Leadership of a Young Entrepreneur: Interview and Analysis
“Leadership is a highly sought-after and highly valued commodity” (Northouse, 2016, pg1). This paper analyzes leadership from the perspective of a young entrepreneur that created a successful consulting business while attending college at Kennesaw State. Alex Laldin’s perspective on Leadership was obtained through a personal interview. I will provide a short background on his leadership history, traits that Alex deems necessary for successful leadership, and some advice he gave me that can inspire future leaders. The analysis portion of this paper will look at his style and how my opinion on leadership has been effected due to this interview. In collaboration with this interview, I will use course content to give a detailed opinion on what I believe to be necessities for successful leadership.
Like most opinionated topics, leadership is something that can have multiple meaning with focuses on different types, situations, and definitions. There can be no singular definition for leadership, but it is interesting how top-level leaders all have a very similar view on leadership and what they think it entails. My goal is to discover what makes great leaders, look into some of the more important aspects of leadership, and evolve my definition of leadership from its current primitive state. From the course discussions and readings, I have already begun to evolve my definition. It is my hope, through an interview with a local leader, I can view leadership through the eyes of a successful leader, and someone who has spent time studying the subject, Alex Laldin of AMARA Technologies.
Introduction of Leader
I chose to interview an entrepreneur who is based out of Kennesaw, but has business all over Georgia, Alex Laldin, of Amara Technologies. There were many reasons as to why I chose Alex. Over the past year or two, my mind has molded into a more entrepreneurial mindset. I have begun to get curious as to what it takes to build successful business. Alex is a business consultant. He takes a business, leads them and reviews weak spots, and turns the company profitable and even grows the business from the previous year. He has done a lot of local work with the surrounding Atlanta areas. Recently, Amara Technologies has branched out to further states outside of Georgia, and just last week gained their first international client. I figured who better to ask about leadership than someone who enters a business a stranger, inspires innovation, leads the transformation process, and leaves the company better than he found it.
Alex’s Leadership Definition
“Leadership is the ability to get a group of individuals to work towards something greater than themselves” (Laldin, 2017). Throughout the interview, we always came back to a center topic, people. People are always the main focus in Alex’s line of leadership. In his experience, Alex believes that when things are going good, you are the groups biggest cheerleader. When they take a downturn, it is your responsibility to acknowledge why, take ownership in the groups fault, and provide a solution for the problem(s).
How He developed Himself as a Leader
Alex describes himself as a “bookworm” or a “nerd”. “Knowledge is power” (Laldin, 2017). He believes that there is an unlimited wealth of knowledge at the touch of your finger. If there is something you desire to know, for any reason, it is at the click of a mouse, or at the turn of a page. Reading has helped Alex gain insight on a variety of industries. When talking to Alex, my jaw dropped to the floor how he could switch from plumbing supplies, laws, prices, etc. to talking about online marketing, server space, and online legal agreements. I asked him how he knew all that and his response was simple, “research”. He tells the client that he needs about one week to do research on the client’s company for that specific reason. This research will tell Alex everything he needs so he can better lead and help his clients.
Alex attributes one man for his defining moment in leadership. He shared with me a story about his first client, a 70-year-old man. Alex learned a lot from this man, but the one thing he truly focused on was the idea that people were the only thing that matter. “People, Process, Product”, that was Alex’s saying. He continued with saying that processes come and go, products can get built to be better, but a person cannot change. You can teach a person a process and a product, but, at the core, a person cannot change who they are. Because of this one simple idea, Alex focuses all his attempts at a personal level. He wants to inspire the individuals in the business.
His Strategies for Leading Individuals and Groups
Alex knows how difficult it is to get these people. For the longest time, he struggled with one underlying fact: “why should this man trust ME and MY opinion about HIS company? He has 40+ years on me” (Laldin, 2017) He emphasized the words me, my and his because he had a point. How is a stranger going to come into his office and tell him that the Owner of a company is doing his job wrong for 20+ years? This has constantly been a factor in every one of his client’s situations. Because he ran into this reoccurring issue, Alex developed his people skills and knowledge about the industries so that people would trust his opinion and guidance.
