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Leadership Lesson

Leadership Matters: The Interplay of Good Companies and Good Leaders

Rajesh Soundararajan on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeshsound

When building a successful business, the age-old question arises: Are good leaders the key to building good companies or vice versa? The answer, as it turns out, is a bit of both.

A case for ‘it depends’.

Good leaders are essential for any company because they set the tone for the entire organization. They provide direction, set goals, and inspire their employees to work towards a shared vision. Good leaders also create a positive work culture, which is crucial for employee engagement and satisfaction. A good leader will also be able to navigate the company through difficult times and make tough decisions that will benefit the company in the long run.

On the other hand, good companies also play a vital role in developing good leaders. A good company will provide opportunities for employees to grow and develop their leadership skills. They will also have systems in place for mentoring and coaching, which will help to develop the next generation of leaders. A good company will also have a clear vision and values that align with the leader’s, which makes it easier for them to lead the company in the right direction.

A case of how leaders built companies – 

In my view, I tend to believe that good leaders make good companies. While good companies may attract good leaders or groom some, ultimately, it is the leadership at the top that sets the direction and tone for the organization. Good leaders have the vision, drive, and ability to make tough decisions that will benefit the company in the long run. They also create a positive work culture, which is crucial for employee engagement and satisfaction. This, in turn, leads to a more productive and efficient workforce and, ultimately, to a more successful company. While a good company can certainly provide opportunities for employees to grow and develop their leadership skills, it is ultimately the leader that is responsible for leading the company to success.

One great example of this is Amazon. Jeff Bezos, the founder, and CEO, are widely considered one of the best leaders in the world. He has set a clear vision and values for the company and has created a culture of innovation and customer focus. This has allowed Amazon to become one of the most successful companies in the world.

Another example is Apple; under the leadership of Steve Jobs, the company was able to create a culture of innovation, design, and focus on customers. He was able to lead the company through difficult times and make tough decisions that ultimately led to the company’s success.

Yet another example of a leader who has had a significant impact on their company’s success is Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter. Musk is known for his ambitious vision and ability to think outside the box. He has led Tesla to become one of the most valuable car companies in the world and has revolutionized the way people think about electric cars. Additionally, his leadership has also led to SpaceX becoming a leader in the private space industry with its reusable rockets and satellite launches. Even with Twitter, much as there have been different views on style, clearly, Twitter today is a lot more agile and a lot more shipping new stuff than the sumber it was in for almost 7-8 years. 

Musk has also implemented a unique management style in both companies, where he sets very ambitious goals and encourages (pushes ;)) his employees to work towards them. This approach has led to rapid innovation and development, allowing Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX to achieve milestones that were once thought impossible. His leadership has also been vital in fostering a culture of innovation and risk-taking within the companies, which has been a key driver for their success.

Bezos, Jobs, and Musk are prime examples of leaders with completely different leadership styles who have had a significant impact on the success of their companies. They have a clear vision, super ambitious goals, and an ability to think outside the box, which has led to rapid innovation and development. Their leadership has also been key in fostering a culture of innovation and risk-taking within the companies, which has been a key driver for their success.

A case of how companies building leaders – 

While it is true that organizations like Unilever, GE, and IBM have built great leaders, it is less common that those leaders have gone on to build great companies. These companies are often established and have a long history, with well-established systems and processes in place. While the leaders of these companies have certainly had a significant impact on their performance, they are often working within the framework of an already successful organization.

For example, while leaders at Unilever have been instrumental in shaping the company’s strategy and direction, the company itself has a long history and has been successful for many years. Similarly, while leaders at GE have been able to drive growth and improve performance, the company has been a leader in its industry for decades.

It’s not to say that these leaders haven’t had a significant impact on their companies, but it is a rare case that those leaders have built great companies from scratch. Building a company from scratch requires a different set of skills than managing and leading an already successful one. It requires a more creative and innovative approach and a willingness to take risks.

Needless to say, while organizations like Unilever, GE, and IBM have built great leaders, it is less common that those leaders have gone on to build great companies. These companies are often established and have a long history, with well-established systems and processes in place. While the leaders of these companies have certainly had a significant impact on their performance, they are often working within the framework of an already successful organization.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the relationship between good companies and good leaders is a complex one. While both elements are important for a successful business, they play different roles. Good leaders provide direction, set goals, and inspire their employees to work towards a common vision. They also create a positive work culture which is crucial for employee engagement and satisfaction. On the other hand, good companies provide opportunities for employees to grow and develop their leadership skills; they have systems in place for mentoring and coaching. They have a clear vision and values that align with the leaders. Building a company from scratch requires a different set of skills than managing and leading an already successful one. It requires a more creative and innovative approach and a willingness to take risks. Both elements are needed to create a successful business, and one cannot exist without the other.

