The business is the people
Having built and led large client service teams, collaborated with exceptional and consultative sales teams, and supported the evolution of individual contributors to leaders of their own teams, I've come to understand how critical people are to the success of any business. This understanding has been a cornerstone of my leadership philosophy for a long time. People are the business and the business is the people.
Product innovations, first-mover advantages, aggressive pricing strategies, and iterative feature deployments are lauded as keys to organizational success — these strategies are enormously influential in the rise or fall of an organization. But I believe these factors play a secondary role to having the right people in the right roles.
The human element — the collective brainpower, creativity, commitment, and hard work of a team — is what drives a company forward.
People are the heart and soul of any business. They are not just swappable cogs in a machine; they’re architects of success and innovation, the ones whose efforts push an organization in the right direction (or pull it to irrelevance). When a team is engaged, supported, and aligned with an organization’s vision, the potential is limitless.
It’s up to the organization’s leadership to manage people’s engagement, ensure they have the support necessary for success, and communicate a clear vision for where the organization is going.
Conversely, the most brilliant strategies will falter if the team lacks competence, engagement, and support. Or if the team is out of sync with the company’s vision. Lack of competence or role fit leads to failed execution. A disengaged team executes in a sloppy manner. Lack of support means things get overlooked. Execution that isn’t aligned to the vision leads to a company that looks different than the one you thought you were building.
The right people, in the right roles, with the right tools, and the right understanding of where the business is heading are immeasurably critical to your success.
Those things do not just fall into place; it requires careful attention to hiring, coaching, communication, and management from leaders. Leadership is vastly more involved than just making decisions. Leadership is understanding and deploying all the talent available, leveraging the abilities of each team member and collective teams in service of executing against shared goals. People are the business, and the business is the people.