As the incoming president at Wellspring, my role, broadly speaking, is to run the business. Wellspring has enjoyed great success because of the people already at the company. But the ingrained work habits they have effectively used in the past will not work going forward as the business grows.
My nature is to want to take on a lot of projects myself and push an aggressive pace of change to achieve goals as soon as possible. This path has high risk both personally and professionally. Having balance in life is key to your success.
Like most people, I draw energy and happiness from family, friends and hobbies. I can bring that renewed energy to work each day and thereby be a more effective contributor to Wellspring’s goals. As I have matured as a professional, I realized that everyone (and mostly me) is better off with a moderated, thoughtful pace when the timetable allows for it.
As incoming president, my new approach has been to ask a lot of questions, fall back on methods of business I know work in any situation and empower others to lead transformational changes they believe they can solve. Empowerment only comes after receiving input from key stakeholders in whatever decision is made. Receiving their input and allowing for honest debate as to the merits of the changes will drive stronger commitment by a broader foundation of people who will hold each other accountable for the intended results. This also achieves the side benefit that if the changes do not work there is not a lot of finger-pointing as to who is to blame. This way galvanizes support of the team and provides more ways for people seeking to stand out by taking on important projects.
The people you want as teammates are those who are looking for opportunities to demonstrate their commitment to the organization and proactively take on projects where they are confident in their ability to achieve the hoped-for results. They want to stand out and they want to be measured. This process makes identifying emerging leaders much easier because it is a natural filter where leadership has a current report card on those who took on important projects, how they went about their business and whether they were successful. Building bench strength of emerging leaders is crucial to any organization and only more so when growing fast. Fast-growing companies need more reliable decision-makers as the business grows in terms of both people and complexity.
Once identified, emerging leaders need to be given the information and tools to make decisions. When decision-making power is effectively distributed throughout the organization, it fosters a culture of responsibility and autonomy. Empowering others gives the business resilience and grit that is often derived only from the top echelons of an organization, particularly the founder.
Empowerment is rewarding for everyone and mostly for company leadership. Building empowered teams of leaders allows senior leadership to detach themselves from the business when needed to achieve that important and healthy balance in life. This type of success is even more difficult to achieve than profits and can be even more rewarding as you have more time to rejuvenate physically, emotionally and mentally having balance in your life. ●
Jeffrey Kadlic is Founding Partner of Evolution Capital Partners, and President and COO of Wellspring Financial Advisors
