“5 Easily-Copied Traits of an Excellent Leader”

By: Paul Spiegelman

Harold MacDowell, CEO of TDIndustries, sets a standard for company culture that you should imitate. Here’s how.

I recently met and had breakfast with Harold MacDowell, the CEO of TDIndustries, a mechanical construction and facilities service company in Dallas. I reached out to him because I had been hearing a lot about TD’s company culture.

I like MacDowell, and was excited to learn that many of the things I’ve been doing to maintain and improve the company culture at BerylHealth over the last 28 years are the same as what Harold is doing at TD, which employees nearly 1,800 people.

MacDowell and I also agree that strengthening company culture is not only the right thing to do, but is good for business. TDIndustries, which had more than $400 million in sales last year, has made Fortune’s 100 ‘Best Places To Work’ list for 16 years, and its internally-estimated stock valuation has outpaced the S&P 500 index every year for 20 years. All of TD’s employees are owners since it is an ESOP.

So let me share some of the things that impressed me about what Harold does at TD, all of which can be easily duplicated in almost any business. And he and both I agreed that few of our ideas were original; they were unabashedly stolen from others:

1. He’s committed to servant leadership.
Not only does MacDowell epitomize this leadership style–he shares leadership with others, and puts his staff first–but everyone in the company is required to go through formal servant leadership training. Your people don’t have to be born to be servant leaders. You can train them.

2. He set up formal and informal feedback mechanisms.
Jack Lowe, the company founder, used to invite groups of employees to his home for spaghetti dinners. His son continued the tradition as “breakfast with Jack” so he could get important, open feedback. Since he took over from Jack Lowe Jr. as CEO in 2005, MacDowell makes sure that all of his senior leaders have similar sessions at least quarterly, to listen deeply and keep communication open.

3. He holds his leaders accountable.
All leaders participate in an anonymous annual evaluation by their reports. If they don’t score at least an eight on a scale up to 10, they’re evaluated again six months later–and must show improvement.

4. He squeezes out those who don’t fit at TD.
No company has a perfect track record of hiring the right people every time. At TD, MacDowell and his team realize that if they work according to a set of core values, those who don’t fit will self-select out. If not, the MacDowell and his senior executives make tough decisions, and sometimes let people go.

5. He keeps everyone in the loop.
Like many companies, not all employees have access to the same information at the same time. More than half of those work for TD don’t even have company email. So TD developed a smartphone app that helps keep everyone connected.

“5 Easily-Copied Traits of an Excellent Leader”

By: Paul Spiegelman

Harold MacDowell, CEO of TDIndustries, sets a standard for company culture that you should imitate. Here’s how.

I recently met and had breakfast with Harold MacDowell, the CEO of TDIndustries, a mechanical construction and facilities service company in Dallas. I reached out to him because I had been hearing a lot about TD’s company culture.

I like MacDowell, and was excited to learn that many of the things I’ve been doing to maintain and improve the company culture at BerylHealth over the last 28 years are the same as what Harold is doing at TD, which employees nearly 1,800 people.

MacDowell and I also agree that strengthening company culture is not only the right thing to do, but is good for business. TDIndustries, which had more than $400 million in sales last year, has made Fortune’s 100 ‘Best Places To Work’ list for 16 years, and its internally-estimated stock valuation has outpaced the S&P 500 index every year for 20 years. All of TD’s employees are owners since it is an ESOP.

So let me share some of the things that impressed me about what Harold does at TD, all of which can be easily duplicated in almost any business. And he and both I agreed that few of our ideas were original; they were unabashedly stolen from others:

1. He’s committed to servant leadership.
Not only does MacDowell epitomize this leadership style–he shares leadership with others, and puts his staff first–but everyone in the company is required to go through formal servant leadership training. Your people don’t have to be born to be servant leaders. You can train them.

2. He set up formal and informal feedback mechanisms.
Jack Lowe, the company founder, used to invite groups of employees to his home for spaghetti dinners. His son continued the tradition as “breakfast with Jack” so he could get important, open feedback. Since he took over from Jack Lowe Jr. as CEO in 2005, MacDowell makes sure that all of his senior leaders have similar sessions at least quarterly, to listen deeply and keep communication open.

