Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Smart Does Not Equal Wise Leadership

Q. My partners and I run a private equity company and have invested in more than 20 start-ups over two decades. We are all successful executives—and we have also experienced our share of failures. Our investments range from a few successes to marginal successes to mostly failures. We try to help the start-ups. We’re all smart, but we’re not making progress. How can we experience more success for our start-ups and our firm?

A. With more than 6,000 startups in Silicon Valley with a failure rate of over 90%, there are many investors who would like to experience more success. First, let’s challenge a few beliefs, and we can see why so many fail. Because you and your partners have been successful in the past does not mean you have the knowledge to guide your start-ups to be successful in the future.

Your team may be smart in an industry or a role like engineering or IT, but do you have a management philosophy as your foundation and the ability to teach it? Much depends on the start-up team’s knowledge about managing systems and developing and leading people (vision, team, culture, values, customer identity.) Most entrepreneurs have ideas, but they lack the management knowledge and business acumen to launch and scale a company. The ones who succeed are in continual learning and experimenting mode. They don’t use old thinking.

Second, when a team grows a company, they often grasp onto traditional business practices, management fads, tools, and “best practices.” Often, they learn these in college or from mentors who tell them to do what they did ten or twenty years ago. They are applying old thinking to innovation and new technologies. When 90% of companies are failing, why would you invest in a startup doing the same thing? Innovators question everything. They take bold actions to lead differently. Innovation in leadership thinking is essential.

You can best help your startup teams and your own firm by investing in yourselves and the teams. Accelerate your knowledge of strategic, systems thinking by having a consultant work with your team and the startup leaders. Invest in management team offsite meetings to focus on new learning, not spreading the thinking and practices you used 10 or 20 years ago. For resources, see my website.

Your firm and the companies you’ve invested in have a better chance of wild success if you focus on learning how to be a resource to them; guide them to learn a philosophy of management; ask better, more relevant questions on how they are working together to serve their customers; and, look at the data over time. The results/profits will be an outcome of great management. (In other words, take your Focus off of the bottom line! It’s a Pivot you must make to succeed.)

A. With more than 6,000 startups in Silicon Valley with a failure rate of over 90%, there are many investors who would like to experience more success. First, let’s challenge a few beliefs, and we can see why so many fail. Because you and your partners have been successful in the past does not mean you have the knowledge to guide your start-ups to be successful in the future.

Your team may be smart in an industry or a role like engineering or IT, but do you have a management philosophy as your foundation and the ability to teach it? Much depends on the start-up team’s knowledge about managing systems and developing and leading people (vision, team, culture, values, customer identity.) Most entrepreneurs have ideas, but they lack the management knowledge and business acumen to launch and scale a company. The ones who succeed are in continual learning and experimenting mode. They don’t use old thinking.

Second, when a team grows a company, they often grasp onto traditional business practices, management fads, tools, and “best practices.” Often, they learn these in college or from mentors who tell them to do what they did ten or twenty years ago. They are applying old thinking to innovation and new technologies. When 90% of companies are failing, why would you invest in a startup doing the same thing? Innovators question everything. They take bold actions to lead differently. Innovation in leadership thinking is essential.

You can best help your startup teams and your own firm by investing in yourselves and the teams. Accelerate your knowledge of strategic, systems thinking by having a consultant work with your team and the startup leaders. Invest in management team offsite meetings to focus on new learning, not spreading the thinking and practices you used 10 or 20 years ago. For resources, see my website.

Your firm and the companies you’ve invested in have a better chance of wild success if you focus on learning how to be a resource to them; guide them to learn a philosophy of management; ask better, more relevant questions on how they are working together to serve their customers; and, look at the data over time. The results/profits will be an outcome of great management. (In other words, take your Focus off of the bottom line! It’s a Pivot you must make to succeed.)

Send your leadership questions to Marcia Daszko at md@mdaszko.com. She works with Boards, C-suite leaders and teams to pivot, innovate, accelerate and achieve bold results never before imagined. A provocative keynote & virtual speaker, strategic Deming advisor/consultant for 25+ years, and executive retreat facilitator, she is the bestselling author of the book “Pivot Disrupt Transform.” www.mdaszko.com Call for her help today!

Marcia's Leadership Q and A's: Do You Lead or Just Maintain?

Q. What can leaders do if they discover that strategic thinking isn’t their strong suit (they don’t think strategically)?

A. Not all leaders are great leaders. Some executives or managers have titles and positions, but don’t lead well. What the world and organizations need are strategic and operational leaders working together and supporting each other toward their goals and future. 

First, leaders need to be self-aware of their strengths, areas they commit to improve, and areas they have little affinity, interest or knowledge in. They can delegate or collaborate with their colleagues.

Second, when leaders understand themselves, they can contribute their best, hire the people with the knowledge the organization needs, and develop diversity of all kinds in the organization. They surround themselves with a team that can deliver the needed results together. 

Third, the great leaders have a coach to ask them questions and to help them see blind spots and what new thinking they need to develop. 

Fourth, there are options. It’s a key possibility that some non-strategic thinkers can develop more strategic thinking by having a coach, mentor, or close strategic thinking colleague. They learn to think more strategically over time. But if the company is scaling rapidly, it may be wise for a more strategic thinker to lead into the future. An operational thinker take a more meaningful position for that mindset to implement the strategies developed by the team. Much of this answer depends on various other possibilities. Bottom line: assess what is needed to envision and move toward your future together. Gather the team to collaborate toward that; no one person has all of the answers.

