"The coach is the team, the team is the coach. You reflect each other." Darrell Royal When you go into business, you bring yourself to the job. When you take that mantle of leadership, you cart your personality good and bad to your business. And like it or not, it shows. If you are a slob, your business will show it. If you are rigid and a perfectionist, you may manage your business as a dictatorship. If you are a procrastinator…….and so on. And if that is not troublesome enough, you will try to clone yourself by hiring others who in many ways are like you. Weak leaders hire weak employees. Who else can they dominate and instill fear? In a nutshell, insecure leaders hire insecure people. In contrast, leaders full of self-confidence, a sense of direction, and strong people skills surround themselves with go-getters and confident employees. And they do so without fear of competition and without the need to stroke themselves with all the accolades to “feel important.” So like it or not, your business will have your personality. We may not think of businesses having personalities-but they do, although it is described as a theme or a mission. Look at some of your favorites, do they not have a certain appeal, do they not give off certain messages like your body language, do they not have a certain way of doing business? Using a loose definition of the word personality, I say MacDonald’s and Macy’s have a unique personality, as do Microsoft and Mazda. And what kind of a person is your business? Is it friendly, appealing, upbeat, and reliable? Is it the kind of business you would like to have as your best friend, or is it, grouchy, arrogant, sloppy, not to be trusted, or just unpleasant? There are enough books written on business success to fill the libraries of most small cities, but few explore the role that quirks, character-defects or otherwise-moral fiber and personal values of the owner have on the success of their business. Most have chapters and chapters on writing your business plan, studying your market, hiring your accountant and attorney, setting up your bookkeeping system, getting your business cards and how to “schmooze” your bank, But little about the personality or character of the entrepreneur and what it does to the business. These success books clone us all; we are like the famed hidden army of statues in China-all identical. As if one size fits all, and that the personal nature of the entrepreneur is immaterial to the success of the firm. Incorrectly, these business writers (most have never met a payroll) assume that market forces mostly dictate failure or fame. So take any of us, drop us in any business and if the product is right, and the market is booming-we will succeed. Wrong! Many an offspring has driven a successful business into ruin. Many a mismanaged company has been taken over by new owners and put on the track to success. So much for the universal entrepreneur, it is individual leadership and the personal attributes of the leader that make the difference. If your business is doing well, give yourself credit. But if things are not going so great, perhaps it is time to find out why, unless you enjoy that strange sensation of feeling sorry for yourself and blaming the world for your problems. Yes, you may have product problems, customer problems and money problems, but the secret to climbing out of your hole is you and your ability to lead and solve problems. Which may be the biggest problem of all. If you like denial what more can we say. If you and your family’s future are more important than hurt feelings, or a bruised ego, than start to think about your leadership style. Looking at ourselves is not easy, most of us do not know how. Our inner image is quite different from the image others have of us. Moreover, during the emergency of trying to save our business we do not have the luxury of lengthy psychoanalysis. We need to figure out how to take action today. I can offer this suggestion, as Ed Koch the former Mayor of New York City used to ask everyone,”how am I doing?” Try Ed’s approach and start asking your customers, your employees, and if you want some real insight ask your family-brutal honestly may hurt, but such answers may well be the answer to your problems. Top-flight entrepreneurs will tell you there is no mystery to business leadership; most of it is common sense. Next week I will tell you about the five most important fundamentals of leadership-which anyone with determination can master. Copyright 2003 Paul E. Adams Dr Paul E Adams, Professor Emeritus Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey & Retired Entrepreneur, Syndicated Columnist, Host of the access cable TV program "Tri -State Movers and Shakers," and Author of “Fail-Proof Your Business,” Available @ Amazon.com. Comments, questions, or suggestions to: xpaul@pikeonline.net