Leadership

by Reed Nyffeler

Nothing is more important to an organization than leadership. I have recently completed reading the biography of Steve Jobs and throughout the book; it details the chronicles of Apple. We all now know Apple for many of its recent revolutionary products, including the iPhone, iPod and iPad. Apple also changed the music industry with iTunes and are now working on the iCloud which will seamlessly connect all of these devices and software together. The story not frequently known is that Apple was the market leader in the early 80's when Steve Jobs was at the helm the first time. They created the first mass marketed Personal Computer and the first version of the Graphical User Interface a full six years before Microsoft. At that time, Steve was young and inexperienced as a leader; their board suggested they bring in more of an experienced person. The leader did not know the business, and slowly rode the original Mac into extinction without any new innovation. All of the innovators left the organization when they saw the new leader, resulting in Apple dying a slow 15 year death. In the mid-90s, Steve came back and changed the culture and direction of the business to be the best. He worked tirelessly on every detail of the organization, not only seeing the vision of the future of how consumers would use technology and devices and seeing what industries needed to be improved, but also making sure that he had all of the right people in the right seats to make sure that his plan could be executed and provide the world with improved devices and software. Through this process, Steve was challenged by many external opinions and viewpoints from competitors and advisors, however, he never departed from his original vision until it came to fruition.

This is an excellent example of the responsibilities and challenges that a leader faces. As the leaders of your organizations, you will likely have your ideas, visions, and thoughts challenged. You will feel at times that the banks, clients, employees, and world are against you and they look to you for direction at the same time. As the leader, the best qualities that you can exemplify are:

• Consistency - know what you have as a long term plan for your organization and take all of the short term steps in sequence to be able to execute this plan. Work diligently to maintain integrity and do everything possible within the bounds of the law, working tirelessly to meet the goals that you have established.

• Respect for your employees, clients, and peers and they will watch you as a leader - they will then want to follow for the cause that you are building. I have always been of the mindset that I want to excite people to follow instead of force them to follow. Many times people are in a leadership position, however, a leader is not defined by their position, they are defined by their followers. If a leader is in position and not followed, he is merely a figurehead and their organization will imminently struggle. I challenge you to look at your organization and your leadership style. Is your organization where you want it to be? If not, what is it missing? Are you doing what you require your employees and clients to do? Take an honest look at yourself first and make sure that you are doing all that is required.

• Establishment of the standard that you expect and employees will begin to mirror this process and follow what you have. If you consistently change direction without reason, they will soon wait back until the final direction is chosen. This will delay progress and inhibit growth. Leaders are by no means perfect, nor do their followers expect them to be. However, not making a decision for fear of making a mistake or failing is also a mistake that can lead to failure. As the leader, consider all of your resources and get a 30,000 foot view whenever possible and this will then allow for you to make a decision at every turn knowing the long term direction.

Reed Nyffler
CEO
Signal 88 Security

Learn more about Signal 88 Security at topfranchises.franchisebusinessreview.com.

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