The recent write up my business partner, Dan Cooper lobbed out there entitled “All Entrepreneurs Are Liars,” hurt, didn’t it? I talked to a handful of entrepreneurs who bristled when they first read that headline, but after reading it enjoyed the insight, challenge, and perspective it offered.

That article reignited a question I’ve been pondering.

Would you follow you?

I love this question! I hate this question! To be honest, it hurts. Most days I think I’m a leader worth following, but do my actions support it?

Recently we hosted a leadership workshop featuring Byron Emmert with the Trust Edge Leadership Institute. The teachings he shared from the Institute are captured in the best-selling book entitled The Trust Edge. The Trust Edge quickly made my top-five leadership books and I’m a raving fan of the book’s author, David Horsager. If you ever get a chance to hear David or Byron speak, don’t miss the opportunity. I met and spent time with him at the Berkshire-Hathaway annual shareholders event this past summer where he was a featured presenter.

The premise of their work is that your organization’s #1 expense is a lack of trust. While the Institute has the empirical data and research to support that statement, in the eight years I’ve been working with business owners and CEOs, I would fully concur that this is the absolute truth.

Whether it’s a lack of clarity, incompetence, a lack of commitment, tolerating inappropriate conduct/behavior, poor communication, a lack of appreciation, gratitude and compassion, unethical practices, miss-leading information (or lack of information), finger-pointing, inconsistent messaging, anger and rage, etc., a lack of trust IS you’re #1 expense.

Emmert unpacked the “eight pillars” of trust with our Acumen community. There were so many fantastic nuggets of insight and wisdom that were actionable ways to increase and enhance trust organizationally.

Would you follow you?

Would I follow me?

I underlined and circled this rhetorical and convicting question. It was part of this section relating to the pillar of character. Do I possess the character qualities that are worth following? Who am I really behind the scenes, and is that aligned with how I show up for my team and those I lead?

Drew Hiss
Post by Drew Hiss
November 27, 2019
Drew Hiss launched his outsourced payroll and HR technology solutions company, Checkdate Solutions, in 1994. The entrepreneurial venture was a classic bootstrap start-up whose launch plan underestimated capital needs and ramp up time by significant multiples. The adventure predictably included scrapping for cash, overhauling the business model, rebranding, refocusing, redirecting resources, shifting tech platforms, praying, seeking counsel and wisdom, etc.. Not surprisingly, deep entrepreneurial scar tissue was forged. Ultimately Checkdate Solutions became one of Kansas City’s fastest growing companies and was named one of the Greater KC Chamber of Commerce Best Businesses not once, but twice. Additionally, Checkdate Solutions ranked as one of KC’s top 100 fastest growing companies for nine consecutive years and was in the top 25 nationally in its industry. Today’s workplace culture tends to compartmentalize personal virtues from commerce, creating silos and compartmentalization between business, family, community, values and faith. But as a CEO, Drew and his company grew when he “decompartmentalized:” on his journey, he learned to integrate his life of commerce and his life of family, faith and values. Drew merged Checkdate Solutions with payroll industry leader Paycor, stepping away from the company in 2008 and serving on its board for eight years. Drew remains an owner in the firm. Today, Drew’s heart to help business owners leverage the influence of their business platform for eternal impact is at the core of Acumen which he founded late in 2015. Acumen is a catalytic iron-sharpening-iron environment forged from the fiery furnace of entrepreneurial battle, marketplace survival and integration of the timeless wisdom of the ages. Drew and his wife, Sarah have been married for 32 years and have four children (plus two beautiful daughters in law) ranging in age from 28 to 22. In early 2020, Drew and Sarah relocated to Evergreen, CO, He is a raving-fan congregant of Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette, CO, and enjoys snowboarding, hunting, cycling, hiking, and a variety of outdoor activities and adventures including running with his two dogs.

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