It’s exciting to add new members
to your team. Going from a
company of one to two to many
means your business is growing
and succeeding.
It’s also terrifying.
Once you hire people, you’re also
on the hook for motivating,
teaching, coaching, and inspiring
them. You need to grow right along
with them. You must also resist
what I call “founderitis.” It’s your
company and your dream. You
might have a bias toward
micromanagement and being
overly proscriptive on how your
team does their job.
Don’t. They’ll hate you if you do
that.
Instead, move toward principle-
based leadership. Lay out clear,
actionable guidelines for how you’ll
lead your people and what they
can expect from you. Leading your
people is a core aspect of my
leadership maxims approach – one
where you articulate your
leadership philosophy on one piece
of paper. You do so by answering
some simple questions and distilling
your philosophy down to
straightforward maxims (rules of
behavior).
To lead your people effectively,
you need to answer four questions
about yourself and your leadership
style:
What is your natural style?
If you can quickly define what kind
of leader you are, your people will
trust you more because they know
what to expect. My style is “kick
up, kiss dow.” Translation: I protect
my people from silly decisions
made by higher-ups (kick up), and I
praise my folks and give them
credit for great work (kiss down).
How will you remember to treat
your team members as individuals?
People don’t want to be referred to
by title. They want you to know
things about them at a personal
level. I use a maxim of “he drinks
7Up,” because I once had a soldier
in my platoon who drank 7Up.
When I bought him a can of it, he
was pleasantly surprised that I
knew something simple yet
personal about him.
How will you stay connected to
their reality?
Your people want you to get your
hands dirty and demonstrate you
understand their jobs, their
challenges, and their capabilities.
You need a regular reminder to do
that. My reminder is the time I
crawled under my tank to pull
maintenance on it. When I did so,
my soldiers knew I had a good
feeling for their jobs and I cared
about the work they did.
How will you commit to their
growth?
People don’t just go to work for
money. They want to be
challenged and build their skills.
You, as their leader, owe them
those opportunities. Figure out a
way to remind yourself to
consistently give them new
challenges, opportunities, and
places they can fail (yes – you
need to let them fail occasionally so
they can learn), so that they can
ultimately succeed beyond their
own expectations.
Once you’ve articulated what your
people can expect from you and
identified the stories that help
explain those expectations, you
need to explain that part of your
leadership philosophy to them. Sit
down with them. Explain your
guidelines. Tell them the personal
story behind your philosophy.
When you share your personal
expectations and your stories,
they’ll have a better understanding
of who you are, what you want
from them, and what they can
expect from you. If you do this
successfully, you’ll find your
leadership philosophy scales up as
you hire. In other words, your
expectations are the same whether
you’re leading one person or one
hundred. You’re just applying that
philosophy over a broader base.
As your business evolves, your
leadership philosophy will adapt
and evolve with it. Review your
philosophy on a regular basis (once
a year, after a major business
change, etc.) and ensure your
principles still apply to the way you
lead. If they do, keep living them
every day. If not, revise them,
communicate them, and adapt.
The more solid your leadership
philosophy and the more broadly
understood it is by your team, the
better the odds of you leading your
people in a way that motivates,
excites and inspires them.
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