3. He holds his leaders accountable.
All leaders participate in an anonymous annual evaluation by their reports. If they don’t score at least an eight on a scale up to 10, they’re evaluated again six months later–and must show improvement.

4. He squeezes out those who don’t fit at TD.
No company has a perfect track record of hiring the right people every time. At TD, MacDowell and his team realize that if they work according to a set of core values, those who don’t fit will self-select out. If not, the MacDowell and his senior executives make tough decisions, and sometimes let people go.

5. He keeps everyone in the loop.
Like many companies, not all employees have access to the same information at the same time. More than half of those work for TD don’t even have company email. So TD developed a smartphone app that helps keep everyone connected.

“3 Things You Don’t Really Need to Be a Great Leader”

By: Les McKeown

Sometimes the things you think you need will lead you down the wrong path. Here’s what you need to know.

We all do what we do because of deep-seated needs. Most founder-owners, for example, start businesses because of a need for freedom and autonomy. Most leaders arrive in leadership positions driven by a need to make a difference.

Some needs sour, however, taking the edge off otherwise great leaders and dragging them down to the level of the merely mediocre. Here are the three most common good-needs-gone-bad that I see otherwise excellent leaders succumb to:

The need to be liked.

There isn’t a darn thing wrong with being liked by the people you work with. And in the early stages of leading any group, be it a business, division, department, project, or team, it makes sense to work with people you like and who in turn like you. Affection, regard, mutual respect– even love–are powerful contributors to a healthy, vibrant culture.

Where things go wrong is when a leader becomes addicted to receiving the affection and/or respect of others. At that point, information processing become less than clinical, decisions become infected with bias, and communications lose their clarity and precision.

How do you know when you’ve stepped over the line between providing a healthy environment of acceptance and respect, and craving the affection of others?

You’ll see it in how you treat those who are less outgoing. If you find yourself either freezing such people out of your circle, or going to the other extreme–twisting yourself like a pretzel to gain their attention and affection–then you have a problem.

The need to be the smartest person in the room.

Leaders lead. Leaders get things right more often that they get things wrong. Leaders share by coaching and mentoring others. Leaders see things others don’t. Leaders push others to places they wouldn’t otherwise go.

All of this is true, usually, and to a degree. They don’t often happen all at the same time, and some of these characteristics may or may not show up in a great leader’s arsenal for a very long time.

Unfortunately, some less than stellar leaders begin talking endlessly. Specifically, talking (ceaselessly) in a manner designed to let everyone else know how clever and how “leaderly” they are. They need to be The Smartest Person In The Room.

You see it in teams all the time. Everyone has said their say and we’re ready to make a decision, but the SPITR must talk more–to add a gloss, a nuance, an inflection that they’re sure no-one else has noticed. The SPITR asks a question, but then spends five times as long telling us all precisely what, in their view, the answer is, before anyone else can get a word in. A topic is raised and swiftly, unanimously, dealt with until the SPITR spots a pin-head they can dance on for thirty minutes, derailing the entire meeting.

How do you know you’re the SPITR? Simple. if you think you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re almost certainly The Smartest Person in the Room. And remember, if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.

The need to be elsewhere.

Yes, you’re busy. Yes, you’re the boss, so you get to duck out of meetings when they get tedious. Yes, there are endless little red notification buttons glowing on your smartphone, and it’s throbbing with something new coming in every forty-five seconds.

But you’re needed, here. And it’s all of you that’s needed: your full attention, physically, emotionally, intellectually–not just that pathetic sliver of peripheral attention you dole out minute by minute, depending on your level of interest at any one moment in time.

As has famously been said, Be Here Now. And if you’re not where you’re needed–all of you–then find out where that is, and go there.

“8 Things You Should Not Do Every Day”

By: Jeff Haden

It’s for your own good. Cut these things out of your day and you’ll see gains in productivity–not to mention happiness.

If you get decent value from making to-do lists, you’ll get huge returns–in productivity, in improved relationships, and in your personal well-being–from adding these items to your not to-do list:

Every day, make the commitment not to:

1. Check my phone while I’m talking to someone.

You’ve done it. You’ve played the, “Is that your phone? Oh, it must be mine,” game. You’ve tried the you-think-sly-but-actually-really-obvious downwards glance. You’ve done the, “Wait, let me answer this text…” thing.

