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Leadership Growth

Leadership Development

Tough decisions made with courage in a timely manner—that’s the essence of leadership.

Key factors for leadership development:

  • Being an exemplar for others.
  • Helping others to be more successful in their careers.
  • Clear business objectives and goals that align individual behaviour with business strategy.
  • Treating everyone with respect regardless of power or position.
  • Continual learning and personal growth.
  • Being a great manager of time and relationships.

Phil has helped me grow as a professional. He has shown me how to work on my business, not in my business. — Teresa Hensrud, Industrial Scale

There is no one perfect leadership style. If the building is on fire, you need a control and command “FOLLOW ME” style to lead everyone to safety. These situations are, in the world of business, fortunately rare. More often, leaders make decisions about the balance between direction and collaboration that will enhance an individual’s career development while achieving business results.

Leadership needs to be appropriate for the situation and can range from completely dictatorial to collaborative to totally hands off, empowering others to make all decisions and spend money.

I have gained more confidence in my abilities as a businessman. I always used to shoot from the hip; now I am more organized in my approach. — Larry Mything, Tim Hortons Franchisee

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Leadership is a skill that most business owners do not “naturally” acquire. When one does develop it, often by accident, they often don’t realize what they’re doing well so that they can be consistent and teach others.

Many business owners use their position or title as ‘owner’ to get things done. They lead from the front, by example, often being the first ones to arrive and the last to leave. Although this may motivate the troops, or at least set a high standard, it is physically demanding and emotionally exhausting for many people.

Symco & Co. teaches leadership development, which helps business owners to lead from above, without having to be on the front lines all the time. It helps owners to develop other leaders and real managers who can make decisions, spend money, and hire and fire people.

We learned to be proactive about client needs. It helps to be professional peers with our clients, not just service providers. — Zlatan Fazlagic, Look Matters

Holding People Accountable

Organizations roll on accountability, and we help create frictionless acceptance and movement.

The keys to holding people accountable are:

  • Positioning people for success with clear roles and responsibilities that focus on measurable outputs and business results, not just inputs and tasks.
  • Mutual agreement on acceptable and unacceptable standards.
  • Individual metrics that are aligned with overall business strategy.
  • Information that measures performance and enhances real-time decision-making.
  • Supportive coaching and mentoring relationships that enhance knowledge, skills, judgment and experience.

My key employees have an improved work ethic… in fact, they take great pride in their work. They treat the restaurant as their own business. — Larry Mything, Tim Hortons Franchisee

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In our experience, employees always want more responsibility yet aren’t sure how to ask for it and don’t have all the information to demonstrate they can handle it. Many businesses are in a catch-22 situation, where the employee needs more information but the company can’t produce the information that employees need. Symco & Co. helps bridge the information gap, enhance accountability and improve business performance.

Change Management

People don’t resist change; they simply need leadership for the journey. We provide the map, the compass, the courage, and the confidence.

The biggest causes of stress are a lack of information and a lack of control.

Key factors for successfully implementing change include:

  • Clearly communicating objectives
  • Instilling a sense of urgency
  • Providing as much detail as possible, or admitting when you don’t know something, and communicating as soon as you find out
  • Involving people in the process so they understand how their world will improve
  • Identifying metrics and milestones, and reporting on progress regularly
  • Owning and leading the change initiative from the top

People act in their emotional self-interest. — Alan Weiss, Summit Consulting Inc.

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A well-known geology professor told his class, “Don’t be afraid to use dynamite.” This has become our favorite change process. We have led or initiated successful change projects where the key participants got together, determined their objectives, identified their opportunities, and then lit the fuse on their own change process. Dynamite leads to innovation. We’ve seen change drag on or never happen at all if the goal is to not ruffle any feathers or the initiative isn’t bold enough to get anyone excited about the future. Change isn’t for the meek.

Running a multi-million dollar business growing at 20% per year is an exciting and dynamic situation that requires strong skill sets, systems, metrics, resources and, especially, vision and courage. Having to report to a board of directors, or asking them to approve your new vision, requires new and innovative approaches. Change management isn’t an event. It needs to become part of the entrepreneur’s DNA so he or she can adapt and grow, via evolution or revolution, to a new level of leadership and control.

Contingency Planning

Not everything works as it should. It’s not what happens, it’s what you’re prepared to do about it.

How would your business operate without you or other key talent? Symco & Co.’s contingency planning services provide structures and systems that will enable others to keep your doors open, enter into legal agreements, pay your employees and suppliers, and protect your business reputation and wealth.

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Key steps in contingency planning:

  • Corporate signing officers that can enter into legal contracts.
  • Authorized cheque signatories so that cash can keep flowing.
  • An organizational chart that shows reporting relationships and backup positions.
  • “Second-in-command” people for all key positions, with the backup person aware of their status and roles.
  • An organized list of key information including tax numbers, bank accounts, business advisors and their contact information.
  • Off-site computer backup of data and systems that is monitored daily and tested weekly.
  • Strong relationships with multiple suppliers, bankers and customers so that you aren’t reliant or economically dependent on any one person or company.