Misfit Entrepreneur May 2023 -354: Lessons in Leadership from a 40+ Year Entrepreneur Journey with Jim Wetrich

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Dave Lukas Chats with Jim Wetrich

354: Lessons in Leadership from a 40+ Year Entrepreneur Journey with Jim Wetrich

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is James Wetrich. For over 40 years, Jim has built companies and led teams across 3 continents and has consulted with over 100 companies. Jim built a team at Molnlycke Health Care that grew revenue over 7 times and EBITDA over 20 times creating over $1BN growth in enterprise value and taking the US business from number 5 to number 1 in the market with an employee satisfaction index over 95%.

Jim is a noted expert in leadership and founder of the Wetrich Group of companies where he focuses on coaching, mentorship, and spreading his leadership lessons to help individuals and organizations foster and implement better leadership. Jim is also a best-selling author and his latest book is called Stifled: Where Good Leaders Go Wrong.

Jim has had storied career and his wisdom and lessons learned in building and leading businesses can help any entrepreneur succeed at higher levels, so my goal is to squeeze every bit I can out of him in our time together.

www.JimWetrich.com

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Show Notes

Jim started out getting a Master’s in hospital administration thinking he wanted to spend his life doing that. For the first 8 years, he go to work with a number of companies in that role and really like Abbot Labs. He pivoted to work at Abbot for 11 years and left in 2000 to scratch his undeniable entrepreneurial itch. He spent his last 2 years at Abbot preparing and putting his plan together. He has had his business off an on since 200 with the exception of an 8 year stint leading Molnlycke and since 2014 has been focused on his business.

Did the business plan for your business that you created while at Abbot go to plan?

No. Jim presumption was that there were a lot of smaller companies that needed expertise that he had helping them in the GPO space.
He was right that small companies needed his help, but he was wrong thinking they had the money to pay him for services.
He ended up consulting for a lot of large companies in the space.

Define Leadership…

Leadership is the ability to develop, mentor, guide, and coach individuals and teams and organizations to realizing a great good and purpose and reach their potential.

What is the #1 thing leaders need to do to ensure success in today’s world?

One of the most important things is understanding you don’t know everything and knowing what you don’t know, so that you can find the people and resources to compliment you as a leader.
You have to be self-aware as a leader. This is a constant work in progress.
There is a lot of pressure for leaders to have all the answers which they cannot.
Leaders need to be careful not to let their ego get in the way of their self-awareness.

At the 15 min mark, we discuss decision making and the challenges in the environment we as leaders operate in.
What does a great culture look like and how do leaders foster it?

It is open and leaders being visible throughout the organization.
It has honest and open communication and the understanding that there are exceptions.
It is focused on helping individuals to be successful. If the individuals across the organization are successful, then the leaders are successful.

I’ve heard you say leaders cannot be successful by means of micromanagement, explain that.

It comes down to learning as a manager.
Most learn at some point that if we just give people the framework and directive/guidance and empower them, they will do a great job.
We tend to do the opposite. Many leaders try to control every aspect and dictate exactly what to do instead of empower and giving people freedom to create and use their imagination and genius.
Be careful of the “This is how we do it culture” getting too draconian.
Diversity of thought helps make an organization stronger and better.

Stifled: Where Good Leaders Go Wrong. Give us some areas where leaders go wrong…

We must be careful to treat people well and treat them how they want to be treated- no matter what their role is.
There is a lot negativity that still happens – for example criticizing in public.
Meetings, meetings, meetings. Be careful not to have unwarranted or unnecessary meetings. This can be a sign of micromanagement.

At the 32 min mark, we have a great discussion on working for results vs. time.

What should leader stop doing?

Beware of having information in too many places (Slack, sharepoint, dropox, etc.). Pick your methods of communication and simplify.
Don’t add to tools if they are not needed.

What is the biggest mistake you ever made as a leader? Biggest success?

Biggest mistake was buying a business in 2014 and hiring someone to run it for him assuming the person could do it since they did as a role in a company.
Running a business is different than working in one and the business almost got destroyed because the person could not run it well.
Best success has been overachieving the goals he had in his business. He never worked so hard in his life, but it was worth it.

Best Quote

Leadership is the ability to develop, mentor, guide, and coach individuals and teams and organizations to realizing a great good and purpose and reach their potential.

Develop a personal credo. A statement of who you are and what you stand for. Jim’s is the following, “Whomever you serve, serve them with caring and respect. Whatever you do, do it with passion and integrity. Wherever you reach, reach beyond your grasp. Wherever you go, go as a leader. And above all, have fun.”

Be a lifelong learner.

Develop your self-awareness.

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