A Leader is Born

By on March 8th, 2010

There is  a story which I recall from when I was in day school on the subject of leaders:

There was a rabbi who traveled between towns, staying a few days at each to speak, and then moving on. One town was particularly poor, but they treated him well, offering what they could, and acting respectfully. As he was leaving, he blessed them saying:

“One of you will become a great leader.”

Shortly thereafter, he was visiting a town with many wealthy inhabitants, and yet he was treated like a beggar. As he was leaving, he gave the town a blessing as follows:

Many of you will become great leaders.”

His assistant, who traveled with him, asked for an explanation. The rabbi explained – a small town can only support one leader. Blessing a town with a great leader means that they will be led well. Blessing a town with many leaders means that the town will be subject to political fighting between the various leaders, disrupting the ability of the town to be led at all.

I don’t know if the story is true or not, but it illustrates a key point in running an organization of any kind.

First, the chain of command must be clear to everyone. There must be a known leader, the one who makes decisions.

Second, there can, ultimately, only be one leader. While many people can help arrive at conclusions, only one person can be responsible for making those decisions. Introducing a second leader reduces the ability for the organization to make decisions, and often, decisions that are made are split, trying to appease everyone, instead of consistently presenting clear vision and direction.

Looking back at an earlier article I wrote, regarding the optimal number of founders for a company, I realize that I missed this point. In addition to bringing the various skills required to the business, one of the founders must also be clearly defined as the leader. This is not a question of equity, but of ability to make decisions.

How many people make decisions in your business?

Related posts:

  1. Communicate Clearly – or Don’t Bother
  2. Decision Making
  3. Why You Need a Lawyer
  4. Pay Back the Founders
  5. The Expansion Dilemma
Categorized under: Advice for Small Business Owners, business, Work at Home.
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  • paul__sullivan

    Elie, couple of thoughts… First, I agree with much of what you say. Being a leader means having to step up and make final decisions – particularly the tough decisions, not the popular ones. And he/she must do so in a way that gets everyone in the organization behind them.

    At the same time, for an organization and its team to grow, a leader must allow others to make decisions when appropriate. NY Times recently ran a good interview with Mark Pincus where he shared his mantra that “everyone should be the CEO of something” http://nyti.ms/9YAuRL.

  • http://blog.optimalupgrades.ca Elie

    Paul, thanks for the feedback!

    I agree with you 100% – the CEO must be able to delegate appropriately. However, even when others can and do make decisions, at the end of the day, one person must be responsible. That means that while the CEO may not be involved in every decision, (s)he is responsible for those decisions, and there can only be one such person in each organization.

    The mailroom clerk may be allowed to make a decision regarding purchasing envelopes, for example. But if someone else disagrees with the selection, then the decision would move up the chain of command to the next level. My point is that if you keep moving up, it must be absolutely clear to everyone who has the final say.

    Hopefully, decisions that can be made without the input of the CEO are being made, and the CEO can focus on growth, expansion, profits, and so on, instead of whether to use Brand A envelopes or Brand B.

    Thanks for the link, that was a great interview and article!

  • paul__sullivan

    Agreed 100%. The buck has to stop at the top, otherwise there is anarchy. But as you say, the CEO shouldn't be worrying about envelope decisions. Pushing decision making down as far as possible is the best way to scale (a growing business).

    One thing I always tried to practice was to encourage people to “beg forgiveness rather than ask permission”. I love it when people step up and make decisions, even bad ones. While I didn't always agree with their decisions, I would defend them to the hilt. Knowing that you have their backs, people will work hard to make decisions and move the ball forward, rather than wait for someone else to make the decision for them.

    That's the easy part. The hard part is making the really tough decisions that no one wants to make. Canceling a project, pulling out of a market, firing a client, promoting a new employee over a longstanding one, changing the business direction, laying off people, closing the doors… those are the decisions that determine what the leader is made of.