Maybe you didn’t even say, “Wait.” You just stopped talking, stopped paying attention, and did it.

Want to stand out? Want to be that person everyone loves because they make you feel, when they’re talking to you, like you’re the most important person in the world?

Stop checking your phone. It doesn’t notice when you aren’t paying attention.

Other people? They notice.

And they care.

2. Multitask during a meeting.

The easiest way to be the smartest person in the room is to be the person who pays the most attention to the room.

You’ll be amazed by what you can learn, both about the topic of the meeting and about the people in the meeting if you stop multitasking and start paying close attention. You’ll flush out and understand hidden agendas, you’ll spot opportunities to build bridges, and you’ll find ways to make yourself indispensable to the people who matter.

It’s easy, because you’ll be the only one trying.

And you’ll be the only one succeeding on multiple levels.

3. Think about people who don’t make any difference in my life.

Trust me: The inhabitants of planet Kardashian are okay without you.

But your family, your friends, your employees–all the people that really matter to you–are not. Give them your time and attention.

They’re the ones who deserve it.

4. Use multiple notifications.

You don’t need to know the instant you get an email. Or a text. Or a tweet. Or anything else that pops up on your phone or computer.

If something is important enough for you to do, it’s important enough for you to do without interruptions. Focus totally on what you’re doing. Then, on a schedule you set–instead of a schedule you let everyone else set–play prairie dog and pop your head up to see what’s happening.

And then get right back to work. Focusing on what you are doing is a lot more important than focusing on other people might be doing.

They can wait. You, and what is truly important to you, cannot.

5. Let the past dictate the future.

Mistakes are valuable. Learn from them.

Then let them go.

Easier said than done? It all depends on your perspective. When something goes wrong, turn it into an opportunity to learn something you didn’t know–especially about yourself.

When something goes wrong for someone else, turn it into an opportunity to be gracious, forgiving, and understanding.

The past is just training. The past should definitely inform but in no way define you–unless you let it.

6. Wait until I’m sure I will succeed.

You can never feel sure you will succeed at something new, but you can always feel sure you are committed to giving something your best.

And you can always feel sure you will try again if you fail.

Stop waiting. You have a lot less to lose than you think, and everything to gain.

7. Talk behind someone’s back.

If only because being the focus of gossip sucks. (And so do the people who gossip.)

If you’ve talked to more than one person about something Joe is doing, wouldn’t everyone be better off if you stepped up and actually talked to Joe about it? And if it’s “not your place” to talk to Joe, it’s probably not your place to talk about Joe.

Spend your time on productive conversations. You’ll get a lot more done–and you’ll gain a lot more respect.

8. Say “yes” when I really mean “no.”

Refusing a request from colleagues, customers, or even friends is really hard. But rarely does saying no go as badly as you expect. Most people will understand, and if they don’t, should you care too much about what they think?

When you say no, at least you’ll only feel bad for a few moments. When you say yes to something you really don’t want to do you might feel bad for a long time–or at least as long as it takes you to do what you didn’t want to do in the first place.

“7 Characteristics That Will Kill Your Start-up”

By: Marla Tabaka

Don’t let these common short-comings destroy your shot at a successful business.

You are creative, resourceful, visionary, driven, and probably a touch hyper. I know that because you’re an entrepreneur, or at least you want to be.

These are all great and necessary qualities for an entrepreneur but there are some opposing qualities that could be detrimental to your business. Here are seven of them. How many do you show the signs of?

1. Stubbornness

Entrepreneurs become passionate about their topic and to some degree that’s critical to success. However, when the passion keeps you from being flexible and open to new ideas, you may as well start ringing the death-knell for your business.

Have you ever seen Shark Tank? I know, I know, it’s just television, but there’s some truth in that program. Here you have five hugely successful entrepreneurs telling a newbie that their idea is not a good one, and the newbie argues back! That’s the stubbornness I’m talking about. What if instead, the newbie’s say, tell me how to make it work, and they actually listen? That’s an opportunity of a lifetime! But many of them are too dang stubborn to consider another way.

Don’t be married to your idea; think of it as a malleable object ready to grow and take shape–or change altogether! Learn to let go and to anticipate and accept change.

