I need to start with a disclaimer. If it weren’t against my religion, I would worship Les Mckeown and the wisdom he carries about start ups and business. And he should, after being involved with 42 start-ups, and having worked with uncounted other businesses in all stages of development.
I read his first book, Predictable Success, with great enthusiasm, only to end up thumping myself in the forehead repeatedly as I recognized mistake after mistake I had made. What a gift of clarity!
I was then lucky enough to strike up a friendship with Les through Twitter and then on the phone, after which I had the great good fortune to meet him in person at a Predictable Success workshop he gave in Seattle, Washington.
And the questions, advice and insight that I’ve gained through him have continued to both (1) help my business develop from solo into a company and (2) earned me many more self-inflicted forehead bruises.
His second book, The Synergist, forthcoming in January, answers the huge question posed by Predictable Success. Namely, who is going to carry out your predictable success strategy without turning it into a God-awful tangle of messy relationships and miscommunications?
Les has identified four broad categories of people in organizations, three who are commonly seen and the fourth, the Synergist, which is badly needed and much harder to find. Thankfully, he describes how you can take on the qualities of the Synergist.
His Visionary, Operator, and Processor types make a lot of sense to me, and bear out my experience. Shortly after reading his book I was able to, in the middle of a conversation with one of our team members, identify why I was reacting to her explanations.
More importantly, I had read the chapter “From Triangle to Pyramid” and learned where Synergists come from, and each type’s unique way to take on the Synergist’s qualities. I not only understood why I I was reacting, but could shift more into the Synergist role he describes and consequently the conversation instantly became MUCH more effective.
I know many, though not all, Heart of Business readers are solo self-employed types and may wonder why I would spend so much time doing a review of a book that is meant for larger organizations. So here’s the why.
The idea of being a solo in business is a myth. Whether you have someone do your taxes, code and design your website, or you simply get to the point where you need some administrative help, you will not be able to run your business successfully truly doing everything yourself.
This means you need to have other people help you. Ideally the people who help you will be really great at things that you are not so naturally suited for. This means they will most likely have a significantly different personality and way of seeing the world than you do. If you don’t want the help you receive to create a mess in your business, you need to know how to interact with these folks.
Then, if your business hits momentum, which I fervently hope it will, you won’t just be hiring someone on a project basis. You will have regular or semi-regular team members around you. Heart of Business was solo for many years, but at this point, at last count, we have… oh… five, six… seven… eight team members. Really, eight? That’s huge!
Because it’s unlikely those team members are going to voluntarily attend self-development and communication classes just to adapt to my quirks and peculiarities, it’s my responsibility to become self-aware and grow into the leader that most effectively leads others to carry out the vision for my business.
It’s your business, you need to know how to lead it effectively.
Go get The Synergist, and while you’re there, if you haven’t yet, get Predictable Success as well. And enjoy.
Les McKeown is a renowned speaker, author and advisor advisor on accelerated business growth. He has has started over 40 companies in his own right, and was the founding partner of an incubation consulting company that advised on the creation and growth of hundreds more organizations worldwide.
Les is the author of the WSJ and USA Today Best-seller, “Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track – and Keeping It There” and “The Synergist: Leading Your Team to Predictable Success”.
1 Response
Les is always a fountain of insight – not just into our businesses, but very often into the human condition as well. I enjoyed Predictable Success so much that I refer to it frequently in my courses and often give it as a gift to my coaching clients. I am eagerly awaiting my own copy of The Synergist at the moment, and look forward to many of my own “head smacking moments” as well.