As we approach the holiday season I am currently 1 week through a 3 week vacation. Along with it being my first extended holiday in the last 24 years, it is really the first time I’ve let my team fully run the ship without at least some guidance from afar. 

The timing was right. They all have confidence in their abilities and so do I. It is a necessary step in the sustainability of my company to have it run without me. What are the gaps they need to fill? What lessons can I learn from the exercise?

1-      No two people will ever approach solving a problem or answering a question the same way. As an owner or manager, we have to accept that things will not get done the way we would do it and that’s okay.

2-      Necessity is the mother of invention. People respond to pressure and deadlines. If we’re not there to deal with a situation, the need to resolve it will create a champion with a solution. The more it happens the better your team will be at the daily problem solving that arises.

3-       For the most part, I have a young team. Most are the age I was when I started my business. And they are all more capable in their respective duties than I was at their age. That is the fact I focused on to let go of the reins to this extent and feel comfortable doing so. Kind of a sink or swim, what’s the worst that could happen scenario.

4-      As managers, how can we effectively accomplish that task when we are caught up fully in the day to day? We may be the best problem solvers due to our experience level but what could we accomplish if we applied those same talents to investigating new products, processes and opportunities?

5-       I had my grandson here the first week of our holiday. He’s just shy of two and his key mission in life is to demand your undivided attention. If there is trouble he will find it. Babysitting is a key element of business too. Bringing on a new account or starting a new project can be all consuming. Find the equivalent of daycare for these types of business situations. Babysitting is okay on occasion, but don’t make a career of it, as you will accomplish nothing else.

When I’m back, one of the first things I’ll do is assess what the gaps were, if any, in my absence. That will be the first blog of 2012.

Have a great holiday season everyone!

 Lee’s Quote for the Day

“Say it can’t be done and that’s what will happen. Saying it can be done requires constant focus, self-belief, and tenacity. In other words, it’s much easier to talk ourselves out of it, than talk ourselves into it.” 

Every department, company and democracy has a leader for a good reason. The one thing most of us would agree on, is that with any given issue there are as many opinions as there are stars in the sky… and someone needs to make the final call. I like the sayings “a camel was a horse designed by committee” and “too many cooks spoil the broth”, and of course to counter that “two heads are better than one”.

So how do you decide how much buy-in to get from the troops? When to listen and who to listen too? Who knows best? When and where does “the buck stop here”? Let’s sidetrack for a minute to the fundamental principals of executive decision making at the highest level… business innovation. In simple terms, at the front end of the process every idea is a good idea. After every goofy and insightful suggestion is exhausted, the process of elimination occurs to get the best idea in place that can solve the problem or create the new product.

I believe most leaders (be it of a department, a company, or a country) are both effective problem solvers and delegators. The best ones know when to call in specialists to assist and trust them to do the job at hand. The worst ones revert to “If I want your opinion I’ll give it to you”. Like most things it’s a matter of balance and from my viewpoint it’s a hard balance to achieve.

As an observer of leaders within the transportation sector for the last twenty years, I’ve seen all kinds. Some who are close minded to any new thinking, some that can’t decide, some that decide to quick, some that flip flop, some that run decisions by everybody (including close relatives), others that don’t let anyone in on what they’re thinking, a few that are extremely decisive, some surprisingly approachable, and those that are for the most part unapproachable by design. The commonality is they all run successful companies, have team members that complement there strengths and weaknesses and somehow find a way to keep all the balls bouncing in more or less the right direction.

In an ideal world I believe a good leader gets buy-in at the senior management level and that their senior managers are in touch with the needs and thinking of the troops. Decisions are not a democracy or a dictatorship. And a good leader knows when and how to bring the troops together, is decisive, cares about the people that make up their team and doesn’t keep that fact a secret.

I continue to learn about the decision making process and the responsibility of being a leader:

• You can’t touch everything and if you are attempting to, you are not building an effective team around you or giving your people the opportunities they deserve
• You have to let people fail to learn and grow, and many people have more capabilities then you or they are aware of. It is our job as leaders to understand their strengths and steer them to the right seat on the bus within or outside our organizations
• When your level of confidence is based on what you know and not a tactic to cover up what you don’t know, it is a powerful tool in business and in life

Lee’s Quote for the day

“Forget process, bonuses and perks of all kind. Honest and frequent communication is the most powerful tool we have to build the teams, the relationships and the success we deserve… we have the skills, we just need to remind ourselves to use them on a regular basis!”