Diaz-Verson Capital Investments, LLC (DVC)
Conduct your business with honorable intentions.
“The most fundamental leadership secret that comes to mind is the value of personal honor. When you conduct business with honorable intentions and you respond to your peers, employees, and customers with an attitude of honesty and fairness, they generally respond in kind.
Salvador Diaz-Verson of investment firm DVC believes that a leader must develop a vision for the organization. “A vision is a mind snapshot of what the organization could be. The vision must be in clear focus and detailed, in full living color. It must be desired beyond any mere goal or want a person otherwise possesses.
“It must be so vivid to the holder (visionary), so clearly desirable, that the holder can describe it with such passion that others nearly immediately catch the contagion. It must be of such import to the holder that sacrifices can be endured, and setbacks do not deter him from his path. It is not obsession, but it’s very, very close.
“The most common mistake I see is that people tend to confuse a mere want with a true vision. Just because you want to be a leader, or want to run a Fortune 500 company, or want to be wealthy, does not mean you have a vision.
“Usually, wealth is a byproduct, not a part of the vision itself. You develop a vision by connecting the dots of what is to form a picture of what could be. You examine the vision, fine-tune it, and fill in the holes. Then, you figure out how to get there, usually with the help of other people.
“That does not mean taking a soft approach to business opportunities or problem resolutions. Honor is not a weakness; it is strength. Simply-put, say what you mean and do what you say every time.
“In the way of leadership technique, my first order of business is to eradicate encapsulated thought patterns and trendy reactions. An encapsulated thought pattern is an oversimplified thought or answer to a very broad problem or condition packaged in a single word or phrase that triggers a set response.
“Think Pavlov’s dog—bell rings, dog salivates, even when food is not present. Bell equals hunger. In the case of business, overused words and phrases produce a similar automatic response.
“For example: think outside the box means ‘discard tried-and-true methods, eliminate experience in favor of new approaches.’ The phrase was not originally intended to be so interpreted; yet that is the effect.
“Business cannot rely on clichés—old encapsulated thought patterns—or trendy catchphrases, which are nothing more than new encapsulated thought patterns. So, encapsulated thought patterns exclude options that could be crucial to really solving a problem or seizing an opportunity. Any word or phrase that discounts youth, age, technology, experience, focus, or any another variable compromises the equation and disables the function of reasoning.
“Critical thinking skills using facts and logic are essential to our success and to any business, really, but logical thought processes can easily be eroded or undermined by trends and even buzzwords. Catchy phrases like think outside the box form an encapsulated thought pattern that can stifle critical thinking and diminish productivity.
“In our company, an employee is given a job title and a list of specific-responsibilities, because that is precisely the function I want that person to perform, and which I will hold him or her accountable for. That job is ‘the box,’ and I want that person focusing on the box’s content— the responsibilities and the goals therein, including working within the scope of the bigger picture and in tandem with the other boxes.
“Thinking ‘inside the box’ is not an isolated exercise but a good, clear, clean focus on the job at hand. So, I do not want people thinking outside the box. I want them thinking outside of the ordinary.
“Once an employee understands this concept, something everyone is introduced to from day one, I give that person sufficient control and authority to match the level of responsibility of that position or job, and then I step back and let him or her do their thing.
“I expect the top management people in any of my ventures to initiate action and dialogue with me. I do not micromanage, and I don’t want my people waiting around for marching orders. I expect them to think outside of the ordinary and thus deliver extraordinary results.
“In this world, there are leaders and tyrants. If a person merely wants to order people around, he or she is a tyrant. No learning is necessary, since callous abuse of others is a rudimentary, primal brain function. Any moron can do it—and most will, if ever given the chance.
“If, however, a person wishes to become a leader or a better leader, then the process begins by examining one’s own skill strengths, moral code, people skills, and big-picture abilities. You don’t become a better leader by changing other people; you become a better leader by improving yourself.
“This is not about rounding up the herd. It’s about developing yourself-into something other people want to follow naturally. If people follow-you because they believe in you, because you offer a vision and a reach they aspire to, because they can trust both your ability and your word, then you will foster loyalty among your followers.
“Loyalty among the ranks is crucial to great leadership. The higher the career ladder you climb, the larger the number of underlings, and the greater your vulnerability to both sabotage and protection from individuals in that crowd. Lead well or fall badly.
“A tyrant can drive a company to be extremely profitable. However, his life is usually in tatters. Paranoid, miserable, lonely tyrants often have nothing outside of material wealth. They usually live to rue the day they set foot on that path. Castro is afraid to sleep at night, and Saddam dares not show his face. A similar fate often awaits tyrants in business. And dying lonely, miserable, and universally hated is not my definition of success.”