In Korea I think the trend is moving towards this; when investors are looking to put money into a totally brand new company, they are more looking at the entire composition of the Team. If you think about how critical operations are in the health of any business, you want to have that A-Team that covers all the bases. While this is partially covered in a lot of books, I'd like to just address it here.

For the most part, we start things with our friends. But if movie The Social Media is to be believed, lots of crap can happen and teams can change. Just look at the Beatles, before they made it big, one guy, who was under performing, left the band, and another was dismissed outright. But when the odds are stacked against you, you need the best team that you can get.

This doesn't mean you won't work with your friends or the people you know, but it is a matter of active leadership to develop and create a team that works. But any start-up or new business needs someone who will take full responsibility to make things work. This is a key element first as this is what defines a leader. Ultimately, no matter how great of a team you put together, if there isn't a clear team leader, it simply won't work. Achievement isn't done via committees or consensus, but it's done by someone taking responsibility to get the best out the situation. And while people may think there is a fine line between a dictator and what I've just outlined, there isn't. A dictator imposes their own will, a real leader focuses the will of their team.

The Leader

The leader, the CEO, president, founder, managing director, or whatever you want to call it, is not a privilege. There are about a billion books on this in every field and 99% of them are all bullshit because everyone tries to make it seem as though the leader is something better.

I'll tell you that if I didn't have some of the key people working with me, nothing – absolutely nothing – would get done. That is just the nature of the world we live in now. Businesses require people who are specialized and for the most part, you will need a team, maybe not at the beginning, but eventually you will as you grow and develop. Thus, this issue of leadership will always come up, its unavoidable.

In running a new company or start-up, the most important thing is not the vision or roles and job responsibilities, but rather it is the understanding that one person will take full responsibility because they are the most capable to do so. This, in and of itself, is quite a difficult prospect when you're just starting off on your first business venture, simply because: (i) people in general don't have enough maturity to identity that person, (ii) give that person the space to do their job, or (iii) for that person not to be corrupted by the "I'm the boss" title. The title, the responsibility, it is overwhelming as well as our own self perceived expectations of what a 'leader' should be.

In many ways, like anything in life, the relationships in your team need time to grow, mature, and develop, but it does start with the responsible guy. The guy who will take responsibility for the vision, the understanding of the business, the progress of the business and the final results of the business and who will do it with passion.

Slackers

In school they make you do these group projects, and, whether you get to pick your teams or not, there is always one guy who slacks off, but because it is a group project, you get the same mark. You think that this is unfair and there is always 1 or 2 out of the 4 or 5 who end up doing most of the work. In business we call this the 80/20 rule (I have no idea off the top of my head if it is from originally business), but basically 20% create 80% of the results in any given situation.

You may bitch and moan and think, "WTF is with this school system? How the fuck is this teaching me to be a good leader and coordinate people?" I 100% agree. For what the intention is, it sucks at its objective of developing team work. But what it is good is the opposite: showing that at the end of the day, someone has to take responsibility.

By the time I entered into my grad studies in business, whenever there was a group project, I would ask if I could just do the work by myself as a team of one. Now, it being business school the profs would be like, "Um ok, if you want to do the work," and I was like "Yes, no worries." Now all the other groups thought that:
MightyAtom is a dick who thinks he is better than us, or
MightyAtom is a dick who is an idiot too to think he can do all the work himself
But what I was simply doing was cutting to the chase. It was a 50/50 chance that out of 4 people, I'd get one to help me, and the time spent in figuring out who was actually going to help could have been better spent just doing the work.

But that is school. And in real life, I can't do that because I can't code, I can't design, and I can't do everything because I don't have the skill set. But my key point here is that what makes someone the leader isn't first and foremost their 'leadership skills', it is the their ability to take responsibility to get the job done. In the course of getting things sorted out, the rest will naturally follow and leadership comes naturally. In a new business there isn't even staff to delegate tasks too. Instead it is a matter of coordinating for results where everyone is motivating each other — but everyone understands there is the one person who keeps the process moving. That fundamentally is the leader.

