As a leader you must have a vision for your future. However, for that vision to guide you it must be something you can achieve and it must be yours. Individuals with good intentions constantly attempt to shape us. Unintentionally we adopt the dreams that others have for us. Take the time to reflect and answer to the following questions:

  • How realistic is my current vision?
  • What percentage of my current vision is truly mine?

Setting the end state of where you want to be is the key to your growth as a leader.

As an entrepreneur with the dream to a be a founder of a Startup would you consider the advice of three successful founders or CEO’s valuable? Listen to what these successful business professionals have to say about the benefits of having a  coach as part of their team:

Scott Cook – Intuit Co-Founder

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Season 11 | Episode 7, Nov 4, 2015

Accounting for Intuit’s Success

Video Clip:

 

Rebecca Lynn, partner and founder at Canvas Ventures

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts/3559/Creating-Your-Own-Canvas

Entire Episode: Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Season 11 | Episode 17

Audio Excerpt:

 

Minnie Ingersoll, CEO Shift

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Season 11 | Episode 17

A Drive to Disrupt

Entire Episode: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts/4025/A-Drive-to-Disrupt

Audio Excerpt

 

The author, Gary Slyman is the founder and president of Great Transitions Strategies and has over 35 years of leadership experience ranging from dynamic high-risk environments to the classroom. He empowers high performing individuals and organizations to transition to the next level of performance through leadership development. Learn more at www.GreatTransitionsStrategies.com or contact via gary@GreatTransitionsStrategies.com for a complimentary consultation or coaching session.

Ever think to yourself:

“I have this great idea for a Startup, the technical capability, and desire. I just don’t know how to evaluate the path forward to pursue my dream?”

Many of us have a stereotyped image of the startup entrepreneur as some grad school student living a Spartan existence to make their enterprise a success. That image is incorrect.  Most of today’s would-be entrepreneurs are well-established professionals with significant responsibilities. There is the mortgage, the student loans, savings, tuition, professional responsibilities, and family-life. Those commitments will not allow them to live on a Raman Noodle diet without a paycheck while building their new enterprise.

So how to do it?

Do it by building a team and do NOT – “go it alone”.

To make your transition a reality, build a team that is “all-in” with you in achieving your success! 

Who should be on your team?

Your roster should have players only concerned with your success and who will empower you to rigorously evaluate the challenges each step of the way.

One of those players must be a professional coach. Your coach will engage in a relationship solely focused on you pursuing your vision. Your coach will empower you to reflect, take on challenges, and hold yourself accountable throughout the journey. You will learn about yourself as you answers questions such as:

1.    What is my vision?

2.    What are my current capabilities?

3.    What are the gaps between my current state and my ultimate goal?

4.    How do I move from my current place to achieve my vision?

Ask successful professionals you know who they rely on to keep them progressing. Singers, executives, business professionals, and athletes all have coaches as a member of their team. Why? Because the only purpose of a coach is to focus on accelerating and maximizing a client’s performance.

Invest in yourself by hiring a coach as a member of your team and explore the possibilities of how to become the founder of your own startup.

Ryan Lotche is the latest high-profile victim of poor decision making or more simply “himself”. One night of bad decisions influenced by one, or a combination of the three elements – sex, alcohol, and/or “after midnight.” derailed his success story. Rather than celebrating his Olympic successes that he worked daily over the course of years to achieve, he is dealing with the fallout of one night lying on camera, embarrassing the United States, and losing endorsements.

Of course there are other missteps such as greed and power that bring down leaders. However, those elements have a more premeditated and long-term process of destruction. What I am referring to here are individuals who in one night precipitate their world crashing down around them. The disaster is preventable and caused solely from decisions that were made after midnight, and influenced by sex and/or alcohol.

I contend that an individual not only has the potential to have their judgment clouded by sex, alcohol, and after midnight, but as you combine the elements the risks increase exponentially. My evidence is purely anecdotal however; you may have anecdotes that also support my point. Think of several people you know that had a good thing going such as a career, family, relationship, or business venture derailed by a one-time event. What were the causal factors? Were sex, alcohol, and a decision “after midnight” part of the equation?

To be clear here are my definitions to fit the context:

  • Sex: merely the act of pursuing the opposite sex qualifies as sex in this context
  • Alcohol: being under the influence and over the legal limit to drive
  • After midnight: making decisions after 2400 hours local time

Lets look at an example: It is Friday afternoon and the group you lead decides to have an impromptu celebration. Your announcement that the company was awarded the contract that consumed the team for two weeks was greeted with cheers. The celebration starts at happy hour, the drinks flow and everyone is having a good time. Those that try to leave get pressured to stay for dinner. There is plenty of wine and toasting at dinner and as dinner ends the group starts coming up with ideas for what is next that night. It’s getting late, many have had too much to drink, and someone says: “Let’s go across the street to that bar with the band and dance floor.”

Have a picture in your mind? What happens next is up to your imagination or experience. Some possibilities:

  • Nothing negative occurs everything works out fine.
  • A drunken coworker gets in their car and drives home.
  • Someone says something to a coworker that is inappropriate.
  • Someone misses an event with a significant other?
  • Photos of the group and individuals are posted on Facebook and Instagram.
  • Someone streams portions of the event on Periscope.

So what’s the big deal you say, your team is just celebrating a professional success. You are right and a well deserved one. But as a leader what are your roles and responsibilities to yourself, your team, and the organization?

Leaders manage many risks to ensure success, to navigate challenges, and to meet high levels of performance. As professionals they constantly prepare for contingencies, they know their responsibilities, and are ready to fulfill their role 24/7. If that is true, how is it then that leaders from the lowest levels to CEO’s have fallen prey to poor judgment outside the confines of daily routines?

Do decision-making, risk management, and training for scenarios outside of the confines of daily routines have the correct priority in your leadership training and education? Leaders’ decisions 24/7 have an affect at a personal, a professional, and an organizational level. Just ask the Ryan Lochte and the US Olympic Committee.

Leadership is not a popularity contest it is about accomplishing the mission.

You clearly articulate your expectations, you set the standard, and you set the example for performance. Frankly, you don’t care what they think of you because you are leading them where they need to go.

Should you be concerned about what your subordinates think and say about your leadership?

Does your subordinates opinion of your leadership have an impact on their effectiveness?

Does your subordinates opinion of your leadership have an impact on your effectiveness as a leader?

Does your opinion of your boss’ leadership impact your effectiveness?