With ‘Boundaries for Leaders’
YOUR LEGACY BEGINS
Have you been approaching leadership all wrong?
Whether you’re an executive or an aspiring leader, Dr. Henry Cloud, author of the groundbreaking book “Boundaries for Leaders,” might have something to say about it. Marrying the fields of clinical psychology and leadership consulting, Dr. Cloud delves deep into the mind to find rich insights about the psychology of leadership. In fact, he literally redefines the word in the process. REDEFINING LEADERSHIP Dr. Cloud defines leadership as simply “the process of turning a vision into a reality.” Sounds simple, right? It’s also completely accurate. Whether your vision is a successful business or a successful family, you need leadership skills to achieve your goals. But you can’t do it alone. You need to achieve your dreams with people and through people. The most worthwhile dreams are only possible with the help of others who can take your ideas and make them actionable. Plus, they tend to make the journey more enjoyable if you hire the right people and set the right boundaries. That’s why leaders need to invest time and energy into creating teams and workplace cultures that support productivity while maintaining employee satisfaction. It doesn’t take a clinical psychologist to tell you that unhappy people don’t stay productive for long. Without a sense of ownership —with you stepping over boundaries onto projects they should own for themselves — they won’t have that motivation. Believe it or not, you can maintain that culture while remaining, as Dr. Cloud puts it, “ridiculously in charge.” WHAT TO DO The best leaders set boundaries that empower people and teams to reach goals, while rooting out bad behavior proactively. They have to do this in a way that works with people’s brain functions of attention, inhibition, and working memory. If you’ve never approached leadership from this psychological point of view, it’s a refreshing take that can work wonders on the efficiency and effectiveness of any team. Ultimately, the book encourages you to view leadership as creating the conditions that allow people to use their brains to realize visions in the absence of distraction. That means creating the right boundaries — boundaries that produce freedomwithout control.
With a Succession Plan
As an entrepreneur, your main goal throughout your career is likely to grow your business to be as successful as possible. However, you may not think about what happens to your business after you retire. While growth is certainly important in business, careful succession planning ensures your company’s success after it leaves your hands. The normal evolution of a business begins when you’ve started or bought your company. You build and design it, you work to create something special and successful, and then you begin planning an exit strategy or succession plan. Whether that plan means selling your business and transitioning to a new CEO or handing your business to one of your children, there comes a time when a business owner asks themselves what kind of legacy they wish to leave behind — and what kind of retirement they want for themselves. Succession plans must be treated like business plans, which means you must have a clear vision of what you want for yourself and the company in the next five years. Where do you want to be? How do you want to be involved? What do you want out of the company you created? What is your exit strategy? If you decide you want to sell your business in the next five years, start the process by identifying potential buyers and determining how they make purchases. Find out how these organizations valued other companies and how they’ve integrated or purchased those companies. If you’ve done your job well and made many personal connections, there is a chance that buyers will have already approached you. If you want to give control of the business to a family member, you need to look at the procedures and steps that will ensure a secured transfer. This means training, education, and practice — grooming, if you will — for the person who will ultimately lead your business. Succession planning is just as important as company growth. Without careful preparation, your business could falter under the weight of an inexperienced leader or a company with opposing values. Carefully plan your exit strategy, so you can enjoy your retirement and your company’s success from the sidelines.
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