Published Work

Following the Leader

I'm not a natural leader. I'm too intellectual; I'm too abstract; I think too much. Newt Gingrich

As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be the leader. Even though I was one of the smallest kids in my grade school, I managed to convince other kids to be my lieutenant so I could be the general. This worked for a while until the teacher forced us to "take turns". I never liked that. As I grew up at any organized activity, I had to be at the front of the line. In Boy Scouts, I was Senior Patrol Leader. In my regional youth group, I was the President. In anything I did not excel at enough so I could be the leader, I declined to participate in that activity. Unfortunately back then, I had to be the leader or nothing. Maybe that is why I left a large corporation like IBM and started my own businesses. I reasoned that as the founder and the first employee, I always got to be the leader by default.

We all know that strong leaders are essential to business success. We have great ones in Chicago business and tech community including JB Pritzker of New World, Linda Darragh at the Women's Business Development Center and Andy McKenna at Schwarz. Whenever there is a group of people, it does take leadership for a team to work together. Someone has to lead while others need to follow. Without a leader, there is only chaos. Do not mistake the leader only for the person shouting orders to their team members or the only one working 100 hours a week. The leader isn't always the person out front leading the charge and taking all the credit.

But, leadership can take many forms especially during the ambiguity and rapid change which abounds in business. A leader's skills need to drive innovation but at the same time manage conflict.

Leadership is about risk taking in your business, but a different kind than we may have heard of before. It is easy for the traditional manager to lead by doing everything themselves or ordering other people to do tasks and cleaning up after them. However, you are a leader in your business when you can successfully let go and trust other members of your team to do the roles that you have defined for them. Furthermore, it is about successfully negotiating with your team the different roles they will take and monitoring how they interact and work with each other.

I admire many of the great entrepreneurial leaders in our town such as Mike Krasny from CDW and Michael Birck from Tellabs for what they have achieved. One of the reasons they were successful in growing their businesses were that they were able to build great teams.

I learned a lot about what it takes to be an effective leader through trial and error. But the best lessons I was taught was when I learned to be a follower too. A few years ago, my two sons became involved in a karate school and I was asked to join their board of directors. As a director, I participated in making many important decisions that effected the strategic direction of the school. I assumed the role of one of the leaders of this organization.

Last year, I decided to start taking karate lessons at the same school. Showing up for the first lesson as a student was the hardest part. As with most traditional martial arts, karate has a very well defined pecking order. Practicing karate as a white belt, I was now at the bottom of the pile. I was a beginner and the ultimate follower. This was unique to me because I never had the opportunity to be a follower and a leader in the same organization at the same time. As a beginner in karate, I learned to rest my mind and stop taking responsibility for leading anything for an hour. I was taught to just watch and do but not think. I was taught to be a good follower and focus on my own progress not others. Besides, it turned out to be a lot of fun and a break from the daily business grind.

Finally, you can also appreciate what it feels like for others to follow you. If you are like me, this is as much a pleasant thought as much as it is a horrifying one.