Category: Leadership

Stanford GSB has a great video up titled Jack Welch: Create Candor in the Workplace. One of my biggest challenges as an entrepreneur was going from being a product-focused inventor to growth-oriented CEO to overall company builder. In addition to reading a ton of entrepreneur books, I’ve read a number of leadership books and tried to incorporate relevant ideas. Jack Welch’s thoughts on the four types of employees has always stuck with me and here, in this week’s video, he talks about the importance of creating candor in the workplace. Enjoy!

From YouTube: Former chairman of General Electric tells audience to foster honest feedback: “If you reward candor, you’ll get it.”

One of the items entrepreneurs frequently debate is the level of transparency to provide within their startup. How much information does a team member need to know? When does not enough information cause problems? While there’s no perfect answer, I’ve found that it’s better to err on the side of providing more information than expected.

Here are a few areas worth considering as part of the transparency question in a startup:

• How much cash is in the bank?
• What’s the monthly burn rate?
• What are the key metrics for the business and where do things stand?
• What are the key metrics for each department and where do things stand?
• What goals need to be hit to raise the next round of financing (if applicable)?
• What are the top three challenges in the business (some issues, like those that are personnel related, can’t be discussed company-wide)?
• What’s on the Simplified One Page Strategic Plan?

Transparency in a startup varies wildly but more entrepreneurs are providing greater levels of transparency and getting greater levels of buy-in as well.

What else? What are some other transparency questions to consider?

Recently I was talking to a friend and he said he had no interest in being an entrepreneur. Curious, I asked why. There was one simple reason: he didn’t like to make decisions with limited information. As an entrepreneur, so many decisions have to be made with little or no data and lots of gut instinct. For many people, especially perfectionists, making those kinds of decisions over and over is terrifying.

For me, I like to keep in mind that I’m trying to make a good decision, learn from it, and move forward. Here are a few thoughts on entrepreneurial decision making:

• Perfect information never exists, never
• Limited information is normal, and often good enough to make quality decisions
• Almost all decisions aren’t permanent (thankfully!)
• Constantly learning and adapting is key to get to the right answer
• Moving forward is better than standing still

When the next decision is required on limited information, make the call, learn from it, and move forward. As General Patton said, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

What else? What are some more thoughts on making decisions, learning, and moving forward?

Last week an entrepreneur emailed me for advice on going from doer to leader. His startup is doing well and now has several employees for the first time. Only, he’s being pulled in many directions and knows he needs to start the slow process of spending a more time on the business and less time in the business.

I quickly responded that there are two immediate action items to start going from doer to leader:

• Join a Peer Group – Whether it’s EO Accelerator, EO, YPO, or something similar, it’s important to build a peer group of like-minded individuals that are also looking to become better leaders.
• Implement Rhythm, Data, and Priorities – Grab Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and put in place things like daily check-ins, one page strategic plans, quarterly celebrations, LED scoreboards, and more

So, join a group of other people that are interested in improving their leadership abilities and implement rhythm, data, and priorities to establish a foundation for the business to scale.

What else? What are some other recommendations for entrepreneurs going from doer to leader?

Recently I was talking to an entrepreneur about his journey. Early on in the conversation, I asked one of my favorite questions: what were some of your major milestones and lessons learned? Then, he recounted how one of his more important lessons learned was giving up control of the day-to-day operations so that he could work on the most important and strategic issues. Less tactical involvement turned into more results.

Thinking back on it, I was an immature micro-manager for the first several years of my entrepreneurial journey. I wanted to control and monitor every piece of the business including every customer support ticket and every line of new code in the product. I didn’t know any other way. The startup was so small and fragile I felt I had to smother it to make it successful.

Only, once we had achieved some level of success, I wasn’t self-aware enough to change my ways. After hitting a wall with our growth, scalability, and culture, I finally started the journey to unwind from the business and fully empower other team members. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

What else? Have you gone through the process of trying to control everything only to realize that giving up control was necessary to get to the next level?

One leadership lesson that took me entirely too long to learn was that different communications require different mediums. The idea is that communication mediums like face-to-face, video chat, phone, and email make it easy to share words but the context and nuance varies wildly. As an example, if people are upset or any sort of miscommunication is going on, face-to-face is significantly better than email or text message.

Let’s look at some of the different mediums and communication circumstances:

• Face-to-face – Best for anything emotional (good or bad), alignment-oriented, or difficult
• Video chat – Not as good as face-to-face but still auditory and visual, especially for staying connected to someone in a different physical location
• Phone – For exchange and dialogue on a complicated subject as well as times when emotion and relationship are an important part of the equation
• Email – Simple, fast, and effective for basic information exchange, tasks, and clarification

Chat and text message are similar to email in that they’re digital but have a greater sense of immediacy and two-way communication about them. Regardless, it’s important to choose the right medium for the communication.

What else? What are your thoughts on choosing the right medium for the communication?