What Kind Of Leader Are You? Your effectiveness in scaling your business starts with the kind of leader you are. Here's how you can build yourself up into a leader others will follow.
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When you are in start-up mode it's tough to take a step back and think about the kind of leader you are or want to be. Most of the time you're fighting to keep your business alive, never mind think about how you lead.
This is especially challenging when it's faster and more efficient to just step up and do things yourself. It's easier for you to make the decisions, do the work, check the work, follow up on the work, etc. However, it's this situation that prevents young companies from scaling to the next level.
Ask More Questions
I work really hard every day to be quieter. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail so dismally that I actually do more damage than good. You see, I like to talk. I like to hear other people talk and I like to bash around ideas until they become something bigger, something better and something that can move from idea into action.
Coupled with liking to talk, I also like being right. Who doesn't? Add onto these two things the fact that I like to read and research and then throw in a teeny bit of ego or pride and it's a recipe for leadership disaster.
If I am the most well-read, loudest and most opinionated person in a meeting then all that happens is that I end up pitching an idea, getting everyone to agree with this idea and then assigning the work on the idea to become a reality. Basically, I am working with, for and amongst myself. It's an echo chamber that leads to bad ideas surviving and an unhappy team leaving.
The Collective Is More Intelligent Than the Individual
As a leader and founder, you probably feel like you are the person with the best understanding of the problem you are trying to solve and the best person to solve the problem. This can lead to a dictatorial approach to leadership, team inclusion and problem solving. You have an idea, you tell your team and they do what you tell them.
If this is how you do it then I have to ask you a simple question: Why did you hire smart people? Just so you could tell them what to do? If that's the case rather hire capable but cheap people, not the best.
Your best people are there to help you scale your business beyond your own thinking and time. There are a set amount of hours in the day. There are only so many emails you can answer in your day.
A good example in my business is customer support. We pride ourselves in our impeccable customer service online and offline. I can't physically answer every question posed by customers but I can hire incredible colleagues, entrust them with my vision and views on our customers and then trust them to go out and use their good judgement.
Work With The Best
Here's the kicker to being a good leader: You need to work with the best people.
This is not something I say as a passing statement. I want you to stop reading right now and think about the ten people you interact with at your company every day. Are they the best people you could be working with? If not, why not? How do you find the best people and bring them into your business? Go and do that.
It's important to work with the best for two very simple reasons.
Working with the best people pushes you to be better. If you are literally the smartest person in the room in every aspect of your business it means that you are surrounded by subpar players and you are not learning anything. The people around you are meant to educate you and push your business into places you didn't even know were there.
Second, working with the best people attracts other incredible people. If you have a business full of average team members, can you guess what kind of people they pull towards your business? More average or less than average people. Why? Because average people don't want to be surrounded by incredible people. If they are, they look worse and not better.
It's incredibly difficult to be a good leader all of the time. In fact, it's close to impossible. What you can do is try to be a leader who communicates, learns and grows with your team in an open manner.
