Why open-book companies need a different kind of leadership Leading in an open-book company requires leaders who can translate transparency into performance by coaching ownership, building trust, and connecting daily actions to the financial scoreboard. Traditional command-and-control habits create drag; open-book leadership creates alignment, accountability, and real business results.

After 26 years in business, I continue to be humbled by how much I still need to learn. For example, an area where I felt I could give myself a strong “A” grade as a leader would have been how I have always cared for my colleagues. When my partners and I decided to sell our company to an ESOP trust, it was largely to benefit our people and protect our unique culture. We had several chances to sell the business to competitors or private equity firms, but we were convinced that these were not the best choices if we wanted to maintain our strong culture and reward those who helped us build the business.

I’ve wondered for a long time about whether leaders are born—or can they be made? I’ve seen a lot of so-called leaders come and go over the course of my decades of covering business as a journalist. One of my takeaways has always been that anyone using a position of authority or a big fancy title to tell people to do something doesn’t count as leading. That’s just top-down management. And, if I’ve learned anything from Jack Stack at SRC, it’s that people don’t want to be managed; they want to be led and inspired.