3 leaders believe in listening, inspiring confidence, being decisive

When you get right down to it, leadership is leadership.

Regardless of the line of work you’re in, there are some sure-fire ways to succeed, something I was reminded of during a recent Q&A session with executives from some of the state’s top emerging companies.

Rausch Coleman Homes CEO John Rausch, former Acumen Brands CEO and company co-founder John James and Field Agent CEO and cofounder Rick West were featured during a recent Q&A at The Summit, a weekly business luncheon held at Cross Church Pinnacle Hills in Rogers.

Andy Wilson, a former WalMart executive and once the CEO of the Soderquist Center of Leadership and Ethics, moderated the discussion. The session focused primarily on three key areas: leadership, inventing the future and developing people.

Perhaps I’m easily amused, but I found it fascinating how closely some of the core philosophies aligned between the men behind three very successful, but very different companies. All three execs had nearly identical answers when talking through what employees want from them as leaders.

Effective leaders are able to communicate what a company or organization’s purpose is. Not only that, they are at their best when inspiring confidence. It really is that simple, according to West.

And even when doubt creeps in, James said it’s important not to show it. As he put it: “If you lack that confidence, you fake it until you make it.”

A large part of inspiring confidence among those in an organization is being willing to listen. James and West, both co-founders of successful companies, noted that these days their company’s best ideas are rarely coming from them or others in their pay grade.

Simply put, creativity should be coming from the bottom-up and not from the top-down.

“We push the decision making as low as we can in the organization, so everyone is making decisions,” West said. “It doesn’t start from me pushing it down. It starts from individuals working on the business with clients every single day, bringing up an idea and working across the organization. That’s creativity from my perspective.”

Customers also are a vital

part of the creative process, Rausch noted.

“It’s amazing what you find when you’re on front lines, when you’re in the field, with your customers,” Raush said. “That’s why companies in this part of the world have succeeded. They’ve had that mentality.”

Challenging employees to find solutions and providing them with a safety net and room to fail is critical to that creative process, all three said. The degree of success will depend on how well an individual has prepared and how skilled they are, but the right infrastructure and team in place will eliminate outright failure, West said, noting a philosophy he learned while working for Procter & Gamble.

Smaller companies might not have the infrastructure to guarantee the absence of failure, but it is still important to provide your most promising employees with challenging assignments. That’s the best way to encourage learning and, ultimately, company growth, Rausch said.

All three also spoke of the importance of finding people who can be trusted to shoot straight, whether those people are inside or outside the company. A staff and Rolodex full of “yes men” is a sure-fire way to fail.

“Surround yourself with people you can have an honest conversation with,” Rausch said. “That’s one thing I encourage a lot of people I meet with: Find people who can be real with you and be honest with you.”

Good leadership also is being honest with yourself, James said. After securing more than $100 million in funding for Acumen Brands and growing to more than 200 people, James began to sense that he was no longer cut out for running the company.

James, who stepped down as CEO in September, pointed to the importance of selfawareness.

“You have to be willing to reinvent yourself,” James said.

Either through self-discovery or input from others, West said it is imperative for leaders to avoid “living in the gray of maybes.”

“There is nothing worse,” West said. “Sometimes you have to gather information and … think about it. But if you find people around you who are confident in ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ the productivity and the encouragement you can get from that is amazing. Don’t live in the grays.”