There’s nothing better than working with a killer team. Full stop.

Everyone is not an “A player”- but a ton of people can be A players in the right situation. The commonly accepted philosophy is to only hire “A players” “rockstars” etc. But an A player is actually best defined as the right person in the right role. One need not be capable of curing cancer, putting a man on the moon or breaking the 4 minute mile if the job requires uploading images to a CMS. In fact, someone who is overqualified for a role will become bored and unproductive over time if he/she is not given the ability to grow and change. But the job they are doing might NOT grow and change with them.

So you need someone who is happy in that moderately static role or you need to constantly be pushing people up or out (which requires a lot of growth). Find the right person with the right skill set and right attitude for the work that needs being done. THAT is an A player for your organization.

In lake Wobegon “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” So plug your team into the right spots so that everyone looks good, performs well and finishes above average.

We don’t hunt elephants- but when we see one, we shoot it. Before PETA & WWE get’s all nuts, this is a metaphor (FYI parts of Africa have real overpopulation problems with elephants). Elephants, Whales & Big Game are the historical holy grail of sales. Big customers are great- but they are expensive to find and close and have demanding requirements. Lean startups and SaaS models are increasingly focused on the small to mid-sized self-serve customer. It makes sense: diversification, larger installed base and creates a strong approach to roll out up-sells and cross-sells to your customer base.

But elephants have a lot of money- and they cannot be ignored. If you have ever camped in the bush, when an elephant walks in to camp you get your ass up and pay attention (yes, this has happened to me). Elephants can make a company– they bring credibility, adoption and most of all lots of cash. But elephants also can sit on a company and kill it (quickly or slowly)- they suck resources, focus and can significantly tax an organization.

Elephants have leverage and they know it and they use it. To de-lever them takes a skilled sales effort about your value proposition, tactical advantages and the value you create for them. If you can’t do that you are their mercy; hunker down and prepare to be trampled or run for cover if you can.

The key to de-levering and elephant and thereby extracting more value from them for less pain is understanding their pains, their business model and their goals. Demonstrating how you help them achieve and excel at these gives your strength. At the tactical level figuring out how to make whomever actually signs the deal move up the corporate ladder and communicating that through value presentation is highly effective.

The art to elephant hunting is knowing when to pull the tigger and when to back away slowly and quietly.

Over morning coffee this morning my VP of Product told me I was a tool- and I took it as a compliment. His point was that we had a lot of swiss army knives at the company as any start up does. They go by a bevy of names: “Jack of all trades”, “Wear many hats”, “Generalist”. That is the right place to start- you need a bunch of people who can solve a bunch of hard problems with critical thinking. I, like others on the team are pretty good at solving a wide diversity of challenging issues and doing so pretty effectively. Note the modifier: pretty. Pretty doesn’t win the day.

Here’s the challenge- as we scale and grow like any fast pace company we need fewer swiss army knives and we need more circular saws (this is not the same as Indians vs Chiefs). A circular saw is a highly efficient single function machine built to tear through a task. Effective sales needs circular saws- hunt and kill. Rinse, repeat. Effective marketing, technology, product, finance- need specialization for maximum results. We need generalists without question, but we also need to find and hire circular saws…so we can tear it up. Are you ready for a circular saw?

A CEO has a relatively easy life- there are only three things that he/she has to do.  Three simple little things– far less than most people have on their lists.  Easy sailing.

1. Don’t Run Out of Cash.  That says it all- the CEO is ultimately responsible for securing cash for the company- the buck stops there.  That means hard decisions sometimes about source of funds and use of funds.  Make the tough decisions when you have to.

2. Set the Vision and Strategy.  Leadership starts at the top down; culture and strategy are direct byproducts of the CEO’s actions.  Communicate a clear vision to the rest of the company- changes happens, but clarity of thought, process and a unified vision is crucial.  Then you empower this chain of events:  Vision –> Strategies to pursue the vision –> Tactics to support the strategies –> Actions to execute the Tactics

Vision -> Strategies -> Tactics -> Action (VISTA).  [No the MS Windows comparisons please! ]

3. Support the Team.  Except in the smallest of companies no one person can do it all alone.  A CEO must delegate and empower the team to make decisions and execute Strategies and Tactics.  Figure out how to empower your team (as individuals and teams) to make them more effective and productive.  To paraphrase JFK, your thought pattern should be “what can I do for my people today” not “what will my staff do for me today”.

That’s it.  Money, Vision & Team.

The spectacular and swift dismantling of News Corps’ News of The World and the once unthinkable fall of Mubark from power in Egypt show that both were never really stable.  They only had the illusion of stability.  The uneasy complicit peace of UK politicians and the tabloids dovetails with the self preservation motif of the Egyptian masses.  Until they both imploded overnight.  In both cases smallish cracks in the detentes opened massive fissures and realed just how fragile those ecosystems were.

So- ask yourself this: where is your underlying product instability, market approach weakness or revenue model risk.  What simple but powerful event could create near instant upheaval in your business (or your life).  Sometimes upheaval is a catalyst for change for the better, but it can also be massively destructive of your carefully architected bubble.  In no cases is it ever fun to be caught off-guard and go instantly to DEFCON 1.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to institutionalize a culture that defuses structural tectonic pressure and thus creates stability and a platform for massive lastinggrowth.

Because everyone loves lists:

1. Identify and neutralize your weaknesses before they get exposed and you can substantially weaken the tectonic pressure that may be building beneath the surface.

2. Run “what-ifs” in your head and with your team.  ”What if:” our biggest customer(s) cancel, our servers go down, some employee quits, our partner decides to compete with us…

3. Thinks 2-5 steps ahead and go to where you want the puck to be, not where it is.

Be intellectually honest with yourself- then set about to change before change sets on you.