else can do it for them.

Taking on a hard, physically demanding avocation will help focus your mind and build your internal confidence.  Plus it will give you time to think.

You need time to think.  Away from everything and everyone.

Read “How to Become a CEO” By Jeffery J. Fox

“In the majority of cases, the CEO serves as the externally facing leader. The COO serves as the internally facing leader.” – David Thomson

There are a few key roles you need to fill in your startup.  What you call them is up to you.  Whether you fill them with fewer people is also.

  •  You need the the person that is the face of the company and sells to the market, investors, partners, board members. (CEO)
  • You need the person that gets things done.  (COO)
  • You need the person looking for the next big thing (CTO)
  • You need a rainmaker.  The one that finds customers and closes deals. (VP Biz Dev.)
  • …and you need good advisors.

A lot of technology starts get heavy on one end.  Launching a company is not the time to develop new business skills.  Find the right people.

Read “Blueprint to a Billion” by David Thomson

“Entrepreneurship is like playing chess in a hockey rink.” – Steve Hane

Part of strategic planning is to think…well ahead…of potential outcomes.  It doesn’t end there.  Develop scenarios that represent how you would react to those potential outcomes.:  “If this happens, we’ll do that.  If that happens, we’ll so this”.

Even this is not enough.  In the heat of business, customer expectations change in a blink.

When you hit the growth stage, you have to capture market share as quickly as possible, rapidly iterating.  Geoffrey Moore calls this being “inside the tornado”.  Jim Cramer puts even more simply, “sell, sell, sell s,s,s SELL”

Hockey players can react quickly because they spent the time practicing the moves, ahead of game time.  That is how they slow down time.  Even while the mind is trying to analyze the situation, the body says, “I’ve seen this before,” and slaps the winning shot.

 

“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision only passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” – Joel Barker

There are those who see and those who do.  We need both.

The seers view the realm of the possible in all it’s abundant potential.  But they must convince others to bring forth reality.

The doers get it done.  Their inspiration comes from leadership.  But success is often measured by busy-ness.

The World Changers…they capture the one idea from the seers they can accomplish and assemble a team of doers.  They can focus on the tasks while keeping an eye on the end game.

That is how dents in the universe happen.

 

“An army is good when you have training and structure; and command and control. But I’m still a geurilla at heart.” – John Morris

A company of one can be agile and react quickly.  It’s exhilarating.  If you grow, it does’t last.  Employees need to be managed.  Boards need to be managed.  Management requires structure and discipline.

It’s said a startup needs three CEO’s – The million dollar man, the ten million dollar man, and the one that grows the company past ten million.  Sometimes that’s the same person but usually, it’s not.  Each step requires transition that can be painful, especially when the founder/CEO is not the one for the job.

Know yourself and know when it’s time to find the next leader.

“I’ve never let my school interfere with my education.” – Mark Twain

I enjoyed my MBA experience immensely.  On reflection of that experience two thoughts emerge.  The first… I’m glad I came in with many years experience in the ‘real world”.  I was able to draw from that knowledge and think critically about what I was being taught.  Second, the theories from the great thinkers tell you what but not how.  That’s up to you.  And the theories don’t always work they way they were portrayed in the book or lecture.  The biggest take away was that I learned new frameworks to guide my thinking. But it’s the thinking that reveals truth in business situations.

School may open doors and expose you to new ideas but school won’t make you successful.  You still have to do that for yourself.

“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.” – Peter Drucker

Hire great people, give them direction and inspiration, and then get out of their way.  Highly productive, creative people do not work well when they are micromanaged.  If they are not with the program, invite them off the bus early.  If you, or they made a mistake in coming onboard, invite them off the bus early.  The right people don’t need to be “managed”.