Advantages:

This Machiavellian / Darwinian style allows for only the strongest leaders to survive, as only those with the most command-and-conquer passion will battle through the obstacles.  A president of a $100m LBM Dealer commented, "I'm too stupid to have fears...as far as obstacles and challenges that is what leadership is all about. If you don't enjoy trying to navigate through the obstacles and challenges, maybe you should try another career choice." 

• Real Time - This reactive training style provides a high degree of motivation as the sense of urgency is created by solving a current problem.  The need to effectively implement this new skill is enhanced by the critical desire to win in that moment.
• Low Cost - This style is perceived to very low cost.  As leaders must embrace the challenge of growth on their own, by the grit of their teeth, succeeding and failing, while collecting information and potential solutions and tactics within their reach with limited monetary cost.

What is the best method to develop our

next generation of leaders?

 

 

TJ Coombs, Industry Executive, shared, "An effective (leadership) style is essential to getting underperforming teams to look hard at themselves and understand that strategic thinking, accountability coupled with executive support is a leadership and learning opportunity for them, not a threat.

 

Fear needs to be looked at as an asset, not a liability. It tells your mind that you need to re-tool and re-equip your past abilities and thought processes to tackle a problem or challenging business situation. To this end fear is useful as long as it is something to overcome by planning, analysis, and strategy and not something that manages the individual. If an organization senses fear in a leader then they will not follow. When they see a steady under fire and solutions driven executive they will follow and learn from them.

 

The greatest challenges and obstacles in my career have been the inertia of large organizations even when there is a crisis on their hands. Risk averse executives, staff functions with no sense of urgency, and middle managers avoiding problems or accountability are a death sentence to an enterprise trying to grow or simply regain its footings. Working with these constituencies has been and continues to be a challenge, but one that can be overcome with perseverance and a compelling fact based case for change.

 

Developing the next generations of leaders is vital. Since the turndown in the building materials and construction industry there has been considerable contraction in hiring. This has disproportionately hit the entry level positions and the management training programs that companies long used. Now that there is some growth in our industry there will be a tremendous need for young, energetic, and fresh leadership. To develop this leaders need to develop leaders at all levels. What I call the "extra credit projects" that present themselves in business, (e.g. Troubleshooting, a skunk works program, etc.), are excellent venues to expose the next generation to incremental leadership development opportunities. Mentoring is something that all too many leaders do not make enough time for anymore. However, the skills and temperament needed to be a highly successful executive are ones that are witnessed and learned. You will find the most effective executives in any industry are those that have created disciples and will be the next generation of leaders."  

An $80m LBM President forwarded the following thoughts. His thoughts were so compelling we wanted to share them unedited.

  

"Interesting questions, as I have placed much thought and also kept a journal regarding this journey so as to never forget...better than any Ivy League education. I keep thinking about my uncle who served and was highly decorated in the Vietnam War. He would never talk about it except once when we were traveling on business and had a couple of bumps. I asked him about his experience and he told me, very directly, that no matter how much detail he provided, I would never understand or fully appreciate what war was like. While I realize it's a reach and in no way intend to make any comparison between the life and death choices made during battle, certainly the strong family tie and history to this business, made this an extremely stressful and often painful, scary experience. For those of us who survived and are even now prospering on the upswing, we have incredible knowledge through our experiences that will serve us, our customers and our industry well. I don't know how to teach that as it was such a unique time. In fact, for my father and the second generation, they had no clue as to how we should respond as, even with the late 70's, they had never seen anything like the bust of 2007-2011 (pick your years give or take).

 

Perhaps the most significant awareness that came out of all of this for me was that as a person and a company, regardless of the economic hardship/crisis, you must remain true to your values and make good decisions. Maybe even more importantly, when you make a bad decision (that does happen sometimes), leaving your ego at the door and regroup and admitting the error. There is no room for executive vanity or hubris when facing a crisis. It starts by hiring true believers; people who possess that intrinsic something beyond climbing the corporate ladder. Constant communication, not only of the what but more importantly the why, is critical to keeping people engaged. In fact the biggest risk I saw was attrition of our strongest players. Fortunately, that did not happen. I attribute that to over communication of goals and strategies to keep the company viable even when performing layoffs...the survivors always needed to know that this was the best decision for them and the company. There is such incredible strength in belief.

 

Our core is as solid today as it has ever been. In fact, I'm astonished at the amount of through put from all facets of the business. The people are what make any company great. As a manager, the second that you start thinking that you're the one responsible for success or that you alone make the company great...you are truly lost.

 

Certainly, the thought of losing the business like so many others was one of my largest fears. The fear of failure and not even necessarily letting my family down, but also all of those employees who were counting on us to make good decisions to keep this thing going. These people are the reason for me uncurling from the fetal position many mornings and dragging my depressed butt out of bed to come into the office and do my job. As I look back on the whole ordeal, it was an incredible experience where I learned much, but like the war, will be difficult for anyone else who wasn't there to understand. Never forget..."