One of my “non-negotiable” activities on the weekend is riding my bike on the forest preserve bike paths in Chicago’s western suburbs. Now mind you this is Chicago so there are many weekends, usually starting in November, where I must give in but it is one of my “must dos”. It clears my head and gives me energy to take on the week.
Why am I telling you this? Two reasons. In business as in life there are some “truisms” that are required if a business is to grow. Like exercise is to the mind and body there are some things a business must do to grow. Sort of the laws of business nature. Secondly, during my ride, I had clarity around these ideas so I thought I would share them with you. Here are my thoughts from the bicycle.
It seems to me a debate always goes on where one side says, to grow a business you need to take time to plan for the future; you need to change your leadership style, your role, and invest in resources, people and systems in order for the future to occur. These are the time honored success factors for growing a business and are well documented. The people who talk about this stuff are usually called the theorists.
The other side says, that’s nice, but when you are fighting the fires of everyday business and when you don’t have the cash to do what you need to do today how can you address tomorrow? These people are usually described as practical and live in the “real world”.
So I asked myself who is right in this debate and can the two seek common ground? The answer that came to me during my ride was that they are both right and they both wrong. What is needed is a practical way to bring the theory into application…..because the theory is right but the practical application is hard.
Case in point. I firmly believe in the need to spend time on planning for the future but like all of us I also am constrained by dollars, time and staff. I know that PeerSight will not (repeat, will not) grow unless I make the time for future facing activities, learn to let go, focus on the high impact activities, etc….but just the other day I caught myself doing tasks that needed to be passed on to someone else.
When challenged on it I stepped back and asked myself why? I am not sure of the answer yet but here are the questions I asked myself. I share these with you because this is a very real challenge….which my experience tells me just about all of us will face or are currently facing.
Keep in mind the you I am addressing is myself.
Do you believe in your company’s future? I mean really believe in your company’s future? So much so that to neglect planning for it and making changes in where you focus your time damages your company’s future value?
- As my confidence in the future increases, the necessary resources to make the future happen move from the expense side of the ledger to those of an investment. By the way, in the event you don’t believe in the future of the business that then becomes priority #1.
Is it an escape from the tougher stuff of the day or do you believe that others can’t do those things as well as you?
- I think that escape is OK. I have worked with CEOs of Fortune 500 businesses that dabble in the small stuff of the business because it is fun….kind of a hobby and it brings them back to the operations of the business. But the question remains what is the motive behind it. Is it escape or the inability to let go.
- Every so often I pull out the old Stephen Covey grid and chart the activities of the last week. Often I find myself doing a lot of the busy but unimportant things before everything else….and at the expense of those things that drive the business forward.
Do the near term actions feel more like progress than working on the future? Do they (the short term actions) provide a more immediate sense of accomplishment? Do you know what the planning actions are? Are they measurable? If you had 2 hours a day to work on future facing activities can you identify them?
The good news is we know that just like exercise and good diet lead to good health, business growth requires working on future facing activities. We also know that a significant amount of change has to occur to ourselves as leaders and to the structures and systems of our company…..and that is not easy. At least in my case it isn’t.
But back to the practical. How can we make sure we ask and answer the above questions and more importantly maintain perspective to constantly ask and answer them honestly? How can we keep from lapsing into an I’m just too busy or I don’t have the required resources mindset?
To get at the answer I approached some friends of mine and asked them how they did it. Each is a successful entrepreneur in a growing company. Their answer was simple….but its execution was not. Each of them said you can’t do it by yourself. Furthermore they surrounded themselves with confidants that asked them what they were working on? What their near term priorities were? How those near term priorities fit with longer term plans? Did they believe in the future of their business? Could they let go of some activities? What was in their way? And then they held them accountable.
The good news is the steps to growing a business are known….the theory. The tougher news is that getting there is hard work and that as the Beatles said, I get by with a little help from my friends.
Steve MacGill
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Steve is the co-founder of PeerSight. PeerSight is the pioneer in virtual Peer Advisory Boards. We provide the platform business advisors use to deliver virtual peer advisory boards to their clients.
Great post. Yes, we all get by with a little help from our friends. Thanks. And yes, I find myself too often in the busy/but unimportant box of life. It's a good reminder.
Posted by: Me | July 22, 2008 at 01:02 PM