February 18, 2012
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dave cates
Not everyone is meant to be a business leader. It requires someone who is paradoxically driven, focused and confident, and yet absolutely humble and open to influence. These leaders are the glue of the team, yet the team is more important than they are.
They give their all, but they give all the recognition to their team. Egomaniacs and pushovers need not apply.
If you want to be the best leader, you must have this paradoxical instinct. And if you have the instinct, you can use these four critical rules to further groom your leadership skills.
Hire slowly, fire quickly
Finding the best talent for your team is mandatory for success and it doesn't happen in just one interview. In pro football, for instance, scouts watch players over four years of college and in grueling tryouts.
Interviewing a potential employee one time and checking a few references is like signing a pro football player you've seen play only one game. Their performance could be a fluke. You must interview in multiple meetings and learn about the candidate's past in-depth.
On the flip side, after being slow and selective in the hiring process, if the new employee doesn't work out, remove them quickly. Keeping someone on board who isn’t working out is not fair to your company or to your colleagues. It isn't even fair to the employee you're letting go. If you keep them in a dead-end job, you prevent them from finding what they can do successfully.
Immutable laws
Great leaders stick with the company's defined immutable laws (you can use the word “values” here too), and makes sure everyone else does, too. First, look for a potential employee's immutable laws during the slow hiring process. Great leaders make sure that potential colleagues inherently have the same immutable laws as the company.
We are already wired to act consistently with our values, not necessarily with our education. So great leaders pick people not by their experience, which can be trained, but on their immutable laws.
If your company has not documented its immutable laws, you'd better get to it. Until you have clearly defined immutable laws your company abides by, you'll always have a hodgepodge of people who just don't really get each other.
Undemocratic
Great leaders make hard decisions even (or particularly) when they don't have the support of others. Great leaders listen to the input of their team and they take into consideration the thoughts and input of others.
But come decision time, it is not a vote. The leader makes the decision. This is why pushovers are not good leaders: They are too wishy-washy. Yet, this is also why egomaniacs are not good leaders, either: They think of themselves first, not the team.
Team, not individual
The best leaders do whatever it takes for the team to be successful. They cater to the team, not to individuals. And, to be clear, the leader is one of the individuals on the team. This “team first” approach takes courage, because you can't play favorites—not even to yourself.
Great businesses inevitably have great leaders. Great leaders have the natural instincts. But they also have mastered these instincts for critical skills.
Photo credit: Frits Ahlefeldt
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dave cates 2 months ago
I disagree with this article. I understand that you want to take as much time to ensure that you're getting the right people to fill a position but at the same time, you're also, following the author's example, in a draft that doesn't have turns. You'd better snatch up your top pick fast and not dilly around making a decision. On the other side of the coin, professionals don't have time to keep flying around the country for interviews. If you're not sure after a reasonable interview and lunch, then you should interview someone else.Letting someone go very quickly is also a way to completely destroy both morale within your company and your reputation within an industry. Firing people can have a detrimental affect to your employees. Another counter-point is that you're likely to have to take legal action for them to return the relocation package, bonus, and any other signing agreements that have been used to entice them to work for you.You follow this article's suggestions at your own risk.