Austin Business Owners Need to Take a Deeper Dive

Posted byedstillmanPosted inExpert perspectives, Outside expertiseTags:, ,

Learn how to move your leadership team to 2.0

Jim Collins, 20 years ago in 2001 wrote “Good to Great” with his focus on getting the right people on the bus in the right seats. In his new book, BE 2.0, he takes a deeper dive into turning your business into an Enduring Great Company. As we all know, it starts with you the CEO, Business Owner or Senior Executive.

Here’s my #1 Question for May (since I am reading Jim Collins BE 2.0) that my Vistage members and coaching clients are into taking a deeper dive.

“What percentage of your “key seats” in your company are filled with the right people for those seats?”

Question for member leaders in May 2021

Collins says if less than 90% then that should be your #1 priority in 2021.

Jim Collins at 2019 Vistage World Event

Here’s the rest of the story…

What makes a “key seat” on a leadership team?

  1. The person in that seat has the power to make significant people decisions
  2. Failure in that seat could expose the entire company to significant risk
  3. Success in the seat would have a significant impact on the company success

Hear a little more from Jim in his introduction of the book.

Which of the following two categories of mistakes have you more frequently made?

Category 1. In retrospect, you waited too long before you acted to move the person out of the key seat.

Category 2. In retrospect, you acted to quickly and you should have been more patient.

Making leadership changes requires reflection & discussion

How do you know when you’ve crossed the demarcation line, when it’s time to make the shift from “develop to “replace” for a key seat?

  1. Are you beginning to lose other people by keeping this person in the seat?
  2. Do you have a values problem, a will problem or a skills problem?
  3. What’s the person’s relationship to the window and the mirror?
  4. Does the person seek work as a job or a responsibility?
  5. Has your confidence in the person gone uip or down in the past year?
  6. Do you have a bus problem or a seat problem?

Moving from your 1.0 to 2.0 is your 2021 focus … imagine that there’s a 3.0 and a 4.0 for some of you. What if you could…

  1. Learn how to hire great people and meld them into a cohesive team
  2. Learn than culture does not merely support strategy, culture is strategy
  3. Learn how to hire for values and temperament not just smarts and experience
  4. Learn how and when to delegate and when not to
  5. Learn how to hold your unit leaders accountable for keeping culture vibrant
  6. Learn how to make wise decisions that reduce short-term profits for the sake of long-term greatness
  7. Learn how to stay calm and mitigate your impulse to take control from your people when things go wrong
  8. Learned how to confront organizational threats by moving outside the company to cultivate mentors

Vistage Peer Advisory Groups have this purpose in mind.

We bring accountability, ownership, honestly, caring, growth, challenge and work/life balance into your lives.

Find yourself a coach and have your coach make you the best you can be.

Talk to a CEO Coach

Published by edstillman

I grew up in Carlsbad, north San Diego County, lost my dad as a teenager, went into the USAF for four years and hired on with 3M in 1969. Received my AA from Santa Barbara City College, BA and Masters from Redlands University and after 33 plus years, I retired from 3M in 2002. As I look back on my life, I have been creating myself and developing my skill sets to be a business coach and a Vistage Chair. I am president of SEOT, a "personal improvement" consulting firm spending most of my time working with Central Texas executives running small to medium size for-profit companies who are focusing on improving their profitability greater than their competition. My area of interest is assisting senior executives in creating a better balance between business commitments and personal relationships. I also facilatate three leadership labs each consisting of a dozen owners, presidents and CEOs. We meet monthly both in a group setting as well as in a 1-to-1 coaching session. Our focus is to sharpen each others' skills in becoming better leaders, making better decisions and taking ourselves and companies to that next level. Who are we? My members are experienced top executives who recognize that they don’t have all the answers and who actively seek the company of successful peers—both to give and receive insights and ideas. My members mine the 200 plus years of chief executive experience that comes together in our monthly meetings and members are eager to offer their own experience and insights in the process. As a group, we spend our time exploring topics members can't discuss anywhere else. My members have many other places where they can engage in idle, "cocktail party" chatter. Our mission is to provide the setting for discussing the "undiscussable." Where or who can you go to for confidential, honest feedback to assist you in minimizing your personal "Worry List"?