Not everyone liked Lee Iacocca, one of the prominent entrepreneurs of the 20th century. Before saving Chrysler in the 1980s, he lost his job at the Ford Motor Company due to years of conflict with a rival C-suite.
Chairman Henry Ford II called him to his office in 1978 and fired him. “Sometimes you just don’t like someone,” heir to President Ford explained to his outgoing president.
This feeling was mutual. “If the guy is more than 25% moron, he has problems,” Iacocca said later. “And Henry was 95%.”
Great leaders rarely agree. Conflicts of personality are only one of the reasons. Strategic, philosophical, and ethical differences also tear teams apart, leading to ongoing struggle and scandals within the enterprise.
Choosing a company management method
Ford Motor Company had enough resources to survive the struggle, but many startups do not.
Top management teams that spend energy on the struggle for power, the creation of a political coalition and scapegoats, delay decisions. Leaders who learn to share power and resolve conflicts in healthy ways raise their organizations.
The third option is to skip overall leadership and put everything on one seer guru who does not need to consult with anyone before acting.
Benefits of managing one leader
The trick is to find one person with all the necessary knowledge to manage a modern organization - preferably a person with specialized industry experience, as well as experience in finance, accounting, marketing, engineering, law, management and logistics.
A single leadership, even without a superstar at the helm, works better than political competition between warring factions. But even the outstanding single leaders do not have enough hours in the day to solve all the problems.
Recent studies show that organizations with one leader inevitably outperform organizations that are inclined towards general leadership.
Collaborative Approach
Most entrepreneurs understand that they need help. About 85% of new businesses are run by teams, rather than single-handed leaders at the helm.
A collaborative approach provides young organizations with the best opportunities for growth and industry dominance.
Leaders who want to lead can take the following steps to minimize the risks of contention that lead to subversive actions and losses.
Choose strong companions
Teams are not created by accident. Successful entrepreneurs are sure to choose their founding partners. They are looking for people with additional knowledge to use the power of opportunities. But they simultaneously focus on equalizing the values of each manager in order to use the power of unity.
The ability to anticipate conflict
Smart people with similar values often disagree with each other. Stable leadership teams anticipate conflict and figure out how to resolve ethical and strategic differences. The process is not simple, but they make it a priority because they understand what they are doing. Stable joint leadership is not due to the absence of conflict, but to the ability to recover quickly and effectively.
Ability to find a joint solution
Stable leadership teams focus on what is right and not on who is right! They go beyond names and give priority to the long-term interests of the organization over the short-term benefits.Instead of taking positions and posing, they discuss the reasons underlying any conflict.
Instead of pushing people like Iacocca to the sidelines, teams of stable leaders challenge each other and make each other better.