Four Lessons of Self-Knowledge for Leaders

One of the approaches I like about Warren Bennis and his theories in the book On Becoming a Leader is that he puts the impetus on the leader to go out and better himself. There’s nothing handed to you — whether it’s proactively finding a mentor, reading books, or learning from peers, the onus is on you.

In the book the author offers up four lessons of self-knowledge for leaders (pg 52):

• One: You are your own best teacher.
• Two: Accept responsibility. Blame no one.
• Three: You can learn anything you want to learn.
• Four: True understanding comes from reflecting on your experience.

The best leaders I know are the ones who are constantly engaged in learning. And the learning doesn’t have to be specific to their industry, rather they are passionate learners about a multitude of things, of which they draw parallels and patterns in their efforts to be a better leader.

What else? What do you think of these four lessons of self-knowledge for leaders?

What’s the right amount of in-person communication in a startup?

Internal communication has been a hot topic lately. As a startup grows the amount of in-person communication needs to grow even faster. But, what’s the right amount of in-person communication in a startup? How do you know when there’s enough? As a general rule it’s better to have too much communication rather than too little.

Here are some of the in-person communication processes we use:

• Daily check-in – Quick stand-up meeting for 10 minutes each day answering the questions what did you accomplish yesterday, what are you going to do today, and do you have any roadblocks
• Weekly all hands meeting – 20 minute meeting with everyone talking about good news and answering town hall questions
• Bi-weekly or monthly catch-up – Status update on top three projects, what’s working, what needs to change
• Quarterly check-in – Lightweight performance review answering questions what did you accomplish last quarter, what are you going to do this quarter, how can you improve, and how are you following the values
• Quarterly simplified one-page strategic plan – A one page document with S.W.O.T. analysis, vision, goals, elevator pitch, and more talked about at the first all hands meeting of the quarter

In-person communication and alignment is tough. As a startup grows it becomes even tougher. The fine balance between extensive communication and death-by-meeting needs to constantly be evaluated.

What else? What are some other in-person communication processes that you’d recommend?

The Four Essential Competencies of a Leader

Recently I started reading On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis as several people have mentioned it as a classic. After getting through his Hollywood-style political leanings in the intro he does a good job of describing characteristics and examples of good and bad leaders.

Here are the four essential competencies of a leader according to Warren Bennis (pg. xxv)

• Leaders are able to engage others by creating shared meaning
• All authentic leaders have a distinctive voice
• All true leaders have integrity
• The most important competency is adaptive capacity — this is what allows leaders to respond quickly and intelligently to relentless change

Most of the leaders interviewed are somewhat dated now as the book is over 20 years old but the concepts and ideas still ring true. For leaders looking to learn and grow in their skills, this book is a quality read.

What else? Do you agree with these four essential competencies of a leader?

Leadership Development Questions from The Secret

Continuing with yesterday’s post on the book The Secret by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller, there were a number of good discussion questions as part of leadership development. While there were too many to list here I wanted to capture some of the key ones.

Here are some leadership development questions from The Secret:

• What is the purpose of your team?
• How can you communicate your vision of the future to your team?
• What are ten specific things you could do to engage individuals more effectively in the work of the team and the organization?
• How are you encouraging the development of your people?
• What systems or processes in your area of responsibility need to be changed to enhance performance?
• How could the areas under your leadership be structured differently to enhance performance?
• How many of your people would say that you have made a significant investment in their lives?
• What are the ways you have expressed appreciation for work well done in the last thirty days?
• What do I want to be true in the future that is not true today?

These are great discussion questions for peer-to-peer learning as well as mentoring sessions.

What else? What are some other good leadership development questions?

Startup Leadership Book Review: The Secret

This weekend I finished reading the short book titled The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do by Ken Blanchard (of The One Minute Manager fame) and Mark Miller (a VP at Chick-fil-A). Much like the Patrick Lencioni books, it’s told as a fable with the main character going through a leadership mentoring program with an executive at her company. The main takeaway from the book is that leadership is about serving others (servant leadership) combined with the following SERVE acronym:

• See the Future (vision)
• Engage and Develop Others (mentoring and training)
• Reinvent Continuously (try new ideas)
• Value Results and Relationships (metrics and people)
• Embody the Values (culture starts with you)

Forcing each of the items into the SERVE acronym was a bit of a stretch but the core concepts are sound. Leadership, just like any other skill, needs constant work, practice, and development.

What else? What did you think of the leadership book The Secret?

Executive Hire Considerations in a Startup

Hiring an executive is hard in any business, especially startups. In startups, the speed and execution of the organization is so critical to success that a poor executive hire can sink the ship. When hiring an executive it’s important to consider different applicable traits and articulate internally what’s most important for the startup’s current stage (e.g. the team at $1M in revenue isn’t necessarily the same team at $20M in revenue).

Here are some executive considerations when hiring:

• Manager – does this person need to manage a team, like a VP of Engineering, or be more of a chief scientist like a CTO?
• Doer – especially in earlier stages, executives need to roll up their sleeves and do some front-line work. If this is a significant part of the job, it’s important to make sure the person likes to do individual projects in addition to managing.
• Planner – planning takes many forms. Do they need to do quarterly and annual goals? What about budgets?
• Strategic thinker – some roles are more for thought leadership and public speaking (e.g. the visionary type). The best managers aren’t always the best strategic thinkers.

Of course, a strong corporate culture fit is first and foremost with any hire. Assuming corporate culture fit is in place, it’s important to think through these considerations when hiring an executive in a startup.

What else? What are some other executive hire considerations in a startup?

What outcome do you want from this meeting?

Image via Wikipedia

When meeting with an entrepreneur one of the questions I like to ask early in the conversation is “What outcome do you want from this meeting?” With so many different topics covered in a typical startup-oriented conversation, there’s a tendency to share useful information but not necessarily spend enough time on the most pressing items.

Here are some of the more common meeting outcome requests:

• Feedback on the idea/concept
• Introductions to investors, partners, and people that can potentially help
• Resources like books and blogs to solve specific problems or better address potential opportunities
• Analysis of a specific issue

The next time you’re in a meeting, be straightforward and ask the question “what outcome do you want from this meeting?” You’ll be able to spend more time on the key issues and get more value from the conversation.

What else? What other general questions do you commonly ask in a conversation?

Consensus or Leader-Led Decision Making in Startups

Image via Wikipedia

With a small, agile team there usually aren’t too many people to get on board with a decision. The ability to move quickly in a startup is critical, and team members need to be on board. In fact, fast decision making is one of the main reasons startups beat larger, more well-funded competitors. Two of the most common decision making approaches in startups are consensus and leader-led.

In a consensus process the leader works with the team members both individually and as a group to see how each person feels about a potential decision. The decision to move forward is only made with everyone in agreement, requiring more time and energy to reach an agreement. John D. Rockefeller was famous for requiring consensus from his management team before doing an intitiative.

In a leader-led process the leader works to get everyone to voice his or her opinion so that their choice and reasoning is well understood. After getting everyone’s opinion, and talking through things, the leader makes the decision that he/she believes best, even if it isn’t consensus. Because everyone has voiced their opinion and contributed to the process, they are more bought into the decision even if it isn’t the direction they wanted.

There’s no right or wrong approach in a startup but it is important for leaders to understand their personal style, as well as the magnitude of the decision, and to decide the best course of action.

What else? What style do you prefer and why?