Run the right race: you're busy, you're productive--but are you effective? Every leader has goals, both personal and business-related. Yet, it's a challenge to stay focused on these goals from day to day. Effective leaders are able to step away from the daily business operations to see the larger picture. How are you managing this challenge?

In the last issue of CMA Management, we talked about the importance of leadership as opposed to management. Great leaders never focused on being really good managers; they focused on being great leaders. The secret to that is clearly understanding your goals and your role in the organization and, with that knowledge, running the right race.

Running the right race is about learning to be more effective in business by understanding what you want to get out of life, both personally and professionally. Succeeding in business today requires more than simply having the right business skills; it is about leveraging your personal strengths and moving towards your true passion, whatever that may be. This requires focus, discipline--an ability to look beyond small issues that could take you in the wrong direction entirely.

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Do you live within your beliefs, ethics and drive or do you live beside them, like the majority of dreamers in our society? We naturally gravitate toward managing known quantities rather than reaching beyond them. This is understandable, considering the many, very important issues that have to be dealt with daily. Not only must our businesses be successful enough to create return on investment for investors but governance and accountability must be managed ever more vigilantly. While all of this is good for the business and society, if it becomes a leader's central focus, that leader may lose sight of her goals.

Often, when we try to run our own race we become the race; we get wrapped up in the business and are constantly working in the business instead of on the business--not really translating our knowledge into real growth or fully maximizing our opportunities.

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Building foundations: Ramy Sedra, CMA

Ramy Sedra, CMA, is a good example of someone who is running his own race. Sedra started his career in corporate banking and was doing well, but something didn't seem quite right to him. He knew early on that he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

However, while in banking, he saw the opportunities that would eventually lead him to his own race. He saw that the information provided to his clients was poor. With the amount of information collected today, and the technology capable of disseminating it, why were clients not able to get what they needed to make more informed decisions?

Seeing the value in solving this conundrum, Sedra decided to venture out on his own to create management information solutions for clients. He started a consulting practice and managed to develop enough business to keep him occupied. But he wasn't satisfied.

"I was doing fine but I was always working in the business rather than working on it and building it," he says. "I felt that I was losing focus of the race I wanted to run."

To get back on track, Sedra decided to find a senior mentor--someone that had similar experiences and could offer advice. From this mentorship, he came to realize that he needed more experience in the field to really understand the business.

Instead of trying to build up this knowledge while working alone, Sedra decided to build his credibility and expand his perspective by working for the leader in the industry--Oracle. During his time there, he focused on objectives he'd set for himself, to ensure that when he returned to his business, he would be on the right track. But the Oracle move was integral to running the right race.

At Oracle, he set himself a personal 5-year plan--treating it like a sort of university, where he would go from being a consultant to a manager in a key operations area of the company. "At the same time, I was building my business plan, carefully reviewing the details of what I was going to do next," he says.

Working on the business

After five years, true to his plan, Sedra, armed with a $400 laptop and a 30-day contract with a major client, started his new business--Biond Consulting. Now that he was equipped with a proper education, experience, and greater expertise, he was better able to harness his passion.

The passion and expertise were so apparent that the 30-day contract turned into a nine-month contract. But once again, Sedra was working in the business rather than on it. Not only was he directly involved in the project, he was bringing in more business, hiring, managing other projects and trying to do and be everything.

"By 2003, Biond was growing quickly and I saw that proper processes and structures were needed if the company was going to grow long-term," he says.

Part of this involves getting the right people on board. Sedra mines his CMA contacts to find good employees because the profile of (particularly newer) CMAs is a blend of strategic skill sets that work well for his business model--in which you first need to understand your customer's business and then must design, build and implement technical solutions.

The other important concept Sedra employs is a skills inventory, so that management has a good handle on who is working for the company, what they know, and how that fits with Biond's target markets and customer needs. Not only does this help him run the company but also helps his employees run their own races--developing their knowledge in such a way that they have the flexibility to pursue their own goals.

To date, the company's growth has been organic. Sedra demonstrates his leadership skills by not compromising his focus based on the actions of competitors.

"We go to the market and help customers understand that there are alternatives to big solution providers--companies like Biond," he says. "The customer doesn't always know what they need or what is best for them. We are there to help them understand. That is what makes us strong--we aren't worried about all the yes men competitors."

Learning to say no

Clients need to know that what you do is something you can do with exceptional confidence. This is a hallmark of the most successful entrepreneurs--they ran their own race with an undeniable passion and indestructible confidence.

