“An unbending tree is easily snapped.” - Lao Tzu

As business owners, we often hear about the wearing of several occupational hats.  Filling different job functions is all fine and good, but what about the wearing of opposite hats?  Is it o.k. to toggle between leader and follower?  Lion and lamb?  Simplicity and complexity?  Aggressive and passive?  Hard sell and soft sell?

How do we adhere to any stated business philosophy when many times we feel like chameleons? 

The problem is that the feeling of inconsistency can hammer you.  We grasp for simplicity but we find it just isn’t that bloody simple.  Apart from every philosophy, method, or technique, we find that every truth seems to have a complement.  What’s behind all of this? 

Let us consider Both/And thinking. 

Apart from the obvious need for the Either/Or - as in, “We either make a profit or we go out of business” - the Both/And also has a significant value for today’s business owner.  Most notably, Both/And thinking can do two things:  (a) it can alleviate much of the common angst in managing your most valuable asset: people (self included), and (b) enable confident decision making - and peace - amid a tsunami of possibilities.

Both/And vs. Either/Or

For those of you who are too busy to dabble in this type of paradigmatic mumbo jumbo, Both/And thinking is the opposite of Either/Or thinking.  Either/Or means that a thing or an idea is either true or false.  Both/And, by contrast, is an approach that says that truth is not necessarily exclusive; that two possible truths are possible in any given situation about a thing or an idea. 

Without delving too far into details, my view is that our universe - and your People Strategy for your business - require both: the Either/Or and the Both/And.  Is your head spinning yet?

To be sure, there are vitriolic debates on this topic (check the religious / philosophical chat-rooms) so I hesitate to broach the subject; not to mention the fact that I have been historically a fervent Either/Or guy.  No matter what I may write here, there are millions out there who will shout nasty things at me in defense of their position.  Nonetheless, I’m pressing through to offer some hope for those who, by virtue of dead-end Either/Or thinking, have been caught in the same quandaries I have as an entrepreneur.

My Training Ground

In my consulting practice, I have been working toward building businesses - both my own and my clients’ - on the principle of truly putting people first.  It is at once the best philosophy and the hardest one to sustain.  Here is why I believe this is true:

• - Servant leadership (selflessness) isn’t intuitive - it’s hard
• - We sometimes must exchange capital & opportunity for doing the right thing
• - We can’t always see (or be guaranteed) immediate success by this philosophy
• - An over-emphasis on people-pleasing is dangerous

I have spoken with business owners who, beset by daily people challenges, seem to be always back-peddling.  “I used to believe in Covey’s approach, but now I’m not sure . . .” “Some people responded to our training and some just didn’t . . . .” “Our sales are better than ever, but our managers keep leaving and we can’t understand why!”   It’s almost as if they’re so befuddled by constant situational relativism that they end up back at square one:  “How should I think?”  “What’s my best management style?” 

Entrepreneurs can get particularly irritated by philosophies that work . . .and then don’t.   Sometimes they ditch people strategy altogether, reverting back to the carrot and the stick, hoping for the best.  This is a short-term success model at best, and has at its heart a shallow definition of profit.

That being said, truly putting people first (meaning your team) isn’t something anyone will disagree with conceptually.  As I said before, servant leadership is the best philosophy and you ought to have it for your business.  But how do you really get there?  It’s a discipline for sure, but a key marker is your ability to make confident decisions and stick with them.  Consider these three points as a quick overview:

1. Confident decision making requires clarity.
2. Clarity comes from strategic leverage.
3. Strategic leverage is gained primarily through key relationships. 

Real Life Hits

I know, I know.  Strategy is all fine and dandy, but you’ve got a business to run, product to sell, chaos to manage, payroll to make, problems to solve.  I agree.  This is stressful on you and others.  So, knowing this in advance, how ought we think, be, and act?

Let’s return to Both/And thinking.

Simply put, we business owners must be both “a certain way” and sometimes “its very opposite”.  And it’s not just based on situation or circumstance.  Consider that all of the following traits - on both sides of the “AND” - characterize a top-notch business leader:

Train hard to fulfill your calling AND Find rest in your work

Critique your team’s performance AND Lead with grace & compassion

Make a significant profit AND Give most of it away

Schedule your work diligently AND Allow for authorized interruptions

Create specific job expectations AND Give people a chance to improve them

Lead your business with authority AND Allow team autonomy & leadership

Anticipate having great wealth  AND  Show restraint

Stay as far from the cliff as possible  AND   Jump off the cliff!

You may not agree that all of these are true opposites.  But consider this: if we did only one side of the ledger but NEVER the other, would we not be significantly less effective?

Unless we adopt a Both/And stance, we will tend toward tunnel vision, convention, and cater to our oft-misleading performance mentality where profit is the ultimate metric.  A client of mine wrote quite victoriously in his vision statement that “sharing wealth is the only way to enjoy it.”  So are profits his main goal?  Or sharing them?  Is it both?

An honest person admits he is wired for self.  But a good person is up for the fight.  If we know that in our businesses we really are called to serve people - both internally and externally - we ought to strive for the balance that the Both/And provides.  And we ought to expect the returns - financial, relational, and others - to come in due time.

Summary

Recently, a friend of mine gave me the sober reminder that running a business can be relentless.  In the pursuit of business mastery, we must take seriously the management of time, finances, and people.  Here we thank our lucky stars for Either/Or thinking.  For example we choose either diligence or disorganization.  Either mail-marketing or telemarketing.  Either proactive or reactive management.  Without either/or thinking, there’s no sense in the world, really.

However, although there is a world of information on business management that could ultimately “save” our businesses, we will never assimilate it all.  What’s to be done with our time, then, knowing we’re going to have to rely on some degree of divine intervention or fate for our businesses to succeed? 

Answer:  we must adopt Both/And as a strategic component for sustainability.  Why?  It enables us to make confident decisions without wondering whether we’re in the Right/Wrong club.  It provides a forum for challenging questions while not alienating those with unbudging opinions.  It rightfully removes our identity from our performance.  It allows us to be right and not gloat.  It allows us to be wrong and to learn from it.  It allows us to look beyond our own limitations to truly serve others how they need to be served.  Finally, it allows us to be powerful servant leaders.

In closing, consider how the apostle Paul - a true servant leader - achieved success:

“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”

 1 Cor. 9:19-22

Jeff Timpanaro is the president of Oberata Consulting, a 2007 Certified Total Integration firm, based in Kingwood, TX.  Oberata is a consulting firm founded on the principles of strategy, process, and transformation, and utilizes the Total Integration^TM system of business consulting. This system has helped business owners and professionals in the Fortune 100 with definitive, measurable operating strategies that produce unprecedented growth and profitability. For more information about Oberata Consulting call 281.570.4676.