Month: March 2016

There is no “I” in Growth

We directly impact our personal growth, however the direct impact we have on others and the impact they have on those they lead is what leads to exponential organizational growth.

Those focused on growth who have not fully bought into the concept of leadership, have likely not hit their personal ceiling yet.  I clearly remember when it happened to me.  I was leading our company and was the primary sales person.   I was good at sales and we were successful in every sense, however I was not satisfied because I believed there was so much more potential; I became frustrated.   The answer was Leadership and a shift to investing in people.

Ever since that moment, people and Leadership have been the focus.  To be more clear…..Hiring the best, challenging  them, them challenging me, treating them fairly, and creating an environment where we all win together, have been the keys to consistent growth.

Today I rarely sell anything and yet we break sales records every year.  This is because we have the best people, support systems, and because we have a culture of  knowing we can always do better.   The same concept spans across all areas of the organization because of our focus on Leadership. 

“Think big, act small”

Thinking big is what leads to growth plans, new products and services, and ultimately growth for everyone in the organization.   In regards to execution, a thoughtful and phased approach is needed.   While we may think big, due to its current state, the organization’s capacity to immediately follow up with the same level of action is naturally lacking.  Team members have to grow with the vision and believe that the approach to achieving results is rational.   Therefore, after the big thoughts have led to a high level vision, the plan has to be structured so that the actions to get there are formulated by the team, and are in small (but frequent) doses that can be inspected and managed along the way.

Exponential Growth requires big thinking as well as focused incremental growth planning.

“Be most passionate and spend most of your time on the things you can impact directly”

There is nothing wrong with a person consciously deciding that they are going to spend a large portion on their time on things that are self-gratifying and that have little impact elsewhere.   However, most people tend to get caught up in all of the low impact things without regard or self-awareness of the opportunity cost, and these are the folks that can really do a 180 once they become self-aware and then focus their passion on the areas where they can have the highest level of impact on themselves, their family, and society.

Spending time on the things we like to do is important, however we must try to align what we like to do with what we need to do.  The most impactful leaders I can think of put limits on low impact things (or avoid them all together) like watching TV, playing video games, social media, and other addictive tendencies like knowing everything about every single sports team.   These are all things that we have no ability to impact.  Does it help your family, society, or yourself grow in any way?   Can you find other uses of your time that will propel the level of impact you are making and that you can become passionate about?  If you can, try to limit the things that only have the benefit of self-satisfaction.  They are important, but there are other things that can provide the same (or even higher) level of self-satisfaction if you push yourself to change.

What are the top three things you do today that they are having minimal impact and maybe even a negative impact?  If you have made that list, start changing behavior to replace those items with other things that you can become passionate about and that will have a high level of positive impact.  Other than our level of character, how we spend our time is the number one difference maker in the results we will achieve as leaders.