As a mission-driven CEO, your work isn’t just about profits or performance—it’s about purpose. The choices you make, the culture you foster, and the vision you create all have a profound ripple effect. At the heart of this impact lies two often-overlooked, yet essential elements: love and legacy.
I loved sailing at summer camps growing up. It was similar to flying and taught me many valuable life lessons. In sailing, being "in irons" refers to when a boat is pointed directly into the wind, causing it to lose momentum and become temporarily unsteerable. For mission-driven CEOs, this scenario serves as a powerful metaphor for periods in business where we feel stuck or stalled, especially in uncertain times. Just as a sailor must adjust their sails and angle to catch the wind again, leaders must continually re-evaluate strategies to align their leadership team to boldly move forward. Staying "in irons" is not just inefficient; it’s potentially hazardous, as it leaves us vulnerable to shifting conditions without the ability to steer effectively.
We are at the end of our second quarter, 50% through 2023. What a year it's been!
This is designed to share some critical insights and questions to help you grow as a leader and increase your impact as we move into the second half of the year.
We are excited to share our updated BHAG - We made our BHAG measurable, and it is a result of a significant takeaway from our global Scaling Up coaching work - people flourish when they have a good job. Everything begins with a good job, and the CEOs we partner with share our passion for creating jobs that allow their team to flourish.
Mentorship wears many faces. And it means different things to different executives. It isn’t always a task that always comes naturally for CEOs. But working with mentees can be good for business. As leaders run the risk of getting caught up in the day to day mechanics of managing their business, mentoring can help them define ideal leadership qualities which can re-emphasize those qualities for themselves.
In 2020, we wrote a blog post about a similar topic, the importance of creating space and routine every morning. For entrepreneurs, the daily tasks you set for yourself will help you reach your 1-Year Highly Achievable Goals (1HAGs) and help you make progress on their Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) as you scale your business.
Although operating a mission-driven business may feel like a commitment to an idealistic “sentiment,” mission-driven companies have been proven to drive more business. According to a Gallup study, “a strong mission promotes brand differentiation, consumer passion, and brand engagement.”
We know that these uncertain times have left many CEOs reassessing their plans and goals. Future planning, especially when dealing with an uncertain labor market and mixed signals about economic prosperity, can cause any CEO to ask, “are my goals still realistic?”
As always, creating and meeting your business goals starts with a solid plan. But planning isn’t enough. Your plan needs action steps to spur forward progress.
If there’s one thing that’s been true about doing business this year, it’s that 2022 has been a time of great uncertainty. That uncertainty may make you cautious in doing business, especially if you're considering growing your company. If your customers are ready for–or even demanding–you provide more of your product or service, 2022 may just be the perfect time to initiate your growth plan.
Growth, however, shouldn’t also be left just to customer opinion. It should be something that is carefully and strategically introduced and managed in tandem with a team of A Players that can help take you to the next level.
Why build a leadership team based upon a coaching-style leadership? For one, coaching opens up a two-way dialog that can lead to healthy, constructive feedback. Adopting a coaching leadership style encourages employees to learn, which allows them to have the breathing room to explore shifts in the business environment. In an organization focused on coaching, consistent and regular feedback schedule should provide employees with a comfort zone that allows them to discuss what they need to contribute, including a possible performance shift from their supervisor, allowing both employee and supervisor to grow from the experience.
When it comes to building a successful high-growth business, even the most detailed business plan can be derailed by hiring the wrong employees to carry out the corporate vision. In fact, the estimated cost of a mishire can be 5 to 27 times the amount of the employee’s salary, according to Topgrading.com. Not only are there hard costs involved in hiring and firing employees, but mishired personnel can also cause a ripple effect by lowering morale and hampering sales and performance results. A really bad hire can even cause A-level employees to leave your business in search of better opportunities.
People are yearning for connection in these unpredictable times, and as you continue to lead your business, we wanted to share some best practices that we use for planning events with purpose. Before beginning the process of planning an event, it is crucial to understand the motivation behind it. Having a clear vision for the purpose of your event is the foundation of a successful experience for the hosts, vendors, and attendees.
In times of great stress or in times of great success, executive-level decision making can feel more weighty than it does when business operations are running “as normal.” In difficult times, an ill-advised choice could jeopardize jobs or even an entire business. In times of surplus, executives may find themselves making decisions based upon the temporary high fueled by success-generated endorphins.
