Interim Leadership: Another Trust-Based Relationship

Strangers are contacting Ethical Leaders in Action to inquire about our services.  The phone rings; emails come in from the Website.  I am not surprised by this, but neither do I take it for granted.  As anyone in business knows, marketing and sales is real work.  So is building an enterprise.  This particular enterprise, ELA, remains an early work in progress less than a year after launch, but progress is most assuredly being made. 

One key factor in that progress has been the work of Tom Laughlin of Caravela, Inc.  I hired Tom as an interim leader in the organization, and for several months he worked to build the basic foundation of ELA as an enterprise, while I focused on seeking and serving clients.   Without that support and assistance, I would still be seeking and serving clients, but fewer would be seeking us out, and our “back office,” as modest as it is, would be less efficient, absorbing more of my precious time.

Tom does leadership development through executive coaching and organizational consulting; we collaborate on some of these projects.  In this case, though, he offered much more than guidance.  He acted as a leader in ELA.  He took action, made decisions, and engaged me in decision-making as appropriate.  Together we cemented the business plan, and then quickly established key sales and marketing efforts, an administrative function, and other processes that we need in order to grow.

Why am I blogging about this?  While I don’t mind extending a well-deserved shout-out to Laughlin and Caravela, I have another point to make.  This collaboration worked primarily because we trusted one another, and the primary driver of that trust was …wait for it…positive, ethical conduct.  I didn’t hire Tom because he is competent and not scuzzy.  I know many competent and non-scuzzy people.  I hired him because he is driven by purpose, and committed to truly honorable conduct.  

I am just as certain – because we have discussed it – that Tom works with ELA because he believes in our mission, shares our values, and wants this enterprise to be successful.   He isn’t in it for the money, and to be clear, at this juncture, ELA can’t pay very well.  Moreover, his interim leadership position ended when Tom approached me to say that his work was done, ahead of schedule and well under budget.  We continue to work together, but that intensive engagement ended – essentially, Tom fired himself – when he concluded that his future efforts would no longer accelerate ELA’s progress.  Talk about earned trust…

On a firm foundation of purpose-driven conduct and trust, we continue to collaborate enormously swiftly and cost-effectively.  Bottom line: this “positive ethics” thing really works!

Note to readers: Also check out my recent blog post on the power of storytelling on LeadershipandCommunity.com.