Many years ago a group of us were walking the streets in a coastal town in the San Francisco Bay area. We had just come from a leadership retreat and were truly full of ourselves, our ideas, with great energy for what was possible. You might say we were even young and naive.

And by chance (if anything happens by chance) we met this couple in a clothing store. This man was trying on a sport jacket when my partner Wendy spoke up about how it looked so good on him. This started a relationship that we took to a bar. This man was a president of a billion dollar company in China (Taiwan) who was visiting the US for business and pleasure. 

 What I remember most about this encounter was quoting my dad (a man who loved business and people) whose favorite saying was "business is all about relationships" and how this new business friend grasped immediately the wisdom, value of this statement. We had created a connection in that moment and for me business is all about being connected with purpose. It is all about developing relationships and achieving results through those relationships. It feels that simple.

Relationships and Results are the key factors in business one drives the other. They are always linked together. When we neglect either side of the equation and our focus becomes only about relationships we lose sight of the purpose of relationships in business to deliver  winning results. And when it becomes only about results and we harm relationships this inevitably leads to poor results.  Relationships and Results are the true multipliers in business and the better leaders become at managing these two drivers the more successful they will become.  

I can see my friend from China's literally smiling and reaching out to the wisdom of my dad's words in our brief encounter that for him truly building relationships was a major driver of his success not only in business but life. To me life is all about business for business is about creating value and the exchange of value is a relationship.

And on a very personal note my Dad Ray who died last year was an Irishman who till his very last days provided the gift of saying goodbye with such exuberance and charm. Building relationships to his last breath. His favorite place besides with his family was in a pub where he spoke of business, politics and basically life and made lifelong friends.  I am sure he is smiling somewhere(I feel his presence everyday) knowing, grasping the essence of  my chance encounter with my Chinese friend consecrated in a bar, a holy place, he would say for making sustaining relationships and conducting business.   

April 22,2008

By Will Corley 

The New York Yankees made headlines the last two days regarding the use of a key asset Joba Chamberlain a promising rookie pitcher who throws the ball 100 miles an hour with a devastating slider.

Yesterday, Hank Steinbrenner declared to the New York Times (what a scoop) that it was time now to move Joba to the starting rotation. Panic seemed to have set in and this young boss lit the fire literally throwing his GM Brian Cashman under the bus.

You might be asking what does this have to do with start ups? What can we learn here?

Well what we have here is a potential disturbance of the force where leadership is at odds publicly on the biggest stage. Brian Cashman and Hank were disagreeing in public with the plan for the organization.  

Alignment of management is key to a start up success. And management must understand what kind of impact this can have on the performance of the organization. With a start up you don't have time to get it wrong.

And I realize the New York Yankees are not a start up but in many ways baseball teams are often reinventing themselves and needing to develop their next championship team which means often sacrificing some wins for the bigger win.

A leader must hold the bigger picture goal while still working on winning today.

And let me confess being a huge New Yankee fan in many ways I am like a lot of fans that understand their is a need for patience in a world often demanding the opposite.   Right beginnings are opportunities everyday to get it right or wrong. 

There is a lesson leaders of start ups need to pay attention and continue to ask are we operating from the same playbook supporting the plan. Do our actions create alignment between the players if not there are consequences to the bottom line. 

What I love about working with start ups is that you are partnering with potential players who are “game changing” the world.

Creating synergy does not just happen, building a championship start up requires focus, ongoing effort, adaptation (coming up with for example the right business strategy, ways of making money etc) and knowing what you are truly building, what your end game is. This takes a team effort as well as being on top of the game plan and continuing to develop what it takes to succeed. This takes understanding the wins, setbacks and barriers.

Due Diligence goes beyond the initial research and planning it is an ongoing endeavor. An angel investor was part of a group investing in a company who seemed on a slippery slope. The investor felt in her gut something was wrong, something did not add up. What was especially disconcerting was the interactions with the CEO of this company who seem to say the right things and there was the assumptions made that this person was being straight  acting in the best interest of this new found company. So as the money continue to fly out the door there was an uneasy feeling taking place in the pit of her stomach. Key lessons she learned that would make her a better investor in start ups

  Pay closer attention to the management/leadership and as she put are they coach-able.

 Pay attention to your gut and instincts
The importance of transparency and alignment between the players (board, investors, management and team)

There were signs that all was not well. The so-called leader of the company as she put in hindsight was “not coach-able” and  this was a sign that she realizes would need to pay attention to in future deals. This person was not coach-able or approachable.

What does coach-able mean? Why is it important for leaders in business but especially start-ups where it is such a difficult game to succeed with the best conditions in place?
The purpose of coaching is to improve performance of a player, team or business. Coach-ability is a key element for success and a leaders willingness to be coached is a sign and you best pay attention to if it is your money on the line or you may wind up with regrets like our investor .
 
In sports, a key criterion for success on teams and for individuals is their ability to be coached because this is a sign one can be approached, learn and develop their talents and team. A start up is a team of players on a particular mission whose tone and success is so dependent on the leadership both in the company and the board level. Like a team in sports if they are not willing to be coached and adapt to the environment they are likely to lose in this game of failure.
The difference between truly succeeding and championship performance are slight, often in baseball a couple of more hits in a week or one more win every ten games in a season. These are the differences that separate an 250 hitter and a 500 winning percentage ( a mediocre performance) from a 300 hitter and a 600 percentage  (great  results). So the willingness to utilize the coaching provided can make the difference between just average and world class. 

And great leaders are great students of the game whether we are talking about baseball or business and understand how executing means using all of the resources available, hard work, consistency, the support of all the players and their willingness to be coached.

 And that all being said I love how both start ups and baseball is a game of passion where the players are putting it on the line everyday to create something special that can be world changing.

Hello those with visions of creating a successful venture it takes planning and truly passion to weather the storm. What do I mean by storm? The rate of failure for start-ups is high I liken it to the game of baseball it is a game more known for failute then success. The challenge is to increase the chances of success. This is my mission. And the right leadership is critical to this mission. Leadership that understands what it takes to weather failure with a plan. Leadership that builds a team from the beginning doing it right putting together the kind of team of players that support the dream. And the challenge of a start up is to make the dream a viable reality that is profitable. I am excited just by the words being said out loud.

What strikes me more and more as true that is simple (sort of) but not easy is getting it right from the beginning and continually getting it right. "Right beginnings, Right now" My experience is that getting clear on expectations, agreements is so important to success of any enterprise. 

Because we are human we naturally see things differently, we bring different assumptions, ideas to the table that often don't get expressed. The problem occurs is when we are working on different expectaions and assumptions that unless gets addressed early on a black pit is created with our names on them.

The truth about being a start up is that much is made up and happens on the fly. Slowing down the process in a way that keeps the ball moving faster and faster but in the right direction, with the right strategy and right direction so you are not looking at a bottomless pit wondering what happened is huge.

I love baseball and feel it has much to teach us. Yesterday, I was reading a striking statistic that the difference between a great team winning and a mediocre team is winning one more game every ten games to move from a 500 just one of many mediocre teams to 600 percentage championship calibre.

What the lesson in that?