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Keywords – Good companies, good leaders, business success, company culture, employee engagement, leadership development, innovation, risk-taking, leadership examples, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Unilever, GE, IBM, interplay of good companies and good leaders, building a successful business, good leaders key to building good companies, managing and leading successful companies, creative and innovative approach, leadership matters, building a company from scratch, key to business growth, key role of leaders in a company, relationship between good companies and good leaders, importance of good leadership in companies, impact of good leaders on companies, company success and leadership, developing leadership skills within a company, company vision and values alignment with leaders, company mentoring and coaching for leadership development, key elements for a successful business.

Tags: Leadership, Business, Success, Companies, Culture, Employee engagement, Development, Innovation, Risk-taking, Examples, CEO, Vision, Values, Mentoring, Coaching, Building a company, Key to growth, Impact of leaders, Company and leadership, Skills development, Alignment, Key elements, Business growth, Management, Business strategies, Entrepreneurship, Organizational development.

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5 simple lessons – Build a culture, the Starbucks way

5 simple lessons – Build a culture, the Starbucks way, Published on 2017-09-19 04:05

I have always been fascinated by Starbucks. Who is not? I am a coffee addict, and what better place to have those gazillion start-up meetings and those brain storming sessions other than Starbucks. The Wi-Fi is incidental, and so are the Espresso-double shots. What fascinated me is the experience in a Starbucks that is consistent – it does not matter whether I am in San Francisco or Singapore, Bangkok or Bali, Hanoi or Hyderabad, it is the amazingly same experience with the Baristas.

Being an entrepreneur myself and also having managed global organizations in the past, I have always been curious and passionate about building cultures. I believe that building a strong positive culture is one of the sustainable ways to makes an organisation successful – short-medium and long term. I also believe that culture plays, a bigger role on impact than building a skill-set.

A strong ‘culture’ in an organization might take a long time for it to show, as it needs to be ingrained into the DNA of the organisation. Unlike a skill, that can be incorporated by training its workforce at any point, culture requires continuous focus from the moment of an employee joins the organisation. The employee is exposed to a ‘ways of the world here’, and pretty much adopts that particular way as their own.

It is in this context, that I wish to use the Starbucks example. What makes Starbucks do something that is so insanely simple and yet, delightfully magical? It is not their covfefe for sure!

Every employee that joins Starbucks, is given a small 4″X5″ ‘the green apron book’ on the first day with the company. In a simple lucid way this booklet explains the culture of Starbucks. Since this culture is immediately manifested across the organisation, it is easy for the new employee to adapt and adopt these practices.

‘Culture drinks strategy for coffee’ Drucker would have said, had he seen Starbucks.

At Starbucks, every employee follows this green apron book, which has five values. These values can pretty much be applicable to any organisation. However Starbucks, has made it ingrained into their culture and not surprisingly it isas successful as what we see today. 

1. Be welcoming:

Being welcoming helps people share their concerns openly without inhibitions. It helps customers return to the store repeatedly. It helps build a sense of belonging between people and share their thoughts openly. Such a simple phrase, when inculcated in a culture can put 1000 strategies to shame.

2. Be Genuine:

Being genuine is a simple way to ensure that everything, everyone does an organisation has a sense of connection to the other person. It helps establish trust between its employees and between its employees and customers. Being genuine means being responsive to the needs of others. We can call it by any other name, but these two words ‘be genuine’ puts it succinctly.

3. Be knowledgeable:

Love what you do, share it with others. Loving what you do is being knowledgeable on your job. When your knowledge is shared between yourselves and the community, the overall level of engagement increases.

4. Be considerate:

This is the way Starbucks ensures that everyone within the organisation and its customers have a sense of being cared for. This philosophy that drives Starbucks and I would think this is something every other organisation can adopt.

5. Be Involved:

When you’re involved with what you do, your productivity increases. You effectiveness improves. Imagine spreading it like in eponymic across your division, your company, and the community and you have a surefire answer to success.

 What makes Starbucks do something that is so insanely simple and yet, delightfully magical? It is not their covfefe for sure!

 And these are not just posters on the wall, or some card at deep within the drawer.

Each one has a specific action items for each of these that can translate into everyday activities and they are described in the subsequent pages. It is easy to brush off saying they are just a company that sells coffee. Imagine yourself of a company that sells something as commonplace coffee and some becoming a global name for the coffee experience. And to add to that its beverages are not cheap. To attract that sort of a premium over something that could be domestically available, I believe requires definitely a good strategy, but more importantly a wonderful culture as described above. Wait is time for each of us to take a cue from here and see how it can help us.

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Please do share your thoughts and feedback and I will be glad to learn from you. I posted this article first on a blog post on People Friday, that I maintain to help build Human Capital in the community.

The author is an entrepreneur with two decades of senior leadership experience in India and Asia-Pacific and now runs Futureshift, a boutique consulting outfit that helps businesses chart their digital marketing strategy with the @ZMOTly framework to achieve impactful outcomes. He is available at rajesh@futureshift.com.sg