“I should’ve seen this coming,” he told me. “I just kept hoping it wouldn’t really happen.” That phone call still haunts me. This isn’t a story about a bad businessperson. This is a story about having the warning signs, the leading indicators, and not doing anything about it. And in this industry, that gap between seeing something and doing something about it, is the difference between leading a company that’s growing and one that’s slowly running out of time.
I’ve spent my career in print, and over the last decade or so, I’ve watched two kinds of leaders really stand out. The first kind keeps doing what has always worked. Making small adjustments at the margins and hoping that the dog-eared play book continues to deliver. The second one stays restless and curious. They’re always learning and always asking questions. They are striving, along with their team, to position their companies for what’s next, trying to anticipate the future.
To me, the second group is winning. Not because they’re smarter, but because they’ve built a set of habits that allow them to be honest with themselves about where the gaps are and are open to ideas in how to fill them.
Four Traits That Help Define Those Who Thrive
Agility. Like a good basketball player, agility is the ability to pivot without losing your footing. Agility isn’t about being impulsive either. To me, it’s about shortening the gap between seeing the signal, and doing something about it. It’s about willing to abandon what’s not working anymore, even when it’s something you’ve built and you’re proud of. The market has moved on; customers have moved on; it’s time for you to move on.
Multi-Talented. The best print leaders I’ve ever seen were genuinely fluent across all aspects of the business. They could walk into a press room floor and spot a production bottleneck and help the operator work through it, then sit down with the CFO and hold a real conversation around the financials and close it up by solidifying a strategic partnership over dinner. They weren’t a superhero, but they were engaged and knew their business.
Be Curious. Why is it that some of the top print executives always have time to attend the conferences, the shows, the peer groups and more? They are curious, they’re lifelong learners and their view is you never know what you might find out. The fact is though; curiosity is underrated as a trait. It won’t show up on your financials. But it is the engine behind almost every good strategic decision I’ve seen made in this industry. It’s asking your largest client things like “what keeps them up at night,” and having the courage to actually listen to the answer. It’s reading and learning from outside of the print industry, because the ideas that could reshape our businesses are often coming from somewhere else first. It’s being willing to say “I don’t know” in a room where perhaps you’re expected to know everything.
The ones that scare or worry me, are the ones who have stopped being surprised. They have all the answers for everything: usually before the question is even finished.
Anticipation. Some of the best leaders see what’s happening around the curve before they’re in it. Anticipating this is different from trying to predict the future. You just need to stay close enough to the edge of what you’re doing, and the clients that you’re working with, so that you can see the signals early. You have to ask more than “what do my clients need today.” You’ll actually have to ask and anticipate what they may need in three years, and will you still be the one relevant enough to help them?
This means paying attention to your clients, and in the markets surrounding you. It means watching how the next generation clients, the ones who are 35 and under right now, are making decisions and what do they actually value. It may also mean doing some what-if planning that goes beyond just the annual strategic offsite. Have that honest conversation about the two or three different future paths that could unfold and what you should do in each one of them. This could be a great exercise for your senior leadership team to see how they think and anticipate beyond the curve.
Now for the Fun Part. Rank yourself from 1 to 5 and these four traits: agility, multi-talented, curiosity and anticipation. A few things to keep in mind as you do this, is first and foremost you don’t need to be a superhero. That’s right, you don’t need to have the top score in all of these. Nobody really does. The goal here is much more about self-awareness. A leader who knows there are a 2 in a certain area and builds a team around that gap is far better positioned than one doesn’t know it’s a gap at all.
The next step comes to have someone else do this about you. This could be a trusted peer, a senior member of your team, or better yet your spouse. Compare the scores. The gaps between how you see yourself and how others see you are usually where the most important work is to be done.
Mike Philie helps owners and CEOs in the Graphic communications industry validate what’s working, identify what needs to change, and create a practical path forward.
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