In the recent months we’ve seen posturing from both sides of the political line and constituents everywhere are expressing frustration at the lack of leadership portrayed by party representatives. With all this frustration, what can we learn s entrepreneurs?
People are always watching
As I watched the President give his jobs speech the thing that struck me the most was how disrespectful Speaker of the House John Boehner’s demeanor was. I remember a few key points of what Obama said but the thing I spoke about the next day was the thinly veiled disgust. As a business owner, people are always watching you and your reactions. Your staff looks to you for cues on how to react and your customers look to you for composure and reassurance. Like Boehner, you message can be lost based on how you choose to behave.
Agree to disagree
In business as in life there will always be hard choices, but what happens when you disagree with your staff or your number 2? Sometimes the best thing to do is to agree that you can’t meet in the middle, pretending that you have reached a resolution always leaves one party bitter and that bitterness is hard to conceal. As in Boehner’s case that bitterness also makes it hard to put your ego aside and put the company’s best
interest at the head of the table. You want to avoid an ego journey in your company and focus on creating growth and performance from your staff.
Create points of compromise
As I have watched this entire political posturing take place the one thing that I haven’t seen is an honest attempt at compromise. In business we all come to the negotiation table with a minimum and a maximum compromise area and that what creates deals. The deals that go wrong are always the deals that are heavy with ego, the good mergers happen when the company sticks to its negotiation limits. Know what you are willing to lose and what you aren’t; those limits create an instant outline for the deal and create compromise guides along the way.
Leadership is hard and unfortunately as the head of your business you have the responsibility to think first and act later. As much as you would like to react instantly, you can’t because your focus has to be the welfare of your company. Many times you will have to make unpopular choices, many times you will feel like an island, but you are not. You control the fates and success of your employees so you must be a leader.
