Clarity is King

What are the specific measurable outcomes you are optimizing for?

What are you trying to do each day?

Simple question.  

What is the answer?

Smoking your own exhaust

Nothing kills success like success.  For many business owners, when they achieve success, they start believing they will be successful forever, and that nothing can bring them down.  They start believing in their own false propaganda. 

Other people keep telling them they are great because their business is doing well and they show deference and respect. 

At the helm and with control of so many resources, the leader starts believing in their own legend.

But what got you here, given the dynamic nature of the world, will not likely keep you here.

Better to stay humble and hungry and keep learning.

Ask a really great question about your business.

Ask a really great question about your business.  Maybe it’s really fundamental.

Where will we be in five years?  How will we get there?  Why are we doing what we are doing in the way we are doing it?  Is there a better way?

Then have a great “Thinking Session” about it.  

Maybe you have some other smart people who think differently from you and have different talents and skills.

What is your question?

Doing the wrong thing well

“Few things are as stupid as running in the wrong direction enthusiastically.”

Some people are working diligently, and even confidently, on the wrong strategy, or even toward the wrong goal.

Make sure it isn’t you.

You don’t want to climb a ladder that is against the wrong wall.

You don’t want to put all this work in driving your business toward a dead end and have to turn around one day.

You don’t want to be successful at growing a tree that bears no fruit.

You want tomorrow to build on today, not to repeat it or redo it.

Zoom out and think about where you are going and how you are getting there.  Once you have that right, then go enthusiastically in that direction with your team each day.

Too busy? For fact acting relief, try this.

Too busy?  No time to do it all?  Crazed?  Exhausted trying?

For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.

“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” – Sydney J. Harris

Remember the point of your mission – to make your life better.

Slow down, get rest.   

Then calmly consider your mission, and plan how you reinvent your job so it’s doable and enjoyable.

A CEO’s responsibilities

1) Vision.  Who are we trying to be to whom, and where are we going?

2) Money.  Don’t run out.  Margins, pricing, expenses, investments, P&L, Balance Sheet.

3) People.  Get the right people and the best people on the team, in the right seats, working well together.

You got this?

Technicians, tradesmen, and professionals don’t scale.

If you want success in the ______________ business, becoming a better ______________ will not help you.

You have to become a better business leader and team builder.

(Fill in the blanks with what your business is.)

Empower others

Telling people what to do and watching them to make sure they do it is not how you get great results.

Empower people.

You cannot babysit your way to accountability and high performance.

Lever through your team.

“When the owner is a control freak they will fail because the owner will die of exhaustion.” – The Road Less Stupid.

You don’t scale.  You only have 24 hours in a day like everyone else.

People are the key to growing.

What is most important now?

The master skill of high achievers – prioritization.

What is the primary obstacle between you and your goals?

What ONE thing, if solved, will have the biggest positive impact and help you move forward?

Get on it, and forget the rest for now.