Things to remember.

- Be the dumbest guy in the room. Hire people that know their domain better than you do. Give them the space to grow but the boundaries to excel into a specific direction. Trust their opinions and make sure the work fits into the strategy.

- They will have side projects. It shows an ambitious individual and is a great indicator of initiative and drive. But make sure it doesn't go too far, keep them focused on the company goal. Make sure the company goal is big enough to be exciting, and there are achievements on the way that warrant celebration.

- Weed out any talk of "I". These days nothing worth remarking on is done by one person. Give individual praise vs team praise at a ratio of 1 / 3 respectively. Keep an eye on that person who says: "I contributed this much to the bottom line." They don't understand how business work, show them how their efforts fall together with the team efforts to create great outcomes.

- Recognize team spirit, highlight someone going out of their way to help a colleague. Show the rest of your team that this is important.

- Hire for attitude. Positive, energetic, and no one that holds a grudge.

- You'll never be perfect to everyone, and as the company grows you'll say no more often. Learn how to do this quickly and fairly. Then make sure you stick to your guns.

- Get as much face time in as possible, with a clear agenda for most and a casual chat for some.

- You're the ship steering the speedboat, if you shake the boat left to right your crew will get ill and perhaps fall off. Make course changes with ample lead time and a clear new direction of where the ship's headed. Then make sure everyone know their role during and after the tack. a good tack can energize the team and speed up the boat.

- Do cool stuff. Create quirky rituals. have lots of company outings, create a private Facebook page and upload pictures. Get funny pictures up in the office.

- Foremost, enjoy the work you do and the people you work with. You see them longer, and more often than your significant other.

Share your weaknesses and challenges

I've been thinking a lot about my own weaknesses and the challenges I face lately. Subconsciously I have known them for a while, I just haven't been able to tackle them so this is my game plan, I have listed my top weaknesses and challenges. With each of those I have tacked a strength/skill and a goal to help me get through those when I feel I'm in a jam.

1. I find it hard to delegate.

Goal: grow a successful company.
Skill: big picture thinking, framework creation.
Action: start my day with a "to delegate"list that fits into the big picture.

2. The constant change of business processes.

Goal: grow a successful company
Skill: goal oriented thinking and work
Action: ignore non vital processes and delegate to colleagues.

3. Currently feeling out of control.

Goal: get a feeling of control back.
Skill: self reflection.
Goal: make it alright for a few things to be out of my control. Realize that there are things that are just outside of my realm of influence.

4. No one to talk to

Goal: get a non invested third party perspective
Skill: structured thinking
Goal: be more proactive with my mentors.

I have a few peers that lead offices who find it hard to talk about their weaknesses or failures. One thing that bothers me most are those peers who think they know it all and start prescribing you what you should be doing. It's a personal pet peeve (and clear character flaw of mine that it bothers me so much) but it's also unhealthy for you in the long run.

Share your shortcomings....don't make me feel all alone in this now! :)

(Written on the iPad and the only image that fit this post was of one of my weaknesses, chocolate)