Overvaluing our own opinion

“Only a fool let’s his opinion go beyond his knowledge.”

As a leader we like to project a confident attitude on our team. But sometimes we believe we know what we must to make a decision, and we don’t.  We believe our own opinion and fill in the blanks with what we want or hope instead of reality.

Ask questions, and get good opinions and judgements besides your own – then you can make better decisions and avoid your own fallibility.

Is it the horse or the jockey?

What makes a successful business?  Is it the business/model/industry?  Or is it the leader and management team?

While having a good business model helps, it’s clear that the leaders make the difference.  We know this because there are winners and losers in your (or any) business, right?

Are you a winning jockey?  What do you have to do to be a better one? 

Defying the odds

25% of startups fail within the first year.  36% of those left fail within the second year.  44% of those left fail within the third year.  50% of those left fail in their fourth year.

For an entrepreneur to succeed, she needs to beat the odds.  A gambling man, looking at the odds, would always bet against an entrepreneur.

We can’t be casual about finding distinctions in our business that will win over customers and help us compete successfully in the marketplace.

Are you improving your organization’s chances? 

"My leader (manager) has my back"

Managers (and employees) need to know their leader is on their side and has their back.  Here are two questions to ask your managers or subordinates –

“What are you working on now?” 

“How can I help?”

Share the leadership load

As the top guy, surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are, and who see the world and the business a bit different than you do, to offset your thinking biases.

Get people who can make the tough calls, and can tell you what they think you should do.  

Leaders like you don’t need to have all the answers, and if you put yourself in a lonely position at the top, you will make more mistakes.  Get some solid help with the leadership job.  

Ultimately decisions are yours, but having good information and good choices presented to you to consider will make your decisions better and easier.

Setbacks set the stage

How have your setbacks set the stage for the next level of success?  

If they haven’t, then you didn’t see it as a learning opportunity, or you gave up.  (Giving up on A is okay if it leads to launching B using what you learned.)

Are you learning now from things that are not working out how you thought they would when you began?

Perseverance

The idea of riding 840 miles through rugged terrain non-stop is daunting, and may seem impossible.

But the idea to ride as far as you can see ahead to the next turn – that you can do.  Then you can do it again.  And you can resolve to keep doing that and not give up.

The idea of getting your company from where it is to match your ideal vision is daunting.  But the idea of figuring out what the most important action to take today is, and going to work and doing it today is manageable.

One day at a time; and resolve to never give up.

Amnesty Meetings

If you don’t know what is going on, you can’t fix it.  But scared people don’t want to tell you about the real problems and bring you bad news; instead they want to tell you what you want to hear.

Have an “amnesty meeting”.  Tell them you want the unvarnished truth, and it’s OK for them to tell you.  In fact, it’s the only thing you want to hear.

Expect them to tell you about problems – if you don’t have any, you aren’t in business.  You need to hear the bad news now, because bad news doesn’t get better with age.

Once you hear the bad news, don’t kill the messenger, or even shoot thunderbolts out of your eyes at them. Face the brutal facts and don’t BS yourself.

Find out.  You can’t fix it if you don’t know.

So you've made a great hire…

Now what do you do with them?  Do you cast them into the same problem environment and culture with the same processes and systems that the old employees struggled with?

Be sure to create an environment where your people can be the best they can be.

Magazines

One way to expand your thinking is to subscribe to magazines; of course, the ones that pertain to your industry, and the ones that are peripheral or even completely different. Often, you can borrow ideas from other industries and apply them to your business.

If you only read the ones that pertain to your industry, over time your thinking will become stagnant.  I figure a two year stint on any magazine is enough to learn and get in touch with an industry.

These days there are plenty of free e-zines and e-newsletters to subscribe to.  There’s a way to go through magazines quickly – since most is advertising.  Go to the table of contents, pick out articles that interest you, and (have an assistant) go to them and tear them out for reading later.  

“Magazines all too frequently lead to books, and should be regarded by the prudent as the heavy petting of literature.” – Fran Lebowitz