Published Work

Chicago Leaders Know How to Follow the Leader

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 the senior patrol leader. In my regional youth group, I was the president. I declined to participate in anything I didn't excel at enough to become the leader.

Unfortunately back then, I had to be the leader or nothing at all. Maybe that is why I left a large corporation like IBM and started my own businesses. I reasoned that as the founder and first employee of my own business, 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 the Chicago business and tech community including J.B. Pritzker of New World Ventures, Linda Darragh at the Women's Business 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 barking orders to team members or the only one working 100 hours per week.

The leader isn't always the person out front leading the charge and taking all the credit. Leadership can take many forms (especially during the ambiguity and rapid change that abounds in business). A leader's skills need to drive innovation and manage conflict at the same time.

Leadership is about risk taking in your business, but a different kind than we may have heard of before. It is easy for traditional managers to lead by doing everything themselves or ordering other people to do tasks and cleaning up after them.

However, you are a leader at 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. 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 Chicago--Mike Krasny at CDW and Michael Birck at Tellabs come to mind--for what they have achieved. One of the reasons they were successful in growing their businesses is they were able to build great teams.

I learned a lot about what it takes to be an effective leader through trial and error. Still, I discovered the best lessons 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 affected 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. 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 rather than the progress of others.

Besides, it turned out to be a lot of fun and a break from the daily business grind.

Learning to be a follower is a great way to develop leadership skills because it teaches you to be open to learning something new. It gets you comfortable with not being an expert and not having to know the answer. In his writings, Shunryu Suzuki called this "beginner's mind," which allows for both doubt and possibility.

He stated that approaching things constantly as a beginner keeps you humble. It also keeps you open to learning new things. This is especially important for the business leader who must constantly watch how he or she must change an approach to a particular situation as the environment changes.

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 it is horrifying.