This is the first of a 4-part series exploring businesses that matter.

This is about ambition.

Not the kind of ambition that has traditionally shaped businesses (growth at all costs, profit over everything) but a wiser, more profound ambition that reconsiders the very nature of business.
 
Compare the Ford Motor Corporation in 1903 to Zappos in 1999. Ford changed our society by building a product that transformed human mobility. Zappos sold shoes online – hardly in the same category in terms of size and scale, but arguably as influential in terms of its impact on society.
 
Zappos wrote its own rules. Out with accepted norms of what a business should be and in with its own interpretation. Zappos thought differently about culture, customers, strategy, growth, and talent and disrupted the blueprint set by Ford and other traditional manufacturing businesses, clearing the way for modern businesses to dream up new ways of architecting themselves.
 
Many businesses followed suit, creating a new and fresher business landscape and catalyzing two decades of rapid change in organizational design. The table was cleared, the mirror
de-misted, and the launchpad businesspeople currently stand upon was built. Where does business go now? A personal perspective, if I may indulge myself…

I’ve long held the view that business has underplayed its hand in shaping society. As traditional institutions like universities, governments, churches and armies play a lessening role in the fluid society of today, business is ascending. The voice of the global business community is getting louder, the resources that businesses command are at their peak, and the deployable talent residing inside businesses is more capable than ever. Business is primed to take the next step in its evolution and meet its fullest potential.

 But will it? That lies in our hands: the business leaders of the world.

If we, as a community, ask more of ourselves and seek more from our work, the Zappos-inspired trajectory will soar and our collective influence will be profound.

But our evolution relies on reassessing our impact. Not because business hasn’t done enough, but because business can be more significant than just numbly churning out profits in a
never-ending route-march of toil. The ‘gift’ of business to society is our performance mindset: innovation, expansion, disruption, seeking, and striving. This is a powerful elixir that can generate a broad impact.
 
At the heart of my provocation lies the question of ‘what matters?’ to the businesses we run. Our highest potential lies in the asking and answering of these questions:

• Is it important for a business to matter?
• What is a business that matters?
• Does your business matter?
• What potential does your business have to matter?

In this 4-part series, I hope to take you on a journey that gives you an opportunity to evolve, raise your bar, and challenge yourself. It is a provocation, but one that holds no prescriptive answer. If you take up this challenge, you will open up new possibilities and unlock greater potential: the lifeblood of any business. You will absolutely yield results.

But the path to those results is different now. Becoming a business that matters is a rich and meaningful experience. A Zappos journey as opposed to Ford journey. Technicolour illuminating gray. Inspiration over effort.
 
A few points of clarification:

• This is not about becoming an NGO. It’s about performance.
• This is not about obligation. It’s about seeking more.
• This is not about going back to the drawing board. It’s about advancing what you already have.
• This is not about trying harder. It’s about creating more energy.

Fast-forward 10 years. You’re sitting with your young children or grandchildren, and you are asked the question: “What does your business do?” Imagine answering this question with conviction: clarity of purpose, full of meaning, unwavering in your intent. Imagine their eyes lighting up with pride. Imagine the swell of satisfaction in your chest.
 
For this moment to happen, your business must matter.

Series 1 provocations:

• What does the word ‘matter’ mean to you?
• What is the unique ‘gift’ that your business currently/potentially offers to society?

Look out for the next installments of the ‘Becoming a Business That Matters’ series:
Series 2: “Unearthing What Matters to Your Business”
Series 3: “Sculpting a Business That Matters”
Series 4:  “Being a Leader of a Business That Matters”
 

Organizations need to incorporate constructive feedback from stakeholders to survive pandemic-related disruptions amid today’s turbulent economy.

To meet the expectations of their stakeholders, leaders must ensure that they obtain regular feedback from them, since these people make decisions that determine the success of the organization.

Securing constructive feedback is critical in helping you find out which decisions are working and which ones are not. Yet, many organizations fail in engaging effectively their stakeholders due to reluctance to incorporate and act on feedback. This results in communication gaps between executives and their stakeholders.

To address these problems, leaders need to adopt best practices of getting constructive feedback from stakeholders. These practices are a product of insight obtained from both external research, and my interactions with senior organizational leaders.