The Leader, Round 2

Aside from the main initial characteristic that defines the leader – ultimate responsibility for the project – things like the maturity to listen and take advice, but to also stand firm is something, that only comes with time. But in more practical terms, a leader needs to be the one to be able to clearly define each persons' roles and responsibilities within the company and then help set targets for the company. If do you these 2 things and the team is willing to follow it, either via inspiration, respect, or fear, then you've got a great start. But I'll say this: there are no natural born leaders. Leadership, like every other skill in this world, needs to be learned and developed. Ultimately the crux of the situation is when new leaders think that there is some prescribed role for them to play as either the corporate CEO or unfailing dictator boss who always needs to be confident and right and any criticism is an attack on their position which is all BULLSHIT. Leadership is about taking responsibility for progress. If there isn't progress, even as failure and making things right, then you're not leading. You're just on some ego trip.

Before you start anything, as the leader or a founder or team member of a start-up, you need to have the confidence that you can hold your own. That you, first and foremost, can deliver your contribution and then be proactive to help the company with anything else. To that, you need to be able to also see the big picture and this is where the vision of the entire new company or start-up comes into play. But in my experience there are leaders who have a vision which is just a vague mess, or leaders who have a clear vision that focuses the activities of the team. I usually get paid a hefty consulting fee from those 'leaders' how have lost the forest in the clouds and need to get back to some level of focus. Ultimately it comes back down to progress and progress is only achieved by the leader who is actively focusing a team's resources and capabilities to make steps towards that 'vision' or end goal.

Virgin Book

I'd like to share Business Stripped Bare: Adventurers of a Global Entrepreneur by Sir Richard Branson. I'm sure most of you know him, he is the guy behind the brand of Virgin Air, Virgin Cola, Virgin Mobile, and basically anything else starting with "Virgin" [e/n: remind anyone of Apple?]. He is also a truly great leader. In this book he runs through what he has learned and considers important and what is more than what he outlines (which is great) is his general approach as well as his real life examples. In business and law, we call these case studies. But they are more than just anecdotal stories, as most of them have real life failures and triumphs that all have contributed to his success and development.

What is uber unique about Richard is not only the way he uses his brand, Virgin, but also how he has set up multiple new companies in multiple industries with multiple teams. He is not a silent investor. His brand, Virgin, is always on the line with every new venture he takes on. He is also not working with the same team for every venture, but needs to assess and take on new teams for each new industry he dives into to.

This book is a great starting point to understand, not so much the business of Virgin, but Richard's approach as a leader. And to be great, you at least need to have the goal and dream to be great no matter how humble the start.

Stuff You Should Do

Research online what Virgin is and Sir Richard Branson.
Read the book.
Read his other books if you have time (the issue with a lot of non-fiction books is that once you've read one by the author, reading more on the same topic doesn't really give a whole lot more).
Let's go through the book chapter by chapter in this thread and I'll try to throw in some of my real life case studies.


Most great books have great introductions that really flesh out the direction of the book, and Business Stripped Bare is no exception. Here are some excerpted quotes from the introduction that may make you more open to reading a business book that is more about the creative achievements of someone taking that responsibility.




I wouldn't say this a phenomenal book, but it's great because he reflects on a life's experience of running and establishing new businesses from around the world. He is not a conventional leader, but he is a great profile of a leader. If I was going to point someone who wasn't familiar with business to a business leader, it would be Sir Richard Branson because he isn't one dimensional and he done what very very few people have done, built a brand that covers multiple and diverse industries in a global context. In most marketing brand strategy and corporate strategy approaches/books he is the example that is never discussed because he stands as such an anomaly to the traditional business world. If anyone is to put you on the right foot, to prevent you from buying into what a leader should be and simply be the leader that you can be with your passion and humility to be better, it is this man.

Brought to you by the TL Knowhow Team
Written by: MightyAtom
Edited by: tofucake