True business success and leadership starts with real personal values, extends to building a team, and finally to inspiring customers and your community. That’s a huge leap from an entrepreneurial idea, to a product, to making money. Is it any wonder that the majority of startups fail? My job as a new business advisor is to help entrepreneurs get over this chasm early.
My approach has always been to suggest specific actions that have immediate impact, as well as highlight positive leadership attributes, leading to longer-term success and a commitment to values. I found some great guidance in this context in a new book, “Lead True,” by Jeff Thompson, MD. Thompson is a well-recognized successful values-based leader and speaker.
I fully support and appreciate his case studies and conclusions on specific required personal initiatives, and how these can change people, organizations, and even entire industries. Here are some of the key elements of his message that every aspiring business leader needs to understand and practice:
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Muster courage to not allow fear to make your decisions. As challenges come along that require specific and concrete action, they are seldom easy. Your company finances, reputation, or even your survival may be on the line. Courage is not the absence of fear, but it is the ability to put your values and vision ahead of the easier way out.
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Practice discipline to translate values to consistent actions. In business, consistency is the key to productivity and trust by team members and customers alike. Leaders who are disciplined around values build trust, inspire others, and have more impact. With discipline, you can be the role model your constituents need to overcome all obstacles.
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Use durability to stay true to your vision in tough times. Most entrepreneurs find that they are their own toughest critics. Your values and vision can give you persistence and stability, even when the road ahead seems hazardous and endless. The world may not be ready for your great solution just yet, but leadership can carry you for the duration.
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Find reverence for people over profits, egos, and convenience. Reverence for others takes humility, but it results in deeper relationships, deeper wins, and a greater business. The more complicated the lives of your team and your customers, the more they need values to understand those struggles. Their reverence is returned to make you a leader.
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Measure, don’t guess, with tools that build, not limit. Hope is the weakest strategy for improvement in business. Set goals based on values, that are meant to exceed, and use metrics, rather than gut feeling to assess your own progress, as well as that of your team. Don’t be limited by tools of the past – always be alert for best of breed and innovation.
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Commit to a higher cause to attract like-minded partners. Business leadership in today’s environment is all about relationships. People build relationships in the context of common values, or win-win. More important than killing your competitors or making money is a making the world a better place. People will seek your leadership as partners.
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Take responsibility for the big picture and your bottom line. Great business leaders really believe their values can win by improving the economy, the environment, and the bottom line all at the same time. They find it improves their ability to build relationships, communicate effectively, and excite their customers into becoming loyal advocates.
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Lead to learn and the benefit will go both ways. The days of educating customers to sell your current solutions are gone. Business leaders today listen and learn customer values, and then use their values to provide solutions to customer needs today, and project customer needs for tomorrow. Customers want to be led, rather than pushed.
Thus it’s fair for entrepreneurs to start by pitching an idea and an implementation, but investors and other constituents (as well as customers) quickly need to see beyond this to the values that drive your efforts. If you haven’t communicated these, or are still a bit fuzzy on them yourself, it’s time to rethink your whole business leadership strategy. Your success these days depends on it.
Marty Zwilling