One strategy Alex uses is adaptability. “As a good leader, you need to be a chameleon and understand every situation is going to be different” (Laldin, 2017). This is a very good point. No two people in this world are the same. People will have different personalities and different learning/work types. This can also be translated to groups. No two groups will be the same. Some groups will lack cohesion and can lead to a falling out. To counter the issue of differences, adaptability and being able to recognize the differences in all situations is a good way to be a successful leader.
In an effort to get everyone on the same page, Alex would sit the entire team down/hold a meeting, buy everyone lunch, and discuss somethings that were going to change around the office. The reason he did this was because he thought that if he made changes overnight and just sent an email explaining the changes, it would be met with a pushback. This way, by getting in front of the entire team, he can explain the reasoning behind the changes, offer some sort of good faith with the lunch, and can hold a Q&A to clarify any objections or new rules.
Lastly, Alex is a huge believer of leading by example. “The best way to get someone to do something the right way, is to show them the right way” (Laldin, 2017). After his meeting with the entire team, Alex will go through the motions with the team to explain how things need to be done. He will walk everyone through and coach them on what they are doing right/wrong. Alex will also come back weeks or sometimes months after the transition phase to make sure the switch is going smoothly. “When they see you out there helping them with work, they respect you; respect is earned” (Laldin, 2017).
Advice to Me to Develop My Leadership Skills
At the end of the interview, I asked if Alex had any advice for me moving forward. He replied, “Read! Read! Read!”. Earlier in the interview, he mentioned how important being knowledgeable is. Alex mentioned he reads anything from biographies on the world’s successful leaders and business men, to the comics in the newspaper. The comics kind of threw me off so I asked him to elaborate. “There is always a lesson to be learned from comics” (Laldin, 2017).
Another thing Alex offered me as advice was an improv class. I failed to see it at first, but with further review of my notes, Alex mentions adaptability being one of the greatest traits of any effective leader. Improv class is a sure way to learn how to adapt to situations and thinking on the fly. While doing these improv classes, he can evaluate what his weak areas are and teach himself how to be better. Teaching himself how to analyze his strengths and weaknesses as an actor, he can translate this to the work place and analyze his strengths and weaknesses as a leader. In doing so, he can effectively adapt and catch himself when he is doing wrong.
Lastly, Alex said “Find something you have a passion for and beat it with a hammer” (Laldin, 2017). I took this as finding what you’re good at and being the very best at it. Alex mentioned he loves coaching. He coaches part time as a soccer coach. He coaches businesses and people full time in how to succeed. He is constantly coaching.
Analysis
Learning from Interview
While looking at Northouses’s definition of the trait approach, I can relate the interview to a some of the traits that Northouse mentions. Northouse mentions: Intelligence, adjustment, cooperativeness, self-monitoring and problem solving, just to name a few. Alex is a very intelligent individual with knowledge in almost everything. Alex mentioned adaptability, or adjustment, as a primary trait that needs to be present because as a leader, you need to adapt to every situation. Being able to cooperate with teams and individuals, Alex said, will help you thrive and grow in a positive direction. Lastly, when Alex mentions improv, he touched on two more traits, self-monitoring and problem solving. Just like his job is to recognize problems and solve them, the improv helps prepare for those situations. It also sheds some light on areas you can be weak/strong in.
Analyzing the three-skills approach, Alex is fluent in the Human and Conceptual skill. He works non-stop with humans and knows how to effectively build relationships and grow people. After he is finished analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the company, Alex brings solutions to the owner and works effectively with them to solve the problems. These solutions are ideas that can be attributed to the conceptual skill. Alex visualizes a solution and puts it into effect. Having both the human and conceptual skill can effectively lead to top level management as shown in Northouses’s book (pg.46).
Personal Leadership Definition
This interview has shaped my leadership definition. Leadership is the process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse, 2016). Both Alex and Northouse mentioned this. Telling people what to do does not constitute leadership. I now view leadership as an iceberg. Through the book and the interview, there are numerous skills, traits, and approaches that lead to a good leader. I used to believe that leadership was just the ability to lead a group to success, but now I can rephrase that to say leadership one’s ability to successfully motivate individuals or group of individuals to a common goal using a variety of skills and behavioral traits.