Dealing with an egomaniac businessman is probably the most unsatisfying thing for anyone in the industry. Some would be cranky about how their employees handle some aspects of the business. Some are usually demanding, blunt to such extent some might consider rude, aggressive and ambitious to an extent some might find alarming they can also be perceived as tough negotiators. And then, there are those calm and composed leaders who believe in learning, rather than opposing.
To draw a clear difference between the two, I’d like to keep Microsoft’s ex-CEO, Steve Ballmer, aside, and then his predecessor Bill Gates. Both are known to be extremely successful, with completely opposite attitudes. Both handled Microsoft differently. Successful? Yes.
Under the leadership of Gates and Ballmer, Microsoft dominated the computer business for more than two decades. However, this is noteworthy that when Ballmer announced that he plans to retire as Microsoft’s CEO at some point within the next year, the firm’s stock had its best day in years, rising 7 percent.
In fact, the other day when I was going through an article on medium.com about an interview with the co-founder of JetSmarter, Gennady Barsky, it got me thinking when he stated that the worst enemy for an entrepreneur is pride, ego, and cheating.
“Respect your peers and they will respect you back”, Barsky quoted in the interview. But that’s definitely how things always work if you analyzed a certain type of behavior amongst entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs want to do things their way – a radical personality.
Anna Lee Saxenian pointed out in her book about the rise of Silicon Valley, that Silicon Valley which started out as an underdog in tech industries, was dominated by big east coast firms like GE, IBM, Raytheon, etc. The underdog status amongst the others fostered a pugnacious attitude amongst the entrepreneurs. Today Silicon Valley is the big dog.
On the other hand, in Steve Ballmer’s case, he was chosen to run a company (Microsoft) that had already won the prize. And, as a monopolist, he was pretty effective.
For somebody like Gennady Barsky, who moved to the US when he was 10, he built his foundations from ground zero.
Number one, he had to be a great communicator, and rapport builder to tie up with the investors around the globe. It is therefore not surprising that has always stood by his humble nature. And when seeking mentorship can seem counterintuitive, entrepreneurs like Barsky had believed in seeking mentorship from the experienced in the industry.
The question here though is that if you’re working on your own as a consultant, the founder, of a startup or the CEO of an established company, why on earth would you want to expose your weaknesses?
Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, that has more than 400 companies under its belt, is himself the biggest advocate of mentorship. He once stated, “Understandably there’s a lot of egos, nervous energy and parental pride involved, especially with one- or two-person start-ups…Going it alone is an admirable, but foolhardy and highly flawed approach to taking on the world.”
True. When an egoistic entrepreneur would enter boardrooms, ‘expert’ roundtables or operational strategy meetings, all that he would do is listen to his own mind, the entire time. The holier-than-thou attitude is effective at times – it gives the impressions of a powerful stalwart, but deep inside it eventually makes a person limited to them.
But then a paradox states the most important tenet in an entrepreneur which you can’t just brush off – the ability to lead. While leadership requires decisions to be taken, leaders often appear to be egoistic while that is not always the scenario. The same could be compared to a firefighter – who is trying to level best to fight the fire and save lives. His approach might sound rude, and he might look insensitive, but he is focused on what he needs to do.