Manage today and lead for tomorrow.

Over the 35 years of my professional career of starting up and managing a number of business trying to determine why some companies succeed and others fail or just limp along. My conclusion: the winners have “good leaders who nurture the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization.” These leaders urge their workers to see reality and mobilize the appropriate responses. The evidence comes from observing how much time their chief executives spend “formally and informally” on teaching. They conclude that those firms’ success is a direct result of everyone’s pulling in the same direction. Of course we cannot ignore small entrepreneurial companies where a product innovation, speed to market or customer service can make all the difference.

In all my business activities (and still do) I have been a teacher, teaching and coaching my staff things such as why we are in business, why we exist, who pays our wages, how to be customer centric, how to identify needs and build products and services to satisfy the customer wants. Teaching the fundamental blueprints for moving forward as an organisation.

Think of the leader as a teacher!