Why You Should Seek Stakeholder Constructive Feedback

Learning to incorporate constructive feedback is vital for building a trusting relationship with stakeholders. It provides you valuable insight into how they view and make decisions.

Recently, I met Alisha, my consulting firm’s client, who is the head of membership engagement at a professional manufacturing association. Alisha shared how communication gaps between the organization’s executives and its key stakeholders had strained their mutual relationship. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the association requested an in-depth, neutral, third party investigation into the opinions of its members and the quality of outreach to them.

Alisha approached me for advice. She realized that to work effectively as head of membership engagement, she needed to learn the best ways to infer the truth about the stakeholders, their opinions, and the quality of the organization’s outreach.

Mental Blindspots Thwart Progress

Obtaining accurate feedback is key to stakeholder engagement. It ensures that you have an accurate picture of what’s working and what’s not.

Unfortunately, we often believe that we know our stakeholders well enough to fully understand their requirements and thus fail to seek their input about essential matters.

This dangerous judgment error, termed the false consensus effect, causes us to mistakenly believe that others share our beliefs. It is one of many dangerous judgment errors called cognitive biases. These mental blindspots impact decision making in all life areas, ranging from business to relationships. Fortunately, recent research has shown effective and pragmatic strategies to defeat these dangerous judgment errors, such as by constraining our choices by focusing on the top available options, for example by using this comparison website. By doing so, we can improve our stakeholder engagement.

Members often suggest changes that make executives highly uncomfortable.Therefore some leaders fall for the status quo bias, a desire to maintain what they see as the right way of doing things.

We have a natural tendency to avoid accepting information that counters our beliefs. This is another dangerous cognitive bias called the confirmation bias.

Learn to Love Constructive Feedback

When I met Alisha, I told her that it’s vital that she work to inculcate a new workplace culture fit for the future of work. The culture needs to encourage all organizational leaders to appreciate and obtain constructive feedback. This approach also allows them to utilize such feedback to engage with stakeholders effectively.

Our inclination to avoid information that opposes our beliefs due to confirmation bias is very dangerous for our modern-day organizations. This behavior stems from our evolutionary history, when it was more important to align our perceptions of reality with our tribe than to determine the truth. 

Constructive feedback allows leaders to identify the perceptions of the stakeholder accurately, rather than what we would want it to be. I explained to Alisha that perceptions and reality matter equally in stakeholder engagement. Thus, leaders must learn about these filters to effectively engage stakeholders. Naturally, getting constructive feedback is a great way to achieve this goal.

How to Gain Effective, Constructive Stakeholder Feedback

There are several ways to obtain constructive feedback from stakeholders. The easiest is active feedback. This means asking targeted questions to yield precise answers.

We can also apply social intelligence to get passive feedback from the stakeholders by analyzing their behavior, words and actions. Social intelligence refers to the strategic capacity to evaluate and influence other people’s emotions and relationships.

Research in cognitive neuroscience shows that it is our emotions, not thoughts which determine the majority of our behavior.

I shared the following methods with Alisha to help her receive quality stakeholder feedback from during their outreach assessment meeting.

1. Getting Active Feedback

1. Ask how they feel about what you’re saying to explore their emotions on the topic.
   
2. Ask them what they think about what you’re saying.This gives you an insight into their beliefs about the topic.
   
3. Ask how well their experience aligns with what you’re saying. Learning about their personal experiences provides insight into the influences behind their perceptions.
   
4. Formulate other topic specific questions. Each kind of question about feedback will help you understand their filters.

Alisha decided to arrange a meeting with the stakeholders. The meeting atmosphere was initially tense. However, the mood lifted as members were actively asked questions and they realized that she was sincere about understanding them.

Eventually, the members started to express their opinions on recent decisions. Alisha was able to address their reservations by offering reasonable explanations for each point. 

2. Getting Passive Feedback

You can also learn about stakeholders indirectly through passive feedback.

1. Give them time to absorb what you’re saying. Offering sufficient room for response allows them to express themselves comfortably, giving you an understanding of their filters.
   
2. Observe their communication with others about what you’re saying. This intercommunication is an insight into their perceptions.
   
3. Observe comments on social media, blogs, and other public interactions.This offers you an unguarded understanding of their personal filters.

