SEED TO CEO Sound Bites from the MJBiz Podcast
E
veryone wants to get in on the cannabis market. The podcast “Seed to CEO” gives marijuana entrepreneurs an edge. Each week, MJBiz interviews a cannabis executive to learn the stories behind their successes and failures. To hear from those who have been there and done that, visit mjbizdaily.com/podcast or listen to “Seed to CEO” wherever you get your podcasts.
SEED TO CEO
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These “Seed to CEO” podcast guests answered:
What is something you wish someone had told you about the challenges of leadership?
JIM MAKOSO
SEUN ADEDEJI
LILACH MAZOR POWER
CEO, Flowe Technologies; director, Lucid Lab Group Seattle
CEO, Elev8 Cannabis Boston
CEO, Giving Tree Dispensary Phoenix
Don’t be scared to fail. Failure is not failure. Failure is a lesson. It builds character. If you do fail, own up to it. If you make a mistake, own up to it. I’m pretty sure the people you’ve made a mistake with or for have made plenty of mistakes. And if they don’t understand, you’re not in the right circle to really elevate or better yourself. I’ve made mistakes. And when people in my company make mistakes, I don’t sit there and burn the bridge. I sit there and think, “How do we be better as a company to train these people to be the best version of themselves?”
The first thing that I wish people told me is it could get lonely as a leader, because you’re no one’s friend. You’re always going to have employees. And no matter what—even if they’re higher level—they still look at you as the boss. So, make sure you have other support systems to talk to. The other thing I’m learning now, as I’m hiring my leadership team and getting to work with them, is the difference between managing people and leading people. You get people that just “get it,” and they can execute. Let them execute their way. And lead them to be happy and push the company forward. But don’t manage the way they do things and criticize if they don’t do it the way you would do it. Be happy about that. This is why you hired them.
The best leaders are the ones that are willing to serve the most. I’ve tried to really turn that into a model for how I lead in anything. I’ve learned over time that the more I serve the people I’m leading, the better results I have. There are practical ways to do that: reading about good leaders whose employees love them. And the consistent thing that you’ll find with the leaders who had the admiration and respect of those they lead is that they cared about them. They knew about their needs, both inside and out of work. They did the simple things like showed up for a birthday party or called them. These are all simple, human things that you expect people who care to do.
Comments have been edited for length and clarity. 66 January 2022 | MJBizMagazine