Julian Francis, CEO of Beacon Building Products
One of the most pernicious leadership myths—believed by far too many leaders—is that managers and executives should know and decide everything. Yet the most admired leaders are rarely all-knowing or all-controlling. In fact, across the one million leaders who've taken Leadership IQ's test, What's Your Leadership Style?, the least desired leader is one who monopolizes decision-making and strictly dictates how tasks should be executed.
Leaders do have to make decisions, of course; not everything can be delegated. But by focusing on a specific set of decisions, Julian Francis, President & CEO of Beacon Building Products, has cracked the code on making faster and better decisions. Beacon is the largest publicly traded distributor of roofing materials and complementary building products in the United States and Canada. Theirs is a short cycle business, with rapidly changing markets and orders received and shipped in days.
In a fast-moving business, leaders simply cannot sit at the center of every decision. In a recent conversation, Francis gave me one of the decision-making rules he employs to drastically speed and improve decision-making: "One of my mantras is that the CEO should make as few decisions as possible. And where I do make decisions, they should be 50/50 decisions. If a decision is 60/40 or 70/30, for or against an issue, then there's already a reasonable business case, the answer is pretty obvious, and someone else should have already made that decision."
It's not uncommon for people to hesitate a bit when it comes to making decisions, especially if they've spent time working for a leader who's far more controlling. However, there's just no way to move quickly, or for people to grow and develop, if they're not taking on increasingly tougher decisions. When Francis does get involved, he notes that "I want everyone to learn from the 50/50 decisions. Let's talk about the decisions and why they were made. Eventually, I want to get that type of thought process moving throughout the organization so that we can be faster and more responsive."
There's a distinct leadership philosophy underlying his concept of 50/50 decisions. "Many leaders want to occupy more space," he says, "to be the focal point or decision-maker for the team. But I actually think every leader should be trying to figure out how they can occupy as little space as possible within their role. There are areas, like corporate culture in my case, where I've sometimes had to occupy a lot of space. But for something like decision-making at the field level, I want to occupy no space at all."
Occupying less space will strike many leaders as a strange admonition. After all, the research shows that leaders are about three times as likely to have a strong drive for power. In other words, they enjoy being in charge, holding influence and decision-making authority, and might even choose a high-ranking title over money.
In an industry where speed matters, however, like in Beacon's case, leaders who take up too much space virtually guarantee slow-moving and less-informed business decisions. Taking up too much space is also a recipe for stifling the growth of those around you.
It's not just employees who learn from their leaders; leaders should also be learning from their employees. Francis does not want to be the best or smartest in every area. Francis told me, "A leader's goal isn't to be the best at anything; it's to be the second best at everything. I've got to be good enough to ask really good questions. But if I'm the best, my individual talent limits the organization."
"If you're second best," he says, "you can always improve and learn from the people that you're hiring. You can ask them great questions and help, support, and push them. But ultimately, I love the challenge of having someone in finance or manufacturing who knows more than I do, because I'm learning. And my job is to learn quickly enough to keep up."
It's intimidating for some leaders to express even an ounce of vulnerability, but it's a hallmark of the best ones. When leaders acknowledge that there are others on the team who know more, it de facto creates the opportunity to express what they are good at. Even though he's CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, Francis is explicit that he doesn't have all the answers. "I'm not great at everything," he tells me, "and I tell people, 'I've got strengths, and I've got weaknesses just like everyone.' I work on my weaknesses, and I capitalize on my strengths. That's how everyone in the organization should operate, including me."
It's counterintuitive for many leaders to think that they're not supposed to be the smartest and sole decision-maker on their team. But think of it like this: A recent Leadership IQ study on career growth found that only 26% of employees say that their job always enables them to learn and develop new skills. But people in jobs that job always enable them to learn and develop new skills are 177% more engaged. In a world of fierce competition for the best talent, companies and leaders simply won't attract great people if they're not giving them opportunities to grow.
Whether you start by limiting your decisions to 50/50 scenarios, taking up less space, or learning from the people on your team, Francis' success as CEO offers some practical steps to advance your leadership career. While it's natural to feel like leaders ought to exert more control the higher they climb on the corporate ladder, the reality is that one individual can never be fast or smart enough to control everything.
