The Advisor’s Corner

Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big

April 17, 2023/in Nuggets and Encouragement Regarding Strategy and Focus/by Tom Doescher

Tom Doescher

A client recommended that I read this book, written by Bo Burlingham. I found it to be a refreshing contrarian point of view, and it hit a hot button for me. I have a number of professional service firm clients who are amazing Hunters. They’re like a magnet to prospective clients. All three of them are good leaders, but none of them are interested in managing or supervising people. My suggestion to all three clients has been to create an alliance with a competitor that isn’t nearly as good at developing new business, and split the fees accordingly.

Burlingham comes at the subject from a different point of view than me, but it still applies to my clients. Although his book isn’t based on extensive, empirical research like the work of Jim Collins and his Stanford MBA students, he provides some interesting thoughts. For almost two decades, he was the editor of Inc. magazine, so obviously he had access to a lot of great companies. From those, he selected 14 for the 2005 first edition of the book. (Sadly, three of them had been sold when he updated the book in 2016.) One of the companies he covers in detail, and had previously written about in an Inc. magazine article, is Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, Mich., which is about a half-hour drive from my home. It’s not a huge company, but it is a great company. He also talks about Danny Meyer, a restaurateur and CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group in New York City. I had the privilege of hearing Meyer speak a few years ago about his passion: the intersection of hospitality and humanity.

As I was reading “Small Giants,” I visualized Frank Moran, Sam Walton, Steve Jobs, and J. Willard Marriott — or think about one of your own favorite business legends. Their incredible attention to detail was of great benefit to their clients and customers, and the special treatment and care they gave their teams was unbelievable.

Here’s my thought: If you’re like one of my three clients, I would highly recommend getting the book. Don’t feel guilty about not wanting to build a $100 million business. Don’t let someone else set your goals or agendas, or steal your joy. Bigger isn’t always better, and Burlingham shares some great stories that will be encouraging to you.

Do You Want Well-Rounded Leaders On Your Team? NO!

March 13, 2023/in Sharpening Your Personal Leadership Skills/by Tom Doescher

Tom Doescher

Craig Groeschel, one of my favorite leadership speakers, emphatically made that statement at a recent conference. One of the reasons I like Groeschel is that he’s a contrarian who’s always learning and willing to try something new, or look at a situation in a fresh way. He’s also humble, transparent, and willing to share his failures.

In analyzing his leaders, who were performing similar functions, he discovered that some were hitting it out of the ballpark (these leaders have “it”) while others weren’t. He and his leadership team then came up with eight pairs of leadership traits. His most successful leaders possessed one or more of these traits. And not only did they possess a trait, but they were an extreme. Groeschel’s team defined these as a Leadership Paradox (contradictory leadership qualities that, together, create a synergy of undeniable leadership impact). He went on to say that he doesn’t want well-rounded leaders; he wants leaders who are living in the extremes.

Here are the eight pairs Groeschel identified in his best leaders:

Confident, but Humble — These leaders are confident, but not cocky. They’re a magnet to their followers because of their confidence. I can think of a leader I follow who displayed these traits. When I met him, he was an American missionary based in Quito, Ecuador. At the time, there was much government unrest as well as active volcanoes, to name a couple of issues that interfered with his work. Still, he was confident in his mission to help the poor, many of whom lived in the dumps of Quito. I often thought he was like Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett — fearless. However, occasionally when he would be describing all the needs (food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, etc.) of so many of the people, he would spontaneously start sobbing. He knew that he — and we — couldn’t help everyone. He was confident but humble, too.
Driven, but Healthy — We all know leaders who ignore their health, their team’s health, and, sadly, their family’s health.
Focused, but Flexible — For this one, Groeschel described how his team decides what to focus on, according to four tiers: 1) Absolutely mission critical; 2) Very important and strategic, but not critical; 3) Meaningful, but not essential; 4) Externally initiated and often lower priority. He would say that we’re often spending time with Tier 3 and 4 issues at the expense of Tier 1 and 2.The essence of great leadership is choosing what not to do!
Optimistic, but Realistic — My mentor, Ken Kunkel, is a big dreamer and a can-do kind of guy, but he also has his feet on the ground.
Direct, but Care About People (Kind) — This may describe me. I try to be clear and unambiguous, but to some people I’m too direct. That being said, when I was first assessed by Plante Moran, the psychologist said my profile was that of a social worker.
Empowering, but Controlling — These leaders give their team lots of rope, but once in a while they need to firmly set the direction or goal.
Urgent, but Patient — You know people who get it done now. But great leaders know when to wait.
Frugal, but Abundant — I can relate to this one. When I was in charge of Plante Moran’s Southfield office, I wouldn’t approve new carpeting for the building — but at the same time, I committed the firm to leasing an office and hiring professionals in Shanghai, China, even though I didn’t know for sure what they would do.

