5 Disciplines of Harp Corps

Although I wrote this 3 years ago while building an entrepreneur's version to the Franklin Covey self-management system, I thought a brief review is in order (see link above for the entire article).

I once said that being an entrepreneur was a calling, like perhaps a priest – rabbi – imam. That was not a flip remark; I have great respect the people who answer that call. Like a priest or even better a monk, if we are going to self-manage – we need rules to live by. Taking a page from the Order of Saint Benedict and their Benedictine rules, here is my operational version, the rules of hard corps:

• Embrace Objective Reality
• Understand Your Talents (and Weaknesses)
• Clarity of Purpose
• Courage to Walk Your Path
• Persist as Long as You are Right

Let me now superimpose research conducted over 20 years ago by Warren Bennis, the great commentator on Leadership. In his study of effective leaders in the public and private sectors – he identified five behaviors or disciplines they all had in common which I have slightly embellished:

1. Create a Compelling Vision of the Future
2. Fanatical Focus on the Critical
3. Embody Your Reality
4. Communicate to Inspire
5. Empower a Movement

Over the next five days, I will detail each discipline for the start-up entrepreneur.

1. Create a Compelling Vision of the Future

Your Future Must Make a Difference. Whatever vision you paint, it must have meaning beyond you and the boundaries of the organization. You are looking to inspire people to sign up and join so being focused on just you or the company will not provide a compelling case. People love being part of something greater than themselves.

• Example: our corporate vision is to change the math of business success. Entrepreneurs risk everything to turn a dream into reality, and the odds are against us. Within 7 years, statistically we all will go belly up! What if we could just raise the odds of success by 10%? With 25 million small businesses in the United States that is 2.5 million more successful entrepreneurs.

Encompass the Human Condition by Helping. Ultimately all organizations are about some good created for others. Whether this is humanity in general or the local community, we must provide value. Helping is just another way of saying – we provide value that people are willing to pay for.

• Example: our corporate vision is to address the entrepreneurial fear of risking everything, the fear of no presents under the Christmas tree, the fear of no food on the table or power in the middle of the winter, or the fear of losing the house. All entrepreneurs in the early stages live with this unrelenting terror, and if you are not one – you just won't get it. Our difference – we do and have built an organization to make the terror manageable.

You Must Believe in Yourself and Your Abilities. Entrepreneurs are not surrounded by much support, formal or informal. Most of our family and friends think we are a couple of bubbles off center for leaving the security of a paying job. Banks are certainly not an ally – try to get a loan when it is the difference between live or death. If you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will and you will play it safe which usually becomes a disaster. Entrepreneurs are not river boat gamblers, they take calculated risks but it is a risk just the same.

• Example: our corporate vision is take out most of the cost of knowledge and sell it to a highly fragmented and unsophisticated market. This is not about the intelligence of business owners, they simply don't have much experience with buying help and have no idea of what to buy or what to pay. Think selling this idea to our investors has been easy? I could return to large corporate consulting, make $3,000 a day and live comfortably.

Appeal to Everyone's Best Angels. Negative messages don't work, politicians that focus only on the negative lose elections. Also we live in societies that are geared to the lowest common denominator. Building a world class organization is about elevating everyone; employees, clients, suppliers, and investors. Feeling good about oneself is a function of success.

• Example: our corporate vision is to raise the bar for entrepreneurship, to appeal to the courage of business owners and help them make the dream a reality. Since we are living the same reality it starts with us. We are constantly pushing the bar higher and higher within to ensure will can do it outside.

Demand Everyone's Best Effort. This is about a balance between impossible and difficult. If people are going to rise to the occasion, they must be challenged to bring their A game every single day.

• Example: our corporate vision is to work collaboratively and be supportive, but to also tell the hard truths. Accountability is a two way street and our clients will honor their commitments to same the level we will or we will not do business together for long.

I find these behaviors to be true and effective, whether I look back on my past, review the literature of effective leadership, or the success of our clients.

Next post will discuss discipline 2., the Fanatical Focus on the the Critical.