The lowdown: Discover what it actually takes to be a workplace leader with this Hero Factor summary.
If you close your eyes and imagine a leader in a big business or corporation, you may imagine some asshole.
With corporate bonuses and a never-ending news cycle showing the abuse of power in the work place, a lot of people are losing faith in business leaders.
The answer to buck the trend and be a great business leader is to be a heroic one, as The Hero Factor discusses.
- Audible Audiobook
- Jeffrey W. Hayzlett (Author) – Jeffrey Hayzlett (Narrator)
- English (Publication Language)
- 12/28/2018 (Publication Date) – Gildan Media, LLC (Publisher)
The three main lessons from the book are:
- Value people and profits equally
- Live your company’s values
- Give something back
Lesson One: Value people and profits equally
What do you think the most important thing is to you as a leader, people or profits?
This is one of those ‘too simple’ questions that really make you think…
The answer the book preaches is that they both have equal importance.
You shouldn’t have to sacrifice one to improve the other.
In order to boost profits, you need to the core principles of:
- Increasing revenue over time
- Ensure your product is superior to your competition
- Create as much value for your customers
- Consistently recruit and retain A+ employees
In order to truly get the most out of your staff, you need to empower them. That means involving them in as much as you can.
So, include people in your decision making process. This drives a culture of innovation and not a culture of compliance.
Lesson Two: Live your company’s values
There is nothing worse than a disconnect between a company and the people who work in it.
Your values are more than just what you put on the about-page on your company website. If you (and your other leaders) don’t live your company values there becomes a huge disconnect and a loss of trust.
Hell, take what happened to Starbucks as an example.
They had to close 8,000 stores for an afternoon so staff could complete a racial bias training after a Starbucks manager got the company in hot water (no pun intended).
A few months before the training, two African American men were arrested after a manager reported that the two refused to lead.
The two men were just waiting for a third friend so they could order.
The manager’s actions were not only shithouse and racist, but they were also against the company values of being a welcoming environment.
Lesson Three: Give something back
The impact that you can have as a business owner is literally life changing.
Take Rob Ryan for example, when he sold Ascend Communications for $20 Billion in the 1990s, his life stayed somewhat the same but he changed the lives of those around him.
Ryan gave 10% of the sale price to his employees, making them all millionaires.
Or, take founder of Chobani Yogurt, Hadimi Ulukaya for example. When he started the Yogurt company, he told his employees straight off the bat that his intention is to share 10% of his sale price with the employees who helped him grow the company.
Recently, the brand was values at $1.5 Billion, which is enough to make all his employees millionaires.
While you don’t have to give handouts to employees, empowering them will generate a happy and loyal team.
My Personal Takeaway
I love the concept of living company values. This isn’t discussed as much as it should be.
So often we see businesses list a shopping list of values on their home page.
But, how can you live a list of 18 values all at the same time?
Put it into action
Check your company values and try to limit them to two or three you see as the most important. From there you can look to live your values.
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