Marcia's Leadership Q and A's: Are you a strategic thinker?

Strategic Thinking

Q. What is strategic thinking and why do we need it?

A. Strategic thinking is thinking about your direction; it’s future thinking about what’s possible. Where are the opportunities? Leaders who are strategic thinkers scan the environment continually. They see barriers to achieving their goals, but they then look at options and discover new and different ways to pivot and pursue the future.  One important point that many leaders struggle with is that they take on too many initiatives and strategies. The business needs a focus. Leaders create the priorities (3-4) and help the people focus. Create the place where they can discuss how to achieve the goals together. What resources in training, materials, or technology do they need to succeed?  If the focus doesn’t happen, leaders, their teams, and the company is spread too thin, builds in complexity, and accomplishes little. Are you getting the results you want? Check your strategic focus.

Strategic thinking is essential because a purpose and strategies help people unite and achieve their goals (fewer are better.) Strategic thinking leads to strategic planning. Without those, people and organizations flounder.  Waste and complexity build up; the business is not streamlined, efficient, or as productive as needed.  Leadership and strategic thinking go together. They are essential and lead to the next step: operational planning to define how to move forward and achieve the goals together.

Marcia's Leadership Q and A's: 4 tips for your team retreat

Thank you for submitting your leadership questions to md@mdaszko.com.

Corporate Retreat

Q. As our team emerges from remote work and we re-enter the office setting, I think we will have new and different issues. To prepare, I’d like the executive team to meet for a management off-site or executive retreat. Is this a good approach and of value to re-energize our team?

A. Executive’s plans to schedule an offsite retreat in the next quarter, has catapulted 900% in the past month. Leaders anticipate a stronger need to meet and strategize. This will be followed by more team retreats to gather and revive their collaboration and focus.

I’ve facilitated thousands of leadership meetings, board retreats, strategic planning sessions and management offsite meetings for over 25 years. I believe they are of value, beyond comparison, with one caveat: they must be facilitated well (outside thinking and questions are imperative.) Address the aim early: why are you having the meeting with the team. There are many team meetings that are held; people feel good and experience a workshop-high, but there’s little progress or improvement back at work. If you want to learn, work, and strategize together to make a difference, it’s hard work. That’s the work of leadership!

I’ve surveyed executives and managers who have participated in offsite meetings and management retreats. Here are the key benefits they describe (there are many more): participants are able to open up, share, contribute, collaborate, build relationships, listen deeply, create more understanding and empathy, address not only problems but the root causes to long-term problems, and explore options, strategies, and plans; there’s a renewed focus and prioritizing on what’s important and will make a difference; new learning and ideas that are introduced (usually through experiential exercises and a variety of education techniques) are processed  with different perspectives; data and trends are studied to optimize your organization; there’s room to test ideas and discuss future opportunities and the bold impact you can have.

The team develops a new lens and are more resilient as they elevate to a new level of leadership. The results of an effective offsite are:

  • an ability to address and focus on deeper issues and accelerate decisions;

  • breaking down barriers between people and departments and creating a healthier workplace of trust and support;

  • linking the current business to the future direction; and

  • beginning to transform beliefs, plans, structure, and management style into innovative leadership and bold results.


BIO:

Marcia Daszko works with Boards, C-suite leaders and teams to guide their leadership transformation to accelerate and achieve bold results never before imagined. She is a provocative keynote, breakout, and digital speaker for conferences and corporate events. She has been a strategic business advisor and management consultant based on Dr. Deming’s philosophy of leadership for 25+ years. An executive retreat facilitator and MBA professor, she is also the bestselling author of the book “Pivot Disrupt Transform.”  Contact Marcia Daszko for her help at md@mdaszko.com    www.mdaszko.com  

Marcia Daszko - Corporate Speaker

Marcia's Leadership Q and A's: How to Grow Your Business!

Thank you for submitting your leadership questions to md@mdaszko.com.

Marcia Daszko - Corporate Speaker

Q. What are the best tips for having or improving our competitive edge?

A. There are some easy answers, but few are implemented well. First, answer the phone! Second, if people are on hold, minimize the time; cut it in half—again and again, until the hold time is zero. Third, regularly call your number and understand what your customer experiences; then improve it. Fourth, if you interact in other ways with your customers, improve the efficiency and response time by email or text. Make it easy for your customers to interact with you, ask questions and get help and feel like you are committed to serving them.


Marcia Daszko - Corporate Speaker

Q. How do we create an engine of growth for our company coming out of COVID or any crisis?

A. Answer what you want to accomplish with your organization (beyond being profitable—of course; you need to stay in business.) Your business grows when you have great ideas developed by your people who are excited to share their products and services with their customers. You achieve that when you invest in your people. How can you emotionally, physically, mentally support them? Ask them! What do they need to work together in the best ways and wow their customers and create new markets? Give them room to explore ideas, implement them, fail or accomplish more and move forward. Always stay future-focused.


BIO:

Marcia Daszko works with Boards, C-suite leaders and teams to guide their leadership transformation to accelerate and achieve bold results never before imagined. She is a provocative keynote, breakout, and digital speaker for conferences and corporate events. She has been a strategic business advisor and management consultant based on Dr. Deming’s philosophy of leadership for 25+ years. An executive retreat facilitator and MBA professor, she is also the bestselling author of the book “Pivot Disrupt Transform.”  Contact Marcia Daszko for her help at md@mdaszko.com    www.mdaszko.com  

Marcia Daszko - Corporate Speaker