4. Depending on your topic, there can be other passive feedback methods.

You should acknowledge feedback and adjust your actions accordingly. Gradually, this feedback will help you understand your stakeholders and improve your stakeholder engagement.

Three months after her consultation, Alisha shared great news. She told me how the association implemented my suggestions and noticed a significant improvement in their stakeholder engagement. By bridging the communication gaps, the C-suite found it much easier to reach amicable compromises on points of contention.

Conclusion 

Leaders often fall prey to cognitive biases that prevent them from incorporating feedback from stakeholders. The best way to ensure that you stay on the same page as your stakeholders is to obtain regular constructive feedback. You can achieve this by proactively applying best practices for seeking active and passive feedback. By doing so, you will be able to bridge communication gaps and improve stakeholder engagement.

CEOs are asking, “How can we increase employee retention and engagement?”

Maybe that’s the wrong question.
What if you asked: “What are our employees grateful for?”
How would your employees respond to these statements?

1. I am respected by my boss
2. My manager helps me to learn and grow
3. I have the tools and the necessary training to succeed
4. I am motivated to do my best
5. I trust my manager and the company’s senior executives
6. The company deals with employee issues honestly and fairly
7. I am valued for my ideas, my talents, and my diversity

People stay where they are wanted, respected, and appreciated. If you answer “Yes” to five or more – CONGRATULATIONS – your employees are grateful for more than just their paycheck.

Here are the seven characteristics of a successful executive change leader:

1. Is Self-Aware – In a study of 65 change stories from leaders of 33 organizations, researchers found what differentiated successful leaders from others was their level of self-awareness. Successful leaders considered the impact their practices, communication, and behaviors had on the response of the change recipients. Change leaders are aware of how their level of readiness affects the expectations they set, the way they communicate, and their actions. They also know that although he or she may be ready for action, the people most affected by the change are just beginning their journey. The successful executive change leader therefore adjusts their practices, communication, and behaviors accordingly. 

2. Walks the Talk – A successful executive change leader asks, “What must I do differently to help people move through the process and achieve the intended outcome?” Every change, regardless of where it is occurring in the organization or its size, is about you and every other leader in your organization. The successful change leader therefore knows the behaviors and activities required to achieve the intended results, and models the behaviors expected.

3. Has Energy and Perseverance – A key part of change leadership is to stay the course while continuing to encourage, support, and demonstrate energy and enthusiasm for the change until you have achieved the intended outcome. In one large change initiative, the Change Sponsor, a Vice President, clearly demonstrated the energy to go the distance. The change was difficult and many of his leaders and employees were uncomfortable. He knew their discomfort was a sign they were making progress. Instead of stopping the change, he simply adjusted the pace and increased the level of support.

4. Is Flexible – Successful change leaders recognize that uncertainty is part of letting go of the current state and embracing the new state. They also know that a flexible plan can reduce the uncertainty and increase their employees’ ability to respond to the transformation.  

5. Has Empathy – Successful change leaders lead the change from the perspective of the change-recipients. Although they recognize the need for project timelines, budget, and training they know success depends on the  employees’ ability to move through the transition.  

6. Trusts Employees – Successful change leaders trust themselves, and they trust their employees. In return they have the trust of their employees. Howard Schulz, the CEO of Starbucks, once talked about his success at turning around the organization after growth started slipping. He talked about the importance of trusting employees; that too often leaders hold back information, afraid it will raise anxiety, get “leaked,” or somehow be used inappropriately. “You have to have confidence, and trust in your people that they will be able to use and protect information. Trust builds when you have authentic respect for your employees.”

7. Seeks Stability – When you are in the midst of large-scale change, your employees may feel everything is changing. Successful change leaders balance change with stability, talking about what is not changing as well as what is changing. Change only has meaning when it is compared with stability and continuity.

The world of employer branding is still relatively new, but it’s already inundated with superlatives like “best” and “leading.” Companies use these descriptors in an attempt to grab people’s attention and establish quick connections. The only problem? They rarely hold up.

Over the years, I’ve helped numerous organizations untangle fuzzy, ineffective employer brand stories. More often than not, I find during this process that employers have given little to no thought to what they’re trying to achieve by setting out to be “the best.” What constitutes “the best” anyway? The quickest recruiting? The highest-caliber talent? How do you measure that? Even simple questions such as these show how little weight the messaging really holds.

