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Your Business

BEST PRACTICES AND OUTSIDE-THE-BOX SOLUTIONS

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Management

THE FRANK PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS

Blunt leadership lessons learned over a lifetime |
by Richard Bryan

F

rank was a former Special split between ownership of the business it was an important part of the overall

Forces operator with a ine and management of the business and ind company strategy.
arts degree—an unusual the most talented people to run day-to-day Put some time aside to work on your

mix. He achieved a lot in his operations. This sometimes means that the business rather than in your business by
business career by following owner needs to step aside from manage- developing a vision that enables you to

ive simple principles that
ment and make way for a better-qualiied grow your company and achieve your life
he was able to apply to any business, and leader. A good example of this would be the goals. Don’t make the excuse that you are

many have achieved a lot by learning to do way that Bill Ford stepped aside as CEO
too busy to spend this time crafting a qual-
the same.
of Ford Motor Company to allow Alan ity vision—it will be the best investment of

If you can apply these same principles Mulally to take on the role back in 2006. time you ever make.
consistently to your organization, you The result was one of the most successful

will ind that you are able to move away business turnarounds in U.S. corporate PRINCIPLE 3: HIRE “A PLAYERS”
from being a micro-manager and instead history, as Mulally took Ford from near Frank believed that the key to running an

become far more strategic in the way your bankruptcy to record proits in 2013.
organization successfully in the longer
run your own business.
Concentrate on an area where you are term is to hire great people. As he was

So what are these magic principles? Re- talented and do what you are passionate fond of saying, “If you can surround your-
ally, they are just good common sense, but about. Let others take care of the things that self with people that are smarter than you

as Frank was fond of saying, “Good busi- you are not so good at and that conform to are then the chances are your business
ness is just common sense. Unfortunately their strengths. Everyone will beneit.
will do just ine.”

common sense is not common practice.”
Many leaders feel insecure about hiring
really smart people, as they believe that it
PRINCIPLE 2: CREATE A
PRINCIPLE 1: DEFINE YOUR ROLE
COMPELLING VISION
will undermine their credibility, but Frank

Too often, business owners do not have One of the most efective ways to harness knew that building a great team enhances
clarity on the diference between man- the potential of an organization is to get your reputation as a leader.

agement issues and ownership issues. everyone pulling in the same direction. A CEO of a $100 million company
Management issues are things like deal- However, without a compelling vision this remarked recently that when he irst took

ing with daily HR concerns, accounting can be diicult to achieve.
on his role 10 years ago, he believed he was
and administration, and the sales process. Frank realized that vision is a crucial the smartest person on the management

They are seemingly urgent matters that component in getting employees to under- team and that made him very nervous as
must be dealt with in a timely fashion. stand the direction the company is trying everything revolved around him. “Frankly

The person overseeing these functions to go and therefore encouraging them to it was exhausting!” he said. However, he
can be the business owner or an ap- generate meaningful suggestions as to how has invested in hiring great people, and

pointed manager.
to get there. It doesn’t matter if your vision now he considers himself to be surrounded
Ownership issues are the things that only revolves around customer service excel- by people that are much smarter than him.

the business owner can do, such as dealing lence or creating innovative products—as Make sure that hiring “A-Players” is a pri-
with the shareholders, banking partners, long as it is both inspiring and challenging.
ority for you as a business owner or leader.

and setting the long-term strategy for the Frank did not believe in having a vision
organization.
that was just there to tick the box and dis- PRINCIPLE 4: DEVELOP TRUST

Frank’s approach is simple: Have a clear
play on a plaque behind reception. Rather,
The key to leading your team of A-Players

38 midJersey business.com