Category Archives: Leadership

Along with the rise of electronic communication in the workplace, I’ve observed a disturbing trend: leaders using technology where leadership is required. And the result is dysfunctional leaders and dysfunctional organizations. The more that a leader relies on technology in personal interactions, the less personal and less effective he becomes.

When you’re clawing your way to the top, it’s easy to cling to the illusion that you’ll have everything figured out when you get there. But when you get there, you find out some things remain unknown or uncomfortable. As talented, experienced, and motivated as you are, you are only one person. It can seem like there’s nowhere else to turn. The top job can be overwhelming. People jump from the top floors in buildings, not the bottom floors.

Successful growth companies have a healthy paranoia about their success. They know that competitive advantage deteriorates over time unless it is constantly cultivated and reinforced. And these companies are seriously concerned with future threats to their continued success. But far too often, once “hot” companies cool off because they are too focused on harvesting their success to notice the world is changing around them.

I regularly come across companies with the same basic symptoms: A misty image of the future, lack of a common purpose or shared aspirations, resistance to change, overwhelming problems and unrealized opportunities, and a general sense of unease. These are challenges that can only be solved with leadership.

Leaders of growth aren’t successful without a strong team. And when it comes to managing their teams, they display two contradictory qualities: practicality and idealism. On the one hand, they are extremely practical – intensely aware of the realities of their situation and what is needed to succeed, and relentless in their focus on results. On the other hand, they are idealistic – visionaries who defy the odds to transform their ideas into reality by offering their teams support, motivation, and encouragement.

Hiring is the most critical component in scaling a business. Period. Nothing else comes close. The people you choose to hire will impact every part of your business. It’s talent that fuels innovation, customer loyalty, a great culture, and almost every other influence in an organization. It’s talent that adapts, overcomes obstacles, and creates growth. And yet every day I see leaders haphazardly approach the hiring process.

You know CEOs who are constantly in the public eye. They spend a great deal of their time attending conferences, giving speeches, appearing on TV, and being interviewed by the business press. They perform flawlessly, with tremendous charisma and poise. They arouse confidence among the public, potential employees, and investors. But among those closest to them, they are a fraud.

Whatever your level of experience, you can unleash the growth leader within you. That may mean developing a productive relationship with change, reorienting your beliefs about learning, growth, and failure, or developing new ways to think and act as a leader. You can start today, from wherever you are.

As your company grows, it is up to you to provide the leadership, rationale, and impetus for growth and change. You have to help people get comfortable with the idea that changes will be required again and again to meet the requirements of ever-higher levels of growth. The process of growth and change will need to be repeated many times in order for the organization to continue to grow.

Great leaders are not only able to see a successful future; they are able to communicate it in a clear and compelling way that makes people want to direct their efforts toward it.