Leading: by serving?

Servant-leadership seems to be more of a “hot” topic than a decade ago.

I remember talking about S-L to an executive at a Fortune 500 company:  she liked the parts, the process and the problems S-L thinking helped solve – she didn’t like the term “servant” applied to leadership.

She wasn’t alone.  “Serving” in America has a patina of meaning that is colored with race. It shouldn’t be. It is.

Serving is an attitude. An attitude that helps leader inspire and motivate followers.

It’s about moving ahead by looking after the needs of others -  before you look after your own needs.  And that’s tough to do.

It takes work: work at checking your ego at the door; work at understanding what those reporting to you need you to do to help them get their jobs done well; work to keep the focus of the firm fixed (is it on strategy?); work at looking for processes that can be streamlined to serve customers, supply-chain, value-chain well (and sometimes that means discarding “old” processes that don’t seem to be broken, but are because expectations of the recipients of that process were never properly set. ); work, because the new generation of workers distrust “the corporation.”

This is still the “me” generation:  the language is replete with “me” used as a nominative-case pronoun (as in “me and John went to the store…”). This language reflects a culture that has been focused on “the me” and not on “the other.”

Maybe this is why more is being written and promoted about servant-leadership – and, in my opinion,  it’s about time.

Jerry McGuire and Mission-Vision-Values

Creating clarity about who you are as a business, where you want to go, and how you will show up on that journey is vital to success.

Sometimes called a vision; sometimes a mission. Whatever you call it, getting it down on paper is vital to moving ahead.

Six minutes viewing this clip may remind you of the transformation that can occur when you have a strong vision for the future, a mission that is measurable to create benchmarks of progress and a set of values that define who you are on that journey.

Forget College: Become an Entrepreneur!

LINK ON GRAPHIC

Heresy!  You say.  The economy depends on college.  High school should be about preparing   kids for college.  Hmm. I wonder.

Cameron Herold has a different take on schooling and entrepreneurship. I found his TED’s presentation worth the time.

What do you think?

What Small Business Needs Now

Small business is suffering from a political culture that pontificates. Proclamations will not increase profits. Programs, run by the government, will not encourage innovation and risk-taking. Leveling the “playing field” does not reward risk.

It’s going to take more than political pronouncements to produce the kind of revenue and profits that will change the rules of the current economic game. We need practical business programs — developed, implemented and overseen by those who understand the stresses of meeting a payroll – programs that will relieve burdens caused by rules and regulations, often contradictory, never motivating.

Governmental involvement may be needed, but in a far different form than more programs.  Government needs to reward innovation again. Allow profits to be reinvested into a business without ruinous tax and healthcare program burden.

Until our economic blood flows freely to the small capillaries of small business, the body of the national economy will continue to wither.

The Debt Squeeze

You and I could not run a business very long

the way the government runs this economy.

Here’s one man’s opinion.

 

What do YOU think about this YouTube?

What Small Business Really Needs – Part 3

Small business needs access to cash and customers.

Right! But it’s not just about customers and cash. There are hidden costs that must be tracked:  the costs to relationships – families. Small business consumes money, time and people.

It has a big appetite. The small business “family” gets devoured by the demands and stresses particular to them, but all businesses have this in common: the uncertainty of complying with potential tax increases and more regulation continues to provide stress that reaches “inside” the business – it reaches the families involved.

What Small Business Really Needs – Part 2

Getting healthy in this economy will demand small business advocates to the Congress and Administration with “hearts” that have been strengthened in the crucible that mixes

(1) the stresses of making a payroll

(2) with finding and keeping customers

(3) while blending in relief born of opportunities that generate enough revenue to continue to fund the business.

Local, state and national program leadership must come from those who have proven experience —

What Small Business Really Needs – Part 1

Congress and the President need to help Main Street survive and thrive in our current economy because the lifeblood of America flows through micro and small business veins.

But Main Street isn’t as healthy as Wall Street – where the flow seems to be working a bit better.

Main Street is suffering from a political culture that pontificates:  It’s going to take more than political pronouncements to produce the kind of revenue and profits that will change the rules of the current economic game.

We need practical business programs

Small Business Dials. Do You Know Yours?

Know Your Dashboard

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the author notes many of the concerns of “Main Street” – uncertainty being one of the fundamental issues.

The demands on the small business person are enormous. Business issues — inventory, capital expense, and management of cash — are tools that must be managed to best meet customer needs.

Managing a business takes a steady hand on the pulse of the market. One of the people quoted in the article was Portland entrepreneur, John Bradshaw, (President of Portland Transmission Warehouse) who knows the “heart-beats” of his business by keeping a steady eye on his business dials. He understands investment in too much inventory, when business is slow, can quickly drain cash.

Free Speech? What would you do?

Let’s say you own a small software development company. Generally, you have about a dozen employees and about 50 independent contractors worldwide. Your team in town reflects the UN in nationalities.

The new employee arrives. Your practice has been to send a company-wide email welcoming that employee.

Recently, however, you have asked each new person if they would write a couple of sentences about themselves covering such things as, but limited to, hobbies, interests, PC or Mac, etc.  So far, that’s worked out well and everyone seems to enjoy the process of getting to know the new folks.

The newest employee writes the following: