LEADERSHIP 101
In the fall of 1981, I moved my family back to an unincorporated
community west of Fillmore, Utah (called Flowell) where I grew up. Being a registered engineer, I partnered in
business with Jim Cox, a man who did land surveys plus odd jobs in the winter,
but he also had a contract with Millard County to redraw the plat maps and to
do some surveyed section corner restoration. In the winter of 1982 we began Sunrise
Engineering, Inc. in Fillmore, Utah. We
set out to seek our fortunes in the engineering and land survey business with a
survey crew of 2 men plus a drafter.
Business was very difficult.
We were experienced, skilled and licensed an engineer and a surveyor but
needed to find work. Every business effort
we engaged in fell under one of 4 basic activities: 1. Marketing and Sales, 2. Production of
Deliverables, 3. Business Administration, 4. Employee Development. In missionary work this is equivalent to: 1.
Finding/Referrals, 2. Teaching/Conversion, 3. Living the missionary protocol, schedule,
transfers, joint teach, etc, 4. Conferences and Trainings. Just like missionary work, nothing much
happened until we found work, a contract to perform. We were blessed with the floods of 1983 and
84 in Utah. Sorry to say, but one man’s
loss is another man’s gain. Those floods
destroyed nearly all water conveyance structures in the State when the 100 year
flood happened 2 years in a row. We
found work that helped us get our little company started.
Stress was high. By
day I did the work to produce contract deliverables. And, I spent hours in evenings and nights each
week, selling engineering business in the homes of City Council members and
water company leaders; meeting them and discussing their needs and our
capabilities. On one occasion I attended
a seminar that changed my life forever.
I realized that regardless of the amount of cement and pipe we put in
the ground on projects, I was still in the people business. I stopped selling engineering services and
started selling relationships. It made
all the difference in the world. We suddenly
found a lot of work and Sunrise Engineering started to grow and has never
looked back. Sunrise now has 160
employees, 15 diverse business units and subsidiaries and operates 10 offices
through the western USA. It is built to
last with continuous influx of young, aggressive and highly motivated owners.
Principles of leadership I learned that grew the business
were simple. I surrounded myself with
good people and worked harder that my competitors. Potential of failure loomed out there but I
had faith to proceed with steady, consistent work. My greatest satisfaction came from seeing
people I supervised excel. I really
wanted to see them become better at the business than I ever hoped to be. This did not threaten me; I loved seeing them
rise to great heights above me. I had a
gift to be able to give them a project, delegate responsibility to them and
step back and allow them to perform while supporting and coaching them. I did not step in and do the work for them
but they knew I would back their decisions. Thus, I had to give up control and
the need to do it myself. I did not feel
threatened to see them achieve. I
realized many small companies never grow past 15-20 people because the boss has
to have his hand on everything that is produced. This is the hour glass affect and eventually
the limit is reached where it is humanly impossible for the boss to do more so
the company stops growing. I was
involved to some degree in much of our work but trusted my people to run their
own area of responsibility without my direct involvement. They did not let me down.
We developed a Policy and Procedures Manual which identified
company policy and outlined steps to follow to maintain corporate standards. We prepared a Share Holders Agreement which
stabilized dealings between owners. So
good were the people I mentored, during the last few years before I became Mission
President, very few corporate decisions were made that I had to be there to
make. This freed more of my time to do
things I really loved such as business development and more involvement in
special challenging projects.
The Law of Diminishing Returns states that the combined
output of the leader and workers of a group decrease if the leader quits
spending time mentoring but simply spends his time doing the work. This is very true in missionary work. If you lead 4 companionships, your combined success
will be less if you do your own work and ignore the rest of the group. Imagine you are a District Leader who works
hard in your own area and average baptizing twice per month while your District
does not baptize. Your District then averages
2 baptisms per month. If you sacrifice
personal performance by spending time mentoring and baptize none yourself, but
your District all baptize 1 per month, your District averages 4 baptisms per
month.
I realized that people do not limit themselves by helping
others succeed. In the process of
assisting others they also raise their own horizons. For example, imagine you are given a project
to manage and you do it by training and assisting your team members to do their
jobs very well. You train them so well,
many of them could to do your own job and become better than you ever hoped to
be at your own job (train your replacement). Because they are so good, a number of them advance
in the Company and are eventually assigned by the Company to manage their own
divisions. They manage other people like
you managed them which provides more good business growth for the Company. Who do you imagine the Company will select to
be the new regional manager to direct the new divisions? Bingo.
You have proven yourself and the company knows if it puts you in that
position, you will create more regions. You
will be a fortunate new region manager too, because all those division managers
who you trained and who are so good at what they do, who have excelled and
broken barriers are now producing for you.
Guess who will be your greatest fan club? You guessed it, those region managers that
you mentored. Why should their success
threaten you? They will follow and love
you to the grave. As you continue the
cycle of assisting others to rise to great heights and train your replacement,
guess who the company will offer the next CEO position to? In short, assisting others to be their best is
called “Leadership.” Your horizons just
go up.
The great CEO of GE, Jack Welch and President James E. Faust
said it best:
“Before you are a leader, success
is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about
growing others.” (Jack Welch)
“Those who are called to lead in
the ministry of the Master are not called to be chiefs or dictators. They are
called to be good shepherds. They are to be constantly training others to take
their place and become greater leaders than their teachers. A good leader
expects much, inspires greatly, and sets on fire those he is called to lead.” (James E. Faust, Oct. 1980)
Every missionary is a leader. He leads his investigators, his junior
companion and other missionaries. At the end of the day, the 4 basic leadership
characteristics for missionaries and for life are:
LEADERSHIP
101
1. Always
be training your replacement
2. Your
satisfaction comes from seeing your team members excel
3. Sacrifice
your personal production to assist your team members to increase their
production and to be their best
4. Set
the example
President Robinson
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