Business – Page 9 – Geoffrey Graham

Think Local: Yeoman Entrepreneurs & The Leaders They Lean On

Branson, Jobs, Pink, Hsieh, Collins, Moore, Lencione, Maslow, Chouinard. I learn a lot from these titans of industry and philosophers of organizational behavior. They inspire me to set my sights on high mountain peaks, and I’m grateful for their willingness to share their stories and insights in books, blogs, articles, interviews, and social media.

But the entrepreneurs and leaders who help me most – the people who take the time to think about my situation, who know my disposition, and who share their own relevant experiences to help me move farther, faster, higher, and stronger – are a close network of local folks that you wouldn’t know from Adam. These yeoman entrepreneurs and leaders are actually in my arena, and they are marred by the same dust and sweat and blood as I am.

A few groups that I lean on:

My Entrepreneurs Organization Forum. We get together once a month for a formal meeting, plus some other less formal meetings here and there. My forum mates know pretty much everything about my business, and in helping me to develop, they learn new things about themselves and their businesses as well.
SaaS Day. Every three to six months, I get together with about eight other SaaS entrepreneurs to discuss a handful of issues that relate to our businesses. Before our meeting, we’ll zero in on two or three topics, and then have a formal conversation about them. Topics range from how to handle support requests, to recruiting, to pricing strategy.
ROWE Lunches. I know about a half dozen other Atlanta entrepreneurs who are building empowered work environments. Every so often, we’ll get together for a casual lunch in which we share the challenges we face and the manner in which we overcome them.

Meetups offer similar opportunities, but there’s a lot to be said for the familiarity and candor that happens in a small, selective, tight-knit talented group of people.

Forums and roundtables aren’t just for business owners. Some of the members of our team have recently started building their own close networks of accomplished peers: Our marketers created a marketing roundtable with a handful of other B2B marketing leaders, and our head of sales is constantly reaching out to other heads of sales to see how they’re building their operations and share the lessons he’s learned along the way.

Learning from others’ experiences is one of my favorite things about entrepreneurship (and life!), and I’m grateful to all the wonderful people who are willing to share their stories and counsel. Who are the people you lean on to help you develop personally and professionally?

All I want for my business for Christmas

Here’s my Christmas wish list:

Recruiting. I’d like two more friendly, accomplished, and committed web application developers; a stalwart sales and support engineer who can also shoulder some product analyst responsibilities; one more talented web designer; and a healthy pipeline of candidates for our sales and support team.

Sales & Marketing. I’d like a simple way for us to track opportunity sources, particularly when multiple sources contribute to the opportunity’s creation. We’re doing an OK job tracking the primary opportunity source, but I sense that we’re missing something by not recording and reporting on all the other sources that have contributed to the opportunity’s creation. As a bonus, I’d like this gift to come with an elf who can go back through all of our opportunities ever created, and append accurate information.

Office Space. I’d like a 5,000+ square foot office space option in Midtown ATL that welcomes sweet dogs; has a wonderful outdoor space (rooftop would be ideal); has great lunch options within an easy walking distance; has excellent light, tall ceilings, and a very cool build-out; and will cost us less than $20/sf.

Health insurance. I’d like simple health insurance options that reward healthy lifestyles in a meaningful way; require very limited administration; and empower our employees to make their own decisions about how to invest the health insurance money that our company spends on them.

What’s on your list?

“What do you think we should do?”

Years ago, I used to work with my oldest brother. He was the general manger of our real estate development company, and I was our project manager. We no longer work together on a daily basis, but we’re still partners in a couple of ventures. I learned a lot about leadership while working with him, and still do to this day.

One of my earliest lessons came when I brought my brother a problem that I was struggling with, seeking his input on what we should do. I can’t remember what the problem was, but I clearly remember his answer. He said,

Don’t bring me problems; bring me solutions.

He was essentially asking me to come to him with a solution already in mind for whatever problem it was that we faced. He would gladly offer input on my proposed course of action, but to come to him before formulating anything was lazy. He was right!

Saul Bellow put it a little more pessimistically when he wrote,

When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.

I was reminded of both my brother’s and Bellow’s sayings when I overheard a member of our leadership team, in response to a request for direction, asking,

What do you think we should do?

What a wonderful question! It carries all the intent of the “Bring me solutions” directive, with none of the pessimism of Bellow’s accomplice theory, and with all the optimistic empowerment that I like to see in our company culture.

On a related note, here’s a great story about empowering leadership and empowered heroes.