These qualities will be essential for entrepreneurial leaders in the AEC business to have in the coming months and years ahead.
We will not get into politics on these pages. All that accomplishes is to divide and alienate people, and we believe that most people have more in common than the media would have us believe. That said, regardless of whether you support or oppose the current administration, there is a lot of change and uncertainty in the air.
It is times like these that will test your leadership capabilities. Here are some of the qualities I believe will be essential for entrepreneurial leaders in the AEC business (or any business, for that matter) to have in the coming months and years ahead:
- Be relentlessly focused on the mission and vision. To keep everyone directed and motivated, the leaders have got to continuously live and promote the mission (why the business exists) and the vision (what the business is trying to become). Let me add that the mission should be something worthwhile and the vision one of growth. Missions to make a certain profit percentage and visions to stay the same size won’t cut it.
- Project optimism. Leaders have to be optimistic. This does not, however, mean they should bury their heads in the sand and ignore reality. But it does mean that even if things aren’t going well they project a belief that they can be turned around AND they have a plan for how to do so. Blind optimism is different from optimism combined with a plan for what needs to happen.
- See problems as opportunities. We have all heard there is some Chinese philosophy around this one. And it makes sense. Everything that goes wrong presents an opportunity for improvement. Some things that go wrong even present opportunities to demonstrate to clients that your business is superior to anyone else’s because of how you handle those things! That could be how you win them over for life.
- Delegate everything you can. The best leaders are the best delegators. That is how they multiply their effectiveness. They aren’t worried that they won’t have anything to do if they give something up, or that someone else will do it better than they do. That is the goal! And when they (the leader) does have more time, they will figure out how to use it in new ways to advance the goals of the company.
- Constantly upgrade the team. The best leaders are doing two things: confronting non-performance and recruiting new talent. No one likes dealing with people who aren’t performing up to standard – it’s not fun. But it is essential. And so is looking for and hiring new team members to improve capabilities and move things ahead to the next level. It’s just like being the manager of a sports team. They never rest on the critical responsibility of upgrading the team, even when the team is winning games.
- Keep their priorities straight. Ineffective leaders get pulled in many different directions and devote their days to fire-fighting. Effective leaders can fight fires but they don’t fight every fire. They know which ones can spread. And at the same time they are also still working on building the firm of the future. That takes real discernment of what the priorities are and concentration of effort over extended periods of time versus the immediate gratification that comes from solving a problem, no matter how small.
- Stay calm under fire. This may be an extension of No. 2 above, but seems worthy of some individual attention. Being able to remain calm under fire is something that gets easier with age and experience. You know you have survived everything. I don’t know how to impart this serenity to those who don’t have it other than to personally demonstrate it yourself and hope that they can model your behavior.
- Set a good example for everyone else. Expecting others to do what you say but not what you do never works. I have been saying this for years. If you want your key people to make sales calls, you have to be willing to do it yourself. If you want people to do their timesheets on time, you have to do yours on time. If you want people to be responsive to calls and emails after normal working hours, you need to be yourself. This is fundamental and there’s no way around it.
Business hates uncertainty. There’s no doubt that change creates winners and losers in the pool of firms that make up our industry. The quality of your leadership will make the determination of which side of the line your firm ends up on.
Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.