I’ve got news for you Mister or Madam CEO … you already do. Your employees know if you are having a bad day. They can usually spot it as you get out of your car in the parking lot. The “watch out for the boss” signs are posted early in the day – sometimes even before you arrive.
They love it when you are having a good day. They feel like they can ask for additional resources, are inclined to think more creatively, and are happy to share their ideas with you. When you’re happy, everybody is happy.

We are used to dealing with the daily peaks and valleys of running our businesses and managing stress at work. That is normal. Some issues are out of our control, but there are also many we can fix. When we have a high-performing business, we assemble our team and collectively think about, talk about, then tackle the best solutions. We evaluate for reasonableness, risk, affordability, and time. We decide on our course of action – and execute.
But when we have personal problems in the workplace … that is not so easy. We feel the need to be strong, so we keep our personal issues at work to ourselves. We refuse to be vulnerable. In our own minds, we cannot be perceived as weak or unable to manage stress at work. We also don’t have a clue how to solve personal problems by ourselves.

In our Vistage peer advisory groups – we recognize the need to deal with the whole human being. As I have mentioned in a previous blog, we recruit outstanding leaders, and human beings walk through the door. Our business groups work with the whole person.
How and why? In Vistage Groups, confidentiality is the No. 1 rule. In my 13 years as a Chair, I have never seen that rule violated. When confidentiality is king, people reveal their true selves. Trust is the by-product of our peer advisory groups. Solutions are the results. We share personal triumphs and tragedies as well as business victories and challenges. When something good or bad happens, we celebrate and suffer together. We can also help decide and determine if the issues involved are serious enough to require professional help, whether that be legal, spiritual, or psychological. And we help them seek that help and hold them accountable for it.

So what have we learned over the years?
Vulnerability is strength. It seems counter-intuitive, but those who trust enough to be vulnerable with a group of trusted peers are stronger people after all. And their path to resolution is both easier and shorter. Like any muscle group, exercise makes them stronger. But you have to use them. Spouses are often good for that.

Be your true self. Be who you really are – and you will earn the respect of others.

Associate with people you can trust. Most people have a sibling or a best friend with whom they can confide. Find them. Trust them. Use them as a tool, but not as a crutch. Listen to them.

There are lots of leaders.   There are lots of leadership experts.  There are lots of leadership books.   I googled “leadership books” and got 475 million hits.  (seriously)   Then to narrow down the universe of leadership books, I went to Amazon and still got “102,879 results”.   That’s a lot of books.   The point is, there are a lot of books and resources available, but often they conflict and disagree, and at the end of the day the lessons taught are really  just one author’s opinion.

Clearly the subject can be quite confusing.  I am especially amused when a book author has a very specific detailed formula.  Example:  Stephen R. Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  (Great book by the way!)  But even Mr. Covey eventually added an “8th Habit”.    So is understanding and learning leadership easy or hard? 

My personal opinion is that it is both.  Leadership comes easy to some, and some people really don’t have an aptitude for it.  And even for those who are natural leaders, there is always more to learn, and if they are paying attention, they will experience a new leadership challenge every day.  I also believe that people who may not be particularly good at leadership can become better leaders.   All leaders can become better if they are given the right leadership and learning opportunities.

The subject is long and complicated.  But I would like to simplify it and make it as useful as possible to new and experienced leaders alike.   Since the subject is so broad, I will also just tackle one aspect of leadership in this particular blog.   A first step is to describe several types of leaders we all see every day. “Leadership” is not a one-size-fits-all description.

The Position Leader

This is the person we understand the most.  The President of the United States, a teacher, your priest, minister or rabbi.   Your Boy Scout Scoutmaster and the head of the PTA.  All of these are leaders – by definition of their position.   We assume all of these people are qualified, but I submit you don’t have to be a good leader to be in a position of leadership.  However we generally show respect for the position, and then let the leader in the position earn our personal respect as they demonstrate leadership.

The Subject Matter Expert

Subject Matter Experts are the “go to” people on a subject.   We all know them.   We appreciate them when they have particular skills.   I appreciate my mechanic.   I love my physician.  I even like my dentist.   I imagine the list of trusted experts in your lives is long.  However these experts do not necessarily have to be good leaders.  They may have weird personalities or have difficulty carrying on a conversation, but we have a high degree of trust in their knowledge and ability.

The Charismatic Leader

In “The Music Man” Professor Harold Hill convinced the people of River City, Iowa that the young men in the town could all become musicians.  He had that uncanny ability to make people want to follow him.   We all know these people.  I have had several bosses who I trusted completely, and if they asked or told me to do something, I just did it to the best of my ability.  We want to follow these leaders.  Most of us never actually met John F. Kennedy – but he was a charismatic leader, and we wanted to follow him

The Effective Leader

This is simply the one who “gets things done”.   Sometimes he or she is hard to like or hard to work with.  Sometimes they can be very charismatic.  Sometimes that can’t even spell charisma, but they are known for getting the job done.  And we trust them to be successful.

If we are lucky, our leaders in positions of authority would be subject matter experts and be charismatic and effective.  But for all these types of leaders, there are many variations.  This is part of the complexity of leadership.    More on Leadership to follow in future blogs.

People who know me have often heard me talk about the four corners of business. Frequently I talk to and deal with entrepreneurs who are subject matter experts in their chosen field.  Their enterprises could be technology or contruction, maid services or the practice of law.   I admire these men and women for taking a risk and “hanging their own shingle”.  

What most of them realize eventually is that starting a business is a lot more work than they had planned, and that they have to deal with many issues that they have zero knowledge of, or really don’t like to do.  Typically these would include employee issues, finance and accounting, facility management and of course, sales and marketing.  Engineers as an example are prone to create really wonderful breakthrough technology, and then assume that because their technology is so cool, that their products will just sell themselves.  This is clearly not the case.

My theory is quite simple, and it applies to small start-ups as well as to the Fortune 500.  In order for any business to be successful, they have to have balance in their business in the four following areas:

Product or Service.  

Ford and General Motors make automobiles, lawyers practice law.  Painters paint and grocery stores sell food.   Businesses must be good at what they do and continuously improve.  The product or service offering is what they do in business. 

Sales

As a good friend of mine says, “Nothing happens until the sale is made.”  Most of us are not born sales people, but it is a skill that many people have and are good at.  Effective sales and sales management are requirements for any successful enterprise.

Marketing

Marketing is largely misunderstood and takes on various forms of execution.   It is not the same as sales.  (Many organization have a VP of sales and marketing – why is a mystery to me).  Marketing needs to be supportive of the sales team and the sales process, but marketing is a series of disciplines unto themselves aimed at generating sales leads and communicating with customers.  Sales and marketing must be mutually supportive even though at times they have competing agendas.

Operations

Operations in my analogy is the nuts and bolts of running the business.  It includes accounting and legal, human resources, facilities and facilities management, organization, training,  IT infrastructure and IT management to name a few.  This is the function that lets businesses do what they do, and with a minimum of friction.  Sadly, it is usually the last function small businesses and start-ups pay attention to.

The Role of the CEO

The CEO’s history and expertise could come from any of the above disciplines.  But the role of the CEO is to ensure that each of the four disciplines (the four corners) are communicating with and support each of the other three.   Marketing needs to communicate with product development.  Sales needs to work with marketing and keep accounting and legal in the loop and so on.   You get the idea.

I love it when I see an organization that is “balanced”, and all areas of the business are cooperating and functioning together.

For an excellent book on the subject of how the entrepreneur can achieve business balance, read The E Myth by Michael E. Gerber.   Enjoy!