Who knows if Groeschel’s list is correct? Whether it is or not, I believe it’s a great checklist for leaders to use to help them determine whether they have a high-level leader(s) who possesses each Leadership Paradox trait. I would encourage you to do a self-assessment of your company.

Courageous Leadership

February 13, 2023/in Sharpening Your Personal Leadership Skills/by Tom Doescher

Tom Doescher

When I was a new partner, I was asked to spend a portion of my time coordinating Plante Moran’s marketing activities. Many of you may not be aware of the fact that, for decades, CPAs weren’t allowed to market/advertise their services. In 1977, the case of Bates vs. the State Bar of Arizona served as a major turning point for all professional services. Prior to Bates, CPAs, lawyers, and other professionals were widely prohibited from soliciting clients for business and advertising. The Supreme Court, in ruling on the Bates case, removed these prohibitions.

The best part of this role was that I reported directly to Ed Parks, the firm’s managing partner. For several years, until the firm decided to hire a trained, experienced marketing professional to lead the charge, I had the privilege of learning from one of the best. Because we had such a long list of marketing issues to deal with, I was in Ed’s office a lot. I could tell so many cool stories, but in this post I want to share my personal recollection and observations of how he handled a very sensitive, potentially explosive issue.

Our firm had just merged with two accounting firms that doubled our size. One of the leaders of the other firms was given a very important, highly visible assignment related to the new, combined firm. This “new leader” would be reporting their findings and recommendations at an upcoming all-partner meeting. Again, because I was in Ed’s office frequently, I overheard that the project wasn’t going well and the “new leader” was missing the mark. Ed offered friendly advice, but the new leader believed the situation was under control.

The day of the all-partner meeting arrived and the new leader and the study team made their presentation and recommendations. As Ed had anticipated, it was a disaster. Many partners were quite upset and weren’t shy about sharing their feelings. Being a rookie partner, I sat there wondering what Ed would do. (Editorial comment: Actually, I don’t recall, before or after the meeting, ever discussing the potential for — and then the actual debacle that occurred — with Ed, who kept his thoughts to himself and modeled confidentiality.)

Ed is a very smart, suave, shrewd professional and I’m sure he anticipated the possibility of this atomic bomb. His reaction and behavior were so profound for me that I’m telling this story 35 years later. He knew that bringing the three firms together was Job One, and this incident had the potential to split us apart. The partners of the merged-in firms were watching this drama carefully and wondering how their former leader would be treated in this public meeting. I’m not sure how he did it, but Ed essentially took personal responsibility for the botched assignment and the related public criticism. By doing so, he protected the merged-in leader.

I’m guessing that on that day, when Ed fell on the grenade, all the new merged-in partners recommitted to making the merger successful — and the rest is history, as they say. I’m also guessing that besides me and a few other partners, no one knew of Ed’s heroic, sacrificial act.

Epilogue: As a young leader, I often reflected on Ed’s decision and wondered what would I do if confronted with a similar situation. To this day, I can’t recall having to face a similar challenge.

Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big

Tom Doescher

Do You Want Well-Rounded Leaders On Your Team? NO!

Tom Doescher

Courageous Leadership

Tom Doescher

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