When companies take an undefined, unintentional approach to their strategic recruitment process, they suffer. They aren’t able to attract, recruit, and engage prospective employees even half as well as they should (or could with a strong employer brand). Those that hope to attract the right employees and keep them around need to dig deeper to find a better, truer North Star.

The Makings of a Strong Employer Brand

A strong employer brand — one that truly resonates with people — is backed by a point of view, a purpose, and a clear direction. When you’re thinking about how you can inject your own employer brand story with the specificity that attracts the right employees, use a multipronged approach comprised of three key elements: reputation, employee value proposition (EVP), and experience. These make up the anatomy of a strong employer brand, and much like the human body, they work best in unison.

Let’s break each one down.

1. Reputation

What do you want to be known for in the marketplace? When it comes to defining and fostering your employer reputation, think in terms of the three C’s:

• Career catalyst: Employees of “career catalyst” organizations are growth-minded. They want an employer who will help them develop and accelerate their careers.
  
• Culture: Employees of culture-oriented workplaces see the brand as an extension of themselves. They take pride in telling people they work for the company.
  
• Citizenship: Employees of organizations that prioritize good citizenship are tuned in to the broader impact of their work. They strive to do well by doing good.

Identifying your desired reputation isn’t an aimless game of pin the tail on the donkey. Look at your business’s flow of talent. Who has left your company recently? Why did they choose to go? And where did they decide to work instead? Then, conduct a skills gap analysis to determine your team’s current strengths and weaknesses and develop employee personas to center your strategic recruitment process around.

Next, examine key employee engagement drivers. Audit the motivations, priorities, and preferences of employees and see where the chips fall. Then, it’s about actually personifying your identified reputation. For example, if you’re aiming to be a career catalyst, provide ample learning and development opportunities and chart clear paths to career progression.

2. EVP

Once you understand the kind of reputation you’re striving for, design an EVP that fulfills it. I like to think about the EVP as the “give and get” of working for your company: Employees give you their time and talents, and in exchange, you provide value in the form of salary, benefits, purpose, growth opportunities, etc.

Your EVP and reputation should always be aligned from a strategic business perspective. For instance, if you want to build a reputation for good citizenship, you might offer volunteer opportunities, provide chances for community engagement, and follow sustainable business practices. These kinds of citizenship-focused offerings are things that certain candidates, especially Millennials, can and will rally around.

It’s tempting to paint a rosy portrait of your EVP when you’re in the process of attracting and retaining talent. However, to ensure a fair exchange, you need to be realistic about the challenging aspects of the job, too. Some people will self-select out when they realize the mountain is too high to climb, but that’s OK. Done right, the bar will be set suitably high to keep out those who haven’t got what it takes to thrive in the environment that you need to succeed as a business.

3. Experience

The final layer of this framework is talent experience. You’ll often see organizations concentrate on the candidate experience because they over-index on attracting the right employees. However, while reputation is built in talent attraction, it’s solidified in the employee experience and amplified with the alumni experience. After all, no amount of money can buy you better PR than a past employee extolling the virtues of your workplace.

The specific reputation you’ve defined and the EVP you’ve outlined should determine where you invest in your talent experience — and it’s not always in the candidate realm. For example, McKinsey & Co. has a reputation as a career catalyst. Many of its employees go on to work for companies like Google and Amazon. As a result, McKinsey attracts lots of young people who crave experience.

Knowing this, McKinsey wouldn’t be wise to throw all its resources into candidate experience because its reputation and EVP go way beyond the hiring process. In fact, an arduous candidate experience might even validate just how special it is to work for the company. If you’re like most companies, you have a finite budget, so make sure you’re investing in the right category of experience.

Everybody wants to be “the best,” but few among us can actually define what that looks like in practice. Instead of grasping onto vanilla superlatives, dig deeper to tell an employer brand story that people can’t wait to be a part of — and one that serves you well.

Are your top executives disenchanted, disengaged, and considering leaving your corporation for more challenging opportunities? Encouraging them to head up a spinout gives them a purpose, inspires them to nurture something new, and could potentially help your company make millions.