2. Arrogance

You know the product or service inside and out; you’ve been formulating it forever! You have a vision and you feel certain that you are the best person to carry it out. But if you think you know it all, you’re in for a bumpy ride.

Too many entrepreneurs push away good ideas and input. Instead, talk to the people who have done it already and learn from their mistakes. And never believe that you won’t make mistakes! In fact, exceptional entrepreneurs will even set out to fail. They will test products and services over and over again; going back to the drawing board to make changes and improvements each time. It’s from the failures, large and small, that we learn the most.

Set the ego aside and be open to input, change, and even criticism and rejection. It’s all a part of life for the entrepreneur. The game-changer is in how your respond to it and whether or not you let it stop you from moving forward.

3. Short-sightedness

Begin at the end. That’s what I tell new business owners. Heck, I say that to most business owners because the majority of them don’t do it. What are your long-term plans for the business? If you are launching a business just to make money and you have no idea where it’s going, you simply cannot make wise decisions.

Do you want your company to go public someday? Perhaps a buyout is more ideal? Do you wish for your company to become a legacy to your children? Or, maybe you just want to ride the wave and move on to something else in a few years.

These are only a few of your options, but consider how different your decisions will be with two different scenarios in mind. If you jump on a trend and you know you’re in it for only a few years, you are going to make short-term decisions; the choices that are most profitable. But if you are building for the long-term, you may have to pass up a few tempting opportunities if they don’t fit into your big vision and plan.

Envision yourself sitting at 5,000 feet, looking down on your company. This bird’s eye view will allow you to plan into the future, rather than staying in the present putting out fires.

4. Impatience

Recently, I visited a new restaurant. It’s a charming place in a good location. The owners are first-time business owners who are, sadly, learning the hard way.

To begin with there was no soft open. They didn’t experiment and practice on friends and family. Instead they chose to experiment on paying customers. The result? Disaster.

For instance, their specialty is crepes. Yet, we were advised not to order the crepes because they would take 30 to 40 minutes to come up. What? So I ordered a $12 sandwich. Anticipating a lunch extraordinaire I received a very ordinary, tasteless meal that would have cost me a dollar and little effort to make at home. Topping off the experience, the register went down and we were asked to wait for 20 minutes for our check!

These new business owners were too impatient. I’m sure the pressure of paying rent without an income is responsible for the much-too-soon open, but now they’ve lost at least one customer because of it.

Take it one step at a time. Launch a test product, do practice runs. Don’t risk it all at once.

5. Procrastination

To the contrary, many entrepreneurs sit on their idea for what seems like forever! Why? Excessive perfectionism, fear of being judged, fear of failure, fear of success, lack of confidence; the list goes on and on.

Stop making excuses! Take a bite-sized piece of your idea and get it out there. Remember, it’s OK if it’s not quite right. This gives you the opportunity to bend it and shape it until it produces raving fans!

6. Half-heartedness

I’m willing to bet that the majority of people behind failed start-ups don’t quit their day jobs. Or, that the failed mompreneur businesses have a mom at the helm who is unwilling or ill-prepared to bring in help with the kids and household responsibilities. Guess what? Running a successful business takes time, concentration, energy, and loads of patience. There are no exceptions.

If you have to keep your day job, make financial decisions that support a grand exit as soon as possible. Or, plan on a long, long haul before you meet success. And mom; you are not superwoman! Of course your children are the No. 1 priority but everyone will be miserable if you are constantly pushing them away or snapping at them because you are being pulled to your business. You need two-hour chunks of uninterrupted time to succeed; as many of them as possible. Think big, ask for help, and let go of the guilt! You will have more quality time with your kids and they will love you for it.

7. Avoidance

So you don’t like conflict, do you? Perhaps you want to please everyone or you feel responsible for others. Well then, you have some work to do if you want to be a successful entrepreneur.

I see it too often: entrepreneurs who don’t dismiss an employee or contractor because they feel responsible for their financial future. Or, those who won’t discuss an employee’s professional short-comings for fear of hurting their feelings. Many entrepreneurs are afraid of implementing change because they believe it will ruffle the feathers of employees or customers. Guess what? You are not doing anyone any favors!

Understand the personality-types of your close connections and learn how to communicate with them in an effective, constructive manner. Don’t avoid change. If you do you are slowing your growth and headed for failure.