Michael Katz over at Blue Penguin prompted this thought this morning. His article, “Claim Your Oscar” was, as usual, on point with his typical tongue in cheek observations. (Side note: The most important piece of advice I’ve learned from him: write your newsletters from your own point of view and you’ll never run out of content. Bingo!)
Go Spiders! Get up and Go!
I attended the University of Richmond where I majored in Leadership Studies. The Jepson School’s approach to teaching for and about leadership is unique. They take expert professors from around the country and mix them up to take an interdisciplinary approach to teaching. This makes great sense to me – even more so after fifteen years out of school. Topics and challenges don’t live in a vacuum. In short, it’s a cool school because it challenges and engages. It’s a dynamic place due to its students, faculty and structure engaging with one another.
Acceptance into Jepson is a selective process. By the nature of the school, it brings out the Type A overachievers. If someone wrote a 20 page paper, you wanted to write a 25 page paper. But here’s the problem:
You can be a scholar of leadership and never be a leader. My fellow students always amazed me with their knowledge and creativity. But, I can’t say that when push came to shove that I would have given all them the opportunity to lead me. Leading (or any skill performed at such a high level) is not just about knowing; it is about doing and executing. You can’t lead simply by knowing. Although, competence is a central ingredient to leading it isn’t enough to lead. And, as Michael points out, you can’t be an Oscar winning actor by simply studying the movies. There’s something more to it. Leadership is about the special sauce.
The special sauce recipe is highly guarded. Everyone knows the core ingredients, but everyone sees and tastes the recipe differently. There are pieces you just can’t put your finger on. And, after eight full-time years on the web, I think building an online business is very similar.
A Website’s Special Sauce
Do you have Special Sauce?
Succeeding on the web takes special sauce too. The pace of change, the vast array of information (as well as perspectives on that information) and the technology intimidation all contribute to an overwhelming lack of security. I mean, how many businesses are half-pregnant on the web and not succeeding. Other than a lack of planning and no strategic game plan, what’s the special sauce on the web?
Here’s what I’ve found:
- The special sauce lies in synthesizing the information and generating a direction that is right for your business. I operate on the “good enough principle.” As long as it isn’t a core principle, you have to be willing to give up perfection for progress. We’ll test it, see how it goes and wrap back around to change it.
- It is the confidence to follow that direction without being paralyzed by overwhelming information – knowing that you can change direction at any time.
- It is seeing and processing information slightly differently than others. In sports, they call this skill “vision.”
- It’s the experience and sixth sense to turn left when everyone else is turning right.
- It’s hard work and you have to be extremely efficient. The web operates 24 hours a day, so if you are to “only” work eight hours you’re essentially working 1 day, skipping 2 days and coming back to work on the fourth. How well would that work in your current business?
It is patently obvious to me that businesses need someone to see above the landscape of their core business to help keep them on track on the web – no matter how big or how small the enterprise. My asset is that I actually operate businesses (along with being a passionate workaholic), so I keenly understand the realities and the challenges. It’s a major advantage. For those individuals who have the web’s special sauce, just as leaders who have the special sauce, the world is your oyster. Opportunities to lead those who have the passion and will to succeed online are limitless.
Richmond Leadership Challenge:
Leadership Studies was – and still is – an innovative discipline of study. Yet, I wonder if the school is keeping up. Has it transitioned to Leadership 2.0? Honestly, I don’t know – and, to me, that’s the problem. Where are the thought leaders at Jepson to extend the classroom beyond the classroom – a core tenet years ago. Has it evolved? Where is the authentic engagement and extension toward alumni of advancing knowledge and learning from one another?
Now, we had video in the classroom eighteen years ago. I wonder why the vision of the school isn’t to expand the educational opportunities to its alumni (and everyone) by delivering remarkable content over the web. The school has a unique opportunity to become a central hub…and I’m afraid they’re missing that point.
As a web based entrepreneur, I wonder if the school is preparing its students for the next generation of leadership that is unfolding: global, decentralized organizations with cultural and communication challenges. Everyone will be a free agent in the future running “Businesses of 1” and providing knowledge-based services. What are the implications for team building and establishing norms when workers become transient “hired guns”? I could go on and on…
I run more than a dozen businesses with the help of an array of amazing, outsourced providers. My team will range from 6-15 workers depending on the current business cycle. The challenges I face when Egypt shuts down its internet; the cultural understanding of the importance of the thirteen month of work in the Philippines; the lack of daily face to face contact that builds goodwill and trust with praise are all unique challenges. I hope Jepson is living up to the promise of delivering an awesome, relevant leadership education.
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