It’s no secret that things move more slowly and methodically in corporations than in startups. That’s the nature of the beast. It also means that great ideas can fall through the cracks as quickly as they surface. Considering how vital innovation is to lasting business success, this is unfortunate.

Instead of letting ideas languish and die, a spinout can be an effective way to give those novel ideas the space and structure they need to grow. As enterprise-sponsored startups, spinouts can prioritize development and experimentation that will benefit your entire corporation. Thanks to their smaller size, spinouts speed up the innovation process. 

This sounds great, you might be thinking, but how can I run my current company and a spinout? Fortunately, you don’t have to. It might sound like a challenge, but there is significant value in allowing your best and brightest performers to move on from the corporation and run startups spun out from your original business. 

Your Best Performers Are Your Best Leaders

Everyone wins when you hand the reins to your best performers. Not only will you give your spinouts the best opportunity for success, but you’ll also bolster talent retention and acquisition by giving your top performers room to grow. High performers usually shift around to different roles as they develop their skills, so giving them a shot at leadership and an opportunity to push themselves benefits everyone.

If your best executive talent has been doing the same thing for some time and feels a bit disenchanted, they might become disengaged and leave your corporation for more challenging opportunities. Encouraging them to head up a spinout gives them a purpose, inspires them to nurture something new, and saves your organization from potentially having millions of dollars walk out the door if they leave. Only 45% of corporations engage with the startup space, which means you’ll have an instant competitive edge and a better chance of longevity as a company.

The Risk vs. Reward Conversation

To get high performers on board with your spinout idea, you might need to have some tricky conversations regarding risk versus reward.

The risk/reward ratio is fundamentally different when shifting from working inside a large enterprise to founding a startup. For corporate executives, there’s usually a generous compensation package, vacation time, and maybe a 401(k) match or bonus — but the compensation is often capped at a certain point. 

Some executives, though, thrive in high-risk, high-reward environments. Running a corporate spinout is riskier, but there’s also an outsize reward potential. Startup founders typically get 10% to 15% equity in a new venture, which could be worth a ton of money if they do well. Let’s say the spinout gets a $200 million valuation with a 10% equity; that’s $20 million for the executive if he or she secures funding or if the company gets bought out. 

Ultimately, this approach creates value and better prospects for the firm, the spinout, and your customers. A great case study is the Australian auto insurance company Suncorp. Its crash repair vendors were overcharging it, so the company leaders decided to buy out body shop chain Capital S.M.A.R.T. The chain ultimately became the largest auto repair company in the country, and Suncorp sold it for nearly $300 million. Suncorp’s $50 million investment yielded a sizable profit and allowed the company to understand the crash repair business much better. As a result, the company was able to choose more effective partners in the future and could offer its customers reduced rates. 

Starting the Conversation

Think of corporate ventures as part of your high-potential executive development program. The executives you choose to head your spinout will gain an immense amount of experience and knowledge, and you’ll benefit from the significant value they’ll add to the new venture. Even if they fail, the involved executives can bring their experience back into the parent company.

Here’s what the process of developing a spinout might look like:

1. Call for ideas. Ask everyone in your company to share their best ideas for company growth. Maybe you start with 500 and narrow it down to the best eight for a “Shark Tank”-style competition.

2. Engage execs during the sharpening process. Have executives judge the event. This will get them invested in the ideas and give you a good sense of who has the passion and risk tolerance to lead one of these new ventures.

3. Look for matches. Which venture ideas inspired which executives? Linking the right people to the right ventures will help set both the individual and the spinout up for success. If those leading the spinout are passionate about the idea, they are more likely to stick with it and propel everything forward.

4. Provide resources to maximize success. No matter how great your executives might be, they still need the proper resources to succeed. Ask them what you can do to support them, whether it’s by providing training, talent, funding, or all of the above.

5. Let your spinout behave like a startup. Strike the right balance between providing enough guidance along the way (e.g., mentors, funding, buy-in from high-level players) while still fostering freedom. Just like any other startup, your spinout will need space to experiment and grow.

A spinout might be just what you need to strengthen and progress your company’s innovation efforts. For it to truly flourish, though, you must be willing to have those tricky conversations with executives about the risk and reward they could see moving away from the corporation and into the world of startups. Give them the freedom to lead while ensuring they have the resources they need to be successful, and the innovation will flourish.

