I have been exposed to lots of interesting business leaders over the years. The difference between the average ones, and the great ones, was how they viewed themselves, and the role they thought they needed to play within their company. My conclusion: the persons that saw themselves as the smartest guy (or gal) in the room, who needed to control all the decision making in the company, are the ones who achieved the least success, and ended up alienating their peers the most. Allow me to explain further, so you don’t repeat these same mistakes.
The Smartest Guy in
the Room—Meet Bob
Meet Bob, the CEO of hypothetical ABC Corporation. There is no one in the company’s opinion that
he values more than his own. He doesn’t
trust his staff to make the tough decisions.
He loves to hear himself talk. No
new ideas are good unless he came up with them.
He loves to micro-manage every decision.
He pretty much “knows it all”, regardless of the topic, and would never
hire a person smarter then himself, to not look stupid. The company’s revenues are simply not growing
and Bob has no idea why.
The Reaction of Bob’s
Employees
Nobody likes working for Bob, they frankly feel he is an
ass. They have given up on contributing
new ideas, because they are tired of being turned down, over and over
again. Frankly, they don’t care about
the company, and are simply going through the motions of the job, most likely
keeping their ears open for new job openings since this company has very high
employee turnover, low morale and a poor culture, which has trickled down from
the top.
The Smartest Manager
in the Room—Meet Betty
On the other hand, meet Betty, the CEO of hypothetical XYZ
Company. Betty knows the value of
knowing when to keep her mouth shut, and listen to the ideas of her staff. She empowers her company’s leaders to make
all key decisions on their own. And, she
frankly listens, a lot more than she speaks.
Which carries more weight when she actually does speak. She is not focused on managing the details of
every decision in the company, and relies on her team to make those decisions—a
team she recruited as smarter than herself and experts in their field, much
more so than herself. The company’s
revenues are flourishing.
The Reaction of
Betty’s Employees
Everybody loves working for Betty, as they value having
their ideas listened to and acted upon.
And, they love working for the company, alongside a staff of equally
happy employees who have built a great comradery, culture and team. They wouldn’t dream of leaving the business,
as they are enjoying their “rocket ship” growth and love their job.
Be Betty, Not Bob
The moral of the story here: be more like Betty, not
Bob. If at any time you read the above
description of Bob, and said, “yeah, that pretty much sounds like me and my
management style”, you have a huge problem in your business . . . YOU!! The
problem is, most “Bobs” in the world, don’t even know they are behaving that
way. So what you really need to do, is
have an outsider survey your employees and have them tell you exactly what they
think about you, your management style and the company. That is the only way good learnings can be
had, for you to improve yourself, and the business in the process. And, if you read the above description of
Betty and said “yes, that pretty much sounds like me”, keep up the great work.
Hire Smarter Than
Yourself
When you hire talent, leave your ego at the door. If the candidate is smarter than you, that is
a good thing. You want to have the
smartest people possible leading the company.
Don’t be intimidated by them, or worry what your staff will think of you
in comparison. A smart employee will
realize that you were the one that found such a great talent, and will give you
credit for the hire. Not, think any less
of you. You need to hire the BEST talent
you can find and afford, every single time.
How they compare to you, is absolutely irrelevant.
Empower Your People
If you are micromanaging every single decision inside the
company, you are not focused where you should be. A good CEO will hire a strong senior team
that they trust the run the day-to-day decisions of the company, after pointing
them in the right direction. And that
will free your time up to better focus on more strategic areas of the company,
which can propel the business to new heights.
And, in the process, your staff will love you, empowering them and
trusting them to do their jobs, with limited oversight. But, that only works if you are hiring the
smartest talent you can find. So, don’t
be a penny wise, and a pound foolish.
Invest in your talent to give the business the highest odds of success.
Listen More, Speak
Less
We have all been in the room with the “blow hard” CEO that
just loves to hear themselves talk, and speaks for 90% of the available minutes
for a meeting. It is just exhausting as
a listener, and everyone simply tunes them out, which defeats the purpose of
the meeting in the first place. Instead,
flip that—speak for 10% of the time.
But, don’t make all the decisions in the room, ask the probing questions
that will get everyone’s creative juices flowing, so the best decisions can be
made collectively. That is so much more
refreshing for both the staff and the business.
Closing Thoughts
As you can see, I feel pretty strongly on this topic. Partly because I have seen this scenario play
out, over and over again, in many companies.
And, partly, because I have watched myself mature as an executive, the
older I got, replacing a lot of my previous “bad habits” with “good habits”
over time. So, overhaul your management
style and recruitment approach and good things should happen for you too!!