If leadership was just about leading it MIGHT be easy. However, the challenging aspect of leading people is the dichotomy of leadership. It requires balancing opposite forces that every leader faces. A simple yet seemly contradictory challenge is when to lead and when to follow.
The Dichotomy of Leadership is a follow up book by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin to their book Extreme Ownership. As in their first book, they apply their military leadership principles to the business world. The authors are business consultants and in this book they again illustrate the lessons learned in combat and how they apply to the world of business. Chapter after chapter take you into their world of training and war operations, then how they apply these lessons to actual business problems. This book was written to correct a misunderstanding some readers had from reading their first book. Some concluded it was about a leader taking complete control. This book lays out the problem with those who take such a limited view of leadership.
The following is just a couple of examples of the basic concepts from this second book. If you are looking for practical business ideas, I highly recommend you read the book to fully understand these and other concepts. The basic concept in this book is finding balance.
Finding the Balance
The book is broken down into three parts, with the goal of helping leaders find that critical balance. The three parts are:
Balancing People
Balancing the Mission
Balancing Yourself
When to Follow and When to Lead
As the leader of you company, you must be willing to lead. But you must be willing to follow. When do you follow? You must be willing to lean on those with more expertise than you have. You must be willing to listen to those with great ideas and specific knowledge that you lack. Confident leaders encourage members of their team to step-up and take a leadership role when they can contribute to the success of the company’s mission.
Plan, but Don’t Overplan
Planning is a key component of every successful business. An example is a Profit Plan. It provides the base against which you can measure your firm’s performance relative to the Plan. This and other plans should include how to handle contingencies. However, you cannot plan for every contingency. That would over complicate things. The balance is not to over or under plan for contingencies. Thus, you should focus on the most likely constancies. For example, what to do if there is a downturn in the economy which impacts estimated sales?
Focused, but Detached
Leaders must pay attention to details. However, they cannot become so focused on the details that they lose track of the larger picture. Too often leaders get involved in too many decisions and the result is the organization cannot function effectively. The leader becomes a bottleneck slowing and/or delaying operations. The leader needs to determine when to get involved and when to delegate the operations to their management team members. This is about letting others lead.
Outside Help
Inside and outside expertise is also a dichotomy issue. Your leadership and that of your management team have brought you from a start-up company to where you are today. That success may be the very thing that holds you back from growing to the next level. An outside resource can complement and balance your in-house knowledge and experience. Their objective view of you as a leader and your management team can help bring a fresh approach to addressing issues you may have overlooked.
For example, would you like to know how to diagnose problems before they surface? Or how to focus on the right things at the right time? Would you like to be able to predict how growth will impact you? Fortunately, you can get answers to these questions and more by understanding that there is a model to help you manage growth based on the number of people you have. This model is called the 7 Stages of Growth and by just knowing how many people you have you can identify critical issues that must be addressed today. And even more important, you can look back to earlier stages of growth and identify issues that are creating obstacles to growth. From this clarity, you’ll be able to better lead your team, make better decisions and improve profitability.
A Researched Foundation
Based on interviews and working with 650 CEO’s in 35 different industries, James Fischer was able to identify 7 Stages of Growth that firms pass through. In this research, he also found that a businesses will
- Face 27 different Challenges as they grow through these 7 Stages of Growth. At each stage the Top 5 Challenges change. Any challenge not addressed does not go away and in fact can slow growth.
- Need to understand the appropriate Builder: Protector Ratio. In Stages 1 & 2 you need to be builder. That is a person who takes risks. By Stage 3 you need to balance being a builder with being a protector, thus becoming more conservative person.
- Need to know the 5 Non-Negotiable Rules you will face. Like with challenges, unaddressed Rules will restrict future growth
- Face an ever changing focus on a shifting priority of Profit, People, and Process. You need to focus on all three and all times, but the top priority changes as the company grows.
- Need to adjust your Leadership Face from Specialist with a Vision at Stage 1 & 2 to a Manager in Stage 3. Ultimately will become focused on becoming a Visionary in Stage 7.
Getting Started – A FREE Test Drive
James Fischer identified the top five challenges at each stage of growth. Do you know your Top 5 Challenges? I challenge you to take the FREE 27 Challenge Assessment. It will not only give you better insight into your Top 5 Challenges, but you will receive a Special Report for your Stage of Growth. The Report will provide you with the following:
- 5 Biggest Challenges for your firm’s stage of growth
- Tools to Build Your Business
- 5 Non-Negotiable Rules for your firm’s stage of growth
- Business Building Blocks
- Getting Ready for the next Stage of Growth
To take the FREE 27 Challenge Assessment go to https://www.trwconsulting16.com/ and click on Take 27 Challenge Assessment.