Why do far too many leaders cover up for abusers? Why is there so much institutional complicity enabling abuse to continue? What’s going on in the brains of leaders who protect abusers rather than victims?    

Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics protected predator Dr. Larry Nassar for decades instead of safeguarding his many victims. Notably, the FBI did so, too. The gymnasts’ lawsuit against the FBI is $1 billion. The years-long scandal involved many reports of abuse against Dr. Larry Nassar, with none resulting in his removal. This is one example among many that reveal how covering up and enabling abuse is a serious and costly failure in leadership.   

In the last decade, leaders have failed to stop abuse at Penn State, Rutgers, Baylor, University of Maryland, Boy Scouts, Catholic churches, Soccer Canada, Canadian residential schools, and in Hollywood.   

My theory as to why leaders protect abusers is two-fold. Both theories involve the brain.  

First, imagine that you’re the leader of an organization and you receive a report that an employee is abusive. You confront the employee, he or she denies it, and now it’s a case of “he said, she said.” Your brain is stuck on the fact that the alleged perpetrator doesn’t behave like an abuser in front of you or many others. Your brain can’t make sense of the perpetrator’s two different personas.    

The confusion leads the brain to generate counter facts in order to make sense of the impasse. You start to think: The victim is exaggerating, is too sensitive, has another agenda, misunderstood, or caused or deserved the abuse.  

Alongside these counter facts, you might also think: I’ve worked with the alleged perpetrator for a long time; I’ve never seen the alleged perpetrator be abusive; I have dinner with the alleged perpetrator and his or her partner; plus, the alleged perpetrator is popular, charismatic, and a pillar of the community.  

Once your brain has generated these counter facts, you decide to victim-blame and give the alleged perpetrator the benefit of the doubt.   

This approach falls apart when you get the second, third, and fourth reports of the perpetrator’s abusive conduct. The problem is, it’s too late. You’re now in the position of being negligent. You were informed about his or her abuse and you didn’t protect victims. How do you cope with this crisis?  

You cover up.   

My second theory about why leaders protect abusers and not victims relates to the brain’s capacity for empathy. Empathy is when you feel someone’s pain. How does a leader’s innate empathy run amok so that it guides her to protect abusers and become an accomplice to their crime?     

Psychiatrist Dr. Helen Reiss found that there’s an inverse relationship between power and empathy. The more power, the less empathy. Reiss explains that our brains are tribal when it comes to how we feel empathy. Our tendency is to have empathy for those who most resemble us in appearance, station in life, and experience.   

Our brain puts those we don’t resemble into an “out-group” for whom we have little or no empathy. This tendency explains our tragic history of dehumanizing and destroying human beings who appear different, come from different backgrounds, and have less power than we do.   

Now, imagine how these empathy impulses in the brain surface in an abuse scenario.   

An abuse report comes in. The leader’s brain hits the impasse of “he said, she said” and begins to generate counter facts to make sense out of the confusion. Empathy arises in its tribal form and the leader puts the victim in the “out-group.”   

Victims, especially if they’re children or young adults, are easily put into the out-group because they don’t reflect the leader. But the alleged abuser, who is an adult, does.  

The leader can rationalize and dismiss the victim’s suffering as something temporary that he or she will get over or move beyond. But if the alleged perpetrator is held accountable, he or she will lose their reputation, lose their job, and possibly go to jail. These are deep fears that the leader shares with the alleged perpetrator, increasing his sense of empathy.   

Ironically, leaders who cover up and enable abuse are far more likely to ultimately lose their reputation, their job, and perhaps go to jail. They’re far more likely to ruin the reputation of their institution and cost it vast amounts of lost funds. These are all outcomes of the recent abuse scandals noted at the outset.     

How can leaders protect themselves from being led astray by their brains into enabling abuse?  

1. Put in checks and balances to protect against counter facts. Leaders need frequent practice in testing their counter facts against objective facts and research. Leaders need to question the validity of every counter fact that dismisses, questions, doubts, and otherwise holds the victim to account for reporting abuse.   

2. Learn to identify the traits of an abuser. Leaders need to be well-versed in the split personality that’s common among abusers. They need to know that being popular, charismatic, and having a following are textbook traits of those who abuse. Abusers are known to ingratiate themselves with powerful figures. While they groom their victims, they also groom the leaders.    

