The road to business success is one that can be lonely and dreary. The unrelenting passion of entrepreneurs and startup CEOs, while initially beneficial for the organization, can soon become a deterrent to the growth of the business and even its people. And with their current knowledge and skillset, it is inevitable for any startup entrepreneur to seek help in developing and running the business.
According to the world’s leading executive coach and best-selling author, Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the organizational dysfunction starts when the leader makes all the decisions and everyone else merely accepts them. As much as it is not enabling and maximizing the full potential of the employees, it is also extremely taxing on the top honcho. But that shouldn’t be the case, according to Dr. Goldsmith.
Having trained a number of corporate leaders across the globe, Dr. Goldsmith believes there are certain leadership principles that entrepreneurial leaders and start-up CEOs must adopt for self-improvement and re-assessment towards creating a positive impact on an organization.
1) Develop an exit strategy. “It is a good exercise to take and think of what you would want to achieve before you exit,” said Dr. Goldsmith. Drawing small and big finish lines helps diffuse the pressure of success, especially for startup businesses. By celebrating both small and milestone wins, it motivates the individual to continue to reach for the bigger goal without just banking on the big one.
2) Be a great client. “30 years ago, no CEO would have admitted wanting or needing to be coached. Coaching has come out of the closet and is something that people are no longer ashamed of,” said Dr. Goldsmith. It is important to understand that through coaching, entrepreneurial leaders are receiving mentoring which is hard to come by in the nature of the business. In the process, they are also creating a learning environment for themselves and their people.
3) Don’t get lost in logic. “A lot of your suggestions are going to become orders even if you didn’t want them to. I really have to caution people about saying ‘have you thought of this?’ or ‘have you tried that?’ because once you start saying that, they just salute the flag and do it your way,” said. Dr. Goldsmith. He added that success is now defined as how much you can empower others and not how much you can do yourself.
4) I know less than you do. Most startup businesses are created with intense passion from its founders – knowing the ins and outs of the business more than anyone else. However, as the business starts to grow, the game also changes as more people are hired who know more how to navigate the business landscape. When someone knows more than you do, it’s OK – that’s what the organization is for, it is about being able to lean on each other and working towards the same goals. “You can’t tell a knowledge worker what to do, you have to ask them what to do,” said Dr. Goldsmith.
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith will headline a two-city CEO, HR, and Senior Leaders conference in Asia this October, with Manila as his last stop on October 26, 2018. He will be joined by top coaching gun Dr. Peter Chee, and master trainer and chief coach Serely Alcaraz. The leadership conference is organized by ITD, the global leadership development expert. For more information and registration, call ITD World Philippines at +632 887 7428 or email at itdmanila@itd world.com.
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