To regularly demonstrate this confidence you have to always be creating value for your client. This is what success is all about, and what eventually creates shareholder value.

"If we visit a potential client and the solution they require falls outside of our four core lines of business and our strategic incentives, we say no, we can't help you," says Sedra. "It's about focus and discipline--these terms are thrown around a lot but they are essential to your success. Many people forget that in the rush to get more business."

Learning to say no is also about your values. If you don't say no then you are compromising your own beliefs, and money is never worth this compromise. The more you go beyond your core discipline by saying yes to a client, the more tenuous your stability becomes.

"Learning to say no extends to our knowledge capacity," says Sedra. "We can claim we are an expert but we need to have the capabilities to say that with confidence. This is why our skills inventory is so important. We review this inventory every 12-18 months. If we don't have the expertise when required, we analyze the situation to determine if we want to go in that direction. We have to determine whether this is a client we want to have, and whether creating capacity in this particular area will benefit us for other opportunities in the future. If we decide that this is something we want to pursue, we develop it. If not, we outsource it."

Of course, saying no means something different depending where you are in the life cycle of the business. Projects that Biond would have refused in the early days, for instance, might be attractive now because the staff skill set has changed over time. In a constantly evolving industry like that in which Sedra operates, it's necessary to upgrade staff skills quickly. Because it's such a moving target, Sedra's success speaks volumes of his abilities to adapt and maintain a clear focus on his leadership role.

The changing race

The challenge in any industry, of course, is to not be complacent. A company may be growing and management might be tempted to say, "This is good the way it is--let's not rock the boat." This happens subtly and can easily overtake you if you're not careful.

"The status quo always looks better than the unknown and unpredictable," says Sedra. "But if I made it this far by following my passion and maintaining my convictions, then it can only get better as I move forward. You always need to ask yourself the right questions and the difficult questions, even though the answers you get back may not be the ones you want."

Sedra offers four key questions that all leaders should consider:

* What are your limits? Get to know what they are.

* How do you recognize challenges and how do you react to them?

* What do you do to avoid complacency?

* How do you keep yourself motivated and focused?

You need to understand where you add the most value as well.

"I add value by hiring the right people--people who understand the company vision and can accomplish the tasks to get Biond there," says Sedra. "The founders of really great organizations should clearly understand their goals and objectives--the big picture--and understand that to reach that vision, they have to pursue their passion and find the right people to delegate the other critical tasks."

Sedra is running his business precisely this way right now. While other people manage the day-to-day operations, he is working on the problem of how to "scale up" the business for more growth. He's running his own race, working on the business, not in it. And with that approach, his success continues.

RELATED ARTICLE: Running your own race

Ramy Sedra, CMA, demonstrates what it means to run the right race and succeed as an entrepreneur. When setting out to emulate his success, remember the following:

Have a plan

Obtain the skills you need and set timelines for yourself. Sedra's ideas of using your job as an extension of university is what is expected by employers today. You must take a large part of the responsibility for your own career plan and training needs.

Work on the business, not in the business

Whether you are self-employed, an entrepreneur, or working as a manager, seize opportunities and create the context for you to work on the business, not in the business. Sedra's plan to scale up his business is dependent upon him being less engaged by operations. This will allow him to create greater value. You should do the same.

Develop a skills inventory

This is an inventory of your skills and of those around you. Success in the future will belong to those who capture and leverage the knowledge and capabilities of themselves and their employees. Sedra is now using this to help grow his business, which is particularly important in the IT industry.

Remember the tortoise and the hare

Identify which race you are in. You will need to be a tortoise at times, and you will need to be a hare at others.

Be passionate about every step of the race

Don't just consider the end point or objective you have set. As Sedra says, ask yourself the big questions, the difficult questions, and stick to your convictions and pursue your passions.

Stick to your guns

The most notable entrepreneurs of our time gained success through their undeniable conviction and passion for what they wanted to do. Their focus and discipline was unwavering, their drive to succeed unrivaled. Learn from others that have come before you and find a mentor who can help guide you in your path to success.

By Ajay M. Pangarkar and Michael dos Santos, CMA, FCMA

Ajay Pangarkar ([e-mail]) is president of CentralKnowledge.com. Michael dos Santos, CMA, FCMA, ([e-mail]) is president of Flextor Inc. and past-Chair of CMA Canada.