World-class CEOs Work on (NOT in) the Business…
“Every minute that you spend working on tasks that can be delegated is a minute that you are not planning, strategizing and building the best business possible.”
Working ON your business is about:
- Knowing when to get out of your own way.
- Not being the hero; a team moves a company forward not a CEO.
- Knowing that you don’t have all the answers. Stop micromanaging. Stop trying to control everything.
- A willingness to build a team and hire talent that knows more than you (takes humility).
- Playing to your strengths. Do you know your strengths? Brandon Miller does…
- Delegating big responsibilities to the talent you hire. Stop doing. Start empowering.
- Stepping back from the day-to-day minutiae and into the BIG PICTURE (see visual below).
- Finding innovative ways to scale your business for profitable growth.
- Knowing your 3-5 most critical KPIs not a gazillion metrics.
- Spotting problems and delegating the “work out” or solution.
- Finding the whitespace to set goals and think about the future.
- Owning the vision, strategy, culture, and team-building.
- Making sure that the right resources (people and money) show up at the right time.
- Realizing you didn’t hire employees–these are the people that will make your vision a reality
- Building an empire unless you prefer the lifestyle business.
Thanks to Bob Dabic’s handwriting (see right) for inspiring this post. Bob is a Best Practice Chair and Lead Trainer for Vistage Worldwide. He is also a great guy and an exceptional mentor. Unfortunately for Seattle, Bob is based in Orange County, CA.
If you’re interested in learning more about membership and the selection process for joining one of my CEO peer groups, please text or call me: (206) 890-6858.
If I call you and you’re looking for an excuse to not talk, here are the Top 10 Reasons Why NOT to Join a CEO Peer Advisory Board. Building a leadership chair practice requires a sense of humor.
Related Reading
- A Plan for Working on (Not in) the Business by Jay Goltz (NY Times)
- Work on Your Business, Not in Your Business by Rhett Power (Inc.)
- Growing Means Learning to Work On Your Business Not In It by Geri Stengel (Forbes)
- How to Work ON Your Business—Not Just In It by Tom Lowery (Huffington Post)
- Work On–Not In–Your Business by Ray Silverstein (Entrepreneur)
*A 2015 analysis revealed that companies who joined Vistage over the past five years grew at three times the rate of average U.S. companies.