Leadership

*Edited for clarification*

I have never been a rich man. 

Frankly, I've never felt particularly pressured to become wealthy.

Lately though, I see appeal in the having of certain things:  a home I own, a tree house for my children to play in, more time to spend with my wife, really those luxuries that can be obtained with an upper-middle class lifestyle in the United States.  

Some would call it the American dream.  I think it is more likely that most humans wish for that security and time to spend with their loved ones.  For this discussion, I'll simply admit it has become an ambition of mine.

These are goals I hope to achieve (as I don't own a home, the one we rent doesn't have a tree house, and my wife is working 40+ hours a week so we can pay the bills, and we cannot afford child care so we work opposite shifts).

Stay with me.  I'm going somewhere with this...

I have long believed that you can attain success if you are willing to work for it.  

I have also believed that you never create success alone.

My personal philosophy intersects with my ethos of attaining success to create a moral conviction that one should not attain success alone.  Rather, if you are working with others to attain success, financial or otherwise, you should facilitate the success of those you are working with.

It is, admittedly, a "squad-level" mentality.  

In my previous career, working together was a necessity.  You depended on the men and women beside you to succeed.  When work was done, you all came away better off from having looked after one another.

So too, I have taken this thought process with me into my adventure in becoming a publisher.

How?

I strive to be fair in my dealings, I communicate, and I treat my people like people. 

The artists working with me are all freelancers.  They have contracts for particular tasks and they approach them as professionals and artists (which cannot be an easy balancing act). Our agreements specify how they are paid.  I also provide a degree of promotion for the artists.  

To be specific, I create biography pages for those artists that refer people to their online resources, I communicate with other small publishers and refer them to artists I've worked with, and I'm willing to speak as a reference to other companies concerning my experience with the artist.

So far I have nothing but great things to say about the artists I've worked with.

I also lead.  

Do not mistake this to be a claim of "managing" or "bossing" people around.  No, this is something deeper. 

Leaders work alongside those whom they lead.  Leaders face the same hardships and show people how to overcome them.  Leaders lead from the front, where the action is, and not from a desk in the rear.  

I strive to be a better leader.  Here is how I'm working on it.

I plan ahead.  I research the tasks and time it should take and what can go wrong.  Then I assume I don't know everything and I ask questions.  I ask my artists, "can you do this in this much time?", and when I ask this I have a time frame in mind that allows some significant leeway.  I don't want the people working with me to be hurried, or pressured.  If I plan poorly, then deadlines could become unrealistic, product might suffer in quality, and the people who trusted me to lead them may suffer (embarrassment, stress, whatever).  As a LEADER I have to accept that poor planning on my part should not (and will not) become a hardship on someone else.

I look at my freelancers, and I feel I have a responsibility to them.  If you are to lead, you must accept that you are responsible for those you are leading.  In this case it means doing things precisely, keeping deadlines, making appointments for conference calls, and demanding of yourself the same excellence you want those whom you lead to strive for.  I have a responsibility and I take it seriously.  If an artist asks me a question about a piece they've done, I give an honest answer.  If I have a suggestion I offer, and if I have a question I ask.  I do the best I can for them, as I know each of them is doing the best they can for me.

I work.  I know we all work, but what I'm referring to is that I work on the projects they are working on.  I take each of them seriously, and hold each project as critically important.  People's livelihoods are impacted by how well a certain book/project is received and how well it sells.  This is a heavy burden, but one that must be borne if you are to lead people.

I show compassion.  Sometimes things happen. A relative suddenly dies, a child becomes ill, you have to stay in a hospital for a time, or what ever may have befallen you.  When these things happen, a leader shows compassion.   You find ways to shift the burden from the person going through hardship.  You change your product schedule if you have to.  You put the person before the money.

So these are the things I strive for.  

As I told my father, and later told my favorite hippie friend, "I would rather be a good human being than a good capitalist"

So I'm going to make an effort to make more money for the comforts that a modest amount of money might afford, but I'm not going to do it at the expense of others.  It may take me five books to make as large a profit as I might make on one paying my artists less, but I would rather see everyone on the project succeed than cash a bigger check.

The policies I've adopted may be unusual, but I think they fit my personality, and they certain fit my conscious.


Remember, you can find Sinopa Publishing LLC on Facebook:  Here

And please do take a look at, like and share my first KickStarter Campaign:  Here

Thank you for joining me again on my adventure into publishing.

I hope to see you here next time!