3. Recognize the damage to victims. Leaders need to be knowledgeable about the ways in which victims’ brains become damaged by all forms of harassment and abuse. It’s not an easy recovery. Victims don’t grow out of it. For many victims, it destroys their health, happiness, and productivity.   

4. Understand the way the brain unfairly parcels out empathy. If empathy diminishes in the brain as you become a leader, work relentlessly to retain empathy for everyone in your organization. Train yourself to avoid the tribal tendency to have empathy for those who reflect you and callously disregard those who don’t.  

Succeeding at this challenging aspect of leadership means not letting your brain lead you astray. Instead, use your mind to manage your brain. 

Startups usually don’t have a lot—of money, resources, time—really much of anything. Most of the time, the founder has a great idea and a couple of friends or associates to help figure out how to move that idea toward reality.

The “team” consists of whomever the founder has nearby: a ragtag bunch that can be trusted to at least try and figure things out. Since there’s usually not much money, whatever problems arise, whatever needs to get done, you and your team have to figure it out on a shoestring. You have no choice.

When your startup gains traction and looks like it might make it, it’s usually the direct result of the heroic efforts of these early team members. With few exceptions, there’s usually a tireless jack-(or jill)-of-all-trades who knows a little about everything. But more importantly, they’ve got a figure-it-out mentality and they’re willing to learn and scrap and claw to get it done.

Meet Bounce-Around Betty. She’s been there since day one, she’s an amazing person, and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get things done. You need someone to tackle creating your startup’s logo and your first set of business cards? She’s on it. There’s a problem with the supply chain? Betty will be on the first flight out tomorrow morning. Need to figure out the witchcraft that is Google Analytics or advertising on Facebook? She’ll dive in and learn the digital marketing basics to get you started. Whenever you need something challenging done, Betty jumps right in, headfirst, without knowing whether she’ll sink or swim.

In most cases, Betty can still be a great employee for your growing company, assuming she doesn’t lose that drive, that eagerness to learn, and that willingness to do whatever it takes that made her your go-to employee early on. But problems occur when we either promote Betty beyond her capacity or her role is so ambiguous as the company grows, that it causes confusion and problems with the rest of the team. 

Having a Betty on your team is a critical part of your early success . . . until it isn’t. There’s no hard-and-fast rule that says, “Two years in, you need to replace your generalists with specialists!” or “Once you’ve hit $1 million in revenue, bring in a COO!” It all depends on your company, your growth, and your vision—as well as your Betty’s skill set, emotional intelligence, and career goals. There’s a lot of moving parts here, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Definitely more art than science!

Adding experience gives you the opportunity to start professionalizing your team, putting pieces in place for future growth. You’re confident that Bounce-Around Betty will always figure things out—but what if your team didn’t have to “figure it out” and already knew what to do? Betty was great on the phone with early customers, but she’s not the right person to design and build the customer service engine, including processes, tools, and the team you need for future growth.

In most cases, Betty’s a good employee who doesn’t need to leave just because you need more specialists. She’s a valuable member of the team and can continue adding value if she’s in the right role. Much of what happens with Betty will depend on how you approach the situation. As usual, it also depends on the personalities, expectations, and egos involved. If you demote Betty to assistant to the new VP of Sales without giving her a heads-up—yeah, that’ll piss her off. But do it right, and you can put Betty AND your company in a great position to succeed.

Identify the role that plays best to Betty’s strengths and allows her to grow professionally, but also fuels the company’s growth goals. That’s easier said than done and may require some soul-searching and tough conversations.

If your relationship with Betty has a foundation of trust and open communication, you should be able to approach her and discuss the situation. Be honest with her. Her knack for figuring things out has been a great asset, but a different skill set is needed now. You need leaders who have skins on the wall. Sure, you want to help develop her skills so she can grow professionally — AND you need her to help position the company to achieve its goals.

If you find yourself struggling with situations like this, consider bringing in another set of eyes. Have your mentor or coach assess your Betty situation and give you their perspective. This helps to remove your personal feelings from the equation.

Remember, your goal isn’t to promote Betty until she fails miserably. You want to do what’s best for the company and ideally find the right spot for her to grow. This balance can be tricky, but with the right approach and the right Betty, it can be done!