Thoughts On Leadership
“You don’t manage people; you manage things. You lead people.” – Grace Hopper, Rear Admiral US Navy
There are no job titles I know of with the word “Leader” in them. And plenty with the word “Manager” and “Chief”. Yet we are are naturally drawn towards and often seek out “Leaders” in the workplace, in the public square, and in our communities. Organizations state in job descriptions that they are seeking leaders.
To paraphrase Malvolio from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “…some are born [leaders], some achieve [leadership], and some have [leadership] thrust upon ‘em.”
In my career, I was promoted to the point where I had to embrace leadership and build the skills quickly. I lacked any formal training and continue to hone my skills. Below I offer a distillation of my leadership principles. Unstated and critically important is my belief the “growth mindset” (popularized by Carol Dweck) – I know I can (and everyone can) continue to grow their leadership skills over time.
Enable the Success of Others: It is about “You”; not about “Me”. When I have taken over new teams, I introduce myself by saying my mandate is to ensure:
i. Each team member achieves their potential and succeeds.
ii. The team reaches its goals.
iii. The company / organization is successful.
You will be a successful leader if on all of these measures things are moving in the right direction.
It is critical for your team to know that you are there to help each of them succeed – in this role, the next one and even at the next company. I explicitly state to my team that my #1 goal is to be make each of them successful. I believe it has built trust and good will. As well an improved morale and motivated them to give more to the job and the company.
Be Self Aware and Humble: There is a myth that “Leaders”, especially CEOs, are both all-knowing and never wrong. The truth is all of us can be wrong, and often are. And none of us can predict the future.
I build rapport with my team by showing my humanity. That includes talking about the mistakes I have made (and what I learned from each mistake). I describe my leadership style as “a work in progress”, and am clear that I can learn a lot from them and others.
Empower Your Team: Empower. Don’t micromanage. I work with my teams to set priorities and broad constraints (usually time and money invested in a project). I will never tell someone how to execute the task unless my input is explicitly requested.
Empowerment stems from my hiring people who know how to do their daily job better than I do, setting priorities and then getting out of their way.
I try to encourage my team members to speak on topics at All Hands meetings. I find opportunities for them to present to the Executive Team or other CxOs/VPs, sometimes even without attending myself (unless they ask for back-up). It is my way of showing them that I believe in them and trust them.
Show Empathy: Start every interaction (especially 1:1s and team meetings) by asking about the other. Create a space for people to share about their life and passions beyond the workplace.
Business can be dry. Particularly when we are in a remote-first world, meetings can revolve around informing sharing on accomplishments or status updates on tasks. Gathering that data is important, but not at the cost of personal connection.
Remember that elements of every job are boring and painful. Listen to complaints without explicitly trying to solve things. Resist offering a “yes but” answer. There will be a time for joint problem solving. Let that opportunity organically arise.
For Finance leaders, a great way to build trust with the Revenue leadership is to stay late (in the office when that happens again) or to be available on the last business day of the quarter. Revenue leaders will appreciate your just being there to solve last minute issue and to cheer them on.
Be Willing to Roll Up Your Sleeves and Do the Work: I tell people, at least once a week, that I do more work in Excel today than when I first started in the business world 30 years ago (back then it was Lotus 123). I say this both because it is true and because it indicates that I am always willing to do “the work” alongside my team.
Doing the work alongside your team also builds empathy as you will better understand the day-to-day struggles of their role and be much more open to cutting out low value tasks, automating them or finding the 80% (good enough) solution when appropriate.
In this era of completely blurred boundaries between work and the rest of life, it is critical to encourage people to take time off, away from our digital devices for some extended period. That requires everyone being able to, at least partially, take over the job of other team members.
Be Transparent: I agree with the saying made famous by Louis Brandeis: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” In this area, I know I differ from many CEOs. Transparency and clear information sharing are hallmarks of my leadership style.
In Finance and People Ops teams often the most junior people know most “sensitive” information about the business anyway – how much cash is in the bank, the burn rate, who is getting paid how much and when people get promotions.
I view transparency as an indication that I trust my team. There are obvious limits to transparency (for example, items protected by NDA or personal information shared in confidence).
Transparency gains in importance during challenging times. More transparency reduces uncertainty and allows the team to be focused on the business tasks at hand rather than worrying more than normal about their future.
Encourage Questions: “Why?” should not be a “bad” word. I want my teams to ask questions. Asking questions is an extension of my belief in transparency.
It is critical that I can explain why I or the Leadership Team or the Board has prioritized some tasks over others. Why certain rules exist (even if they create constraints). What are the reasons to prepare certain reports – the answer being not just because the CEO or Board or CRO wants that report, but rather explaining what that information helps the requestor achieve or learn.
Share Credit and Absorb Blame: Public recognition is often a lot easier to offer than a pay increase. My experience reveals, public recognition is more valuable over the long-term than small bump in salary. (That being said, people should always be paid their market value.) Always recognize those on your teams that were involved in good work.
Leaders know the metaphorical buck stops with them. Accept blame for any mistakes made by your team. Be clear about that philosophy with your team. It will take a burden off them and allow for experimentation on new solutions. That increased “creativity” will lead to better outcomes over the long-term.
Invest in People. Develop and Teach: A key part of leadership is developing the next generation of leaders. At my first CFO role, I realized a key task of mine was grooming someone to replace me, and ideally finding someone more skilled than me.
Teaching and developing my team is a key element of enabling their future success. Part of developing people is also giving them the chance to teach me. I seek to create a culture where we can openly talk about new, different, and better ways to achieve our team and company goals.
Assuming the role of teacher has also motivated me to learn and be curious about the world, so that I anticipate and can answer some of the questions that arise.
In closing, remember the Uncle Ben principle made famous in Spiderman (albeit it predates the comic). “With great power comes great responsibility.” While none of us is Peter Parker, we owe it to those whom we lead to treat the mantle of leadership with respect and honor.