Continuing Your Learning as a CEO. The How and Why
You're a CEO of a growing business. You are the top of your organisation. You have earned your position as a result of many wins throughout your career. You are very proud of how far you have come and what you are doing with your business....
Who do you learn from?
At Visage Growth Partners, we work with HUMBLE growth focused CEOs who are life-long learners. They often look to those all around them to seek lessons that help them improve as individuals and leaders. They know that both the alignment and capability of their leadership team will either enhance or hinder the growth prospects of their business.
I was reflecting upon my time as a mentor a number of years ago in a program run by Dr Ilan Kogus. He defined a mentor as anyone with experience in a situation that gives of their time to help someone meet their goals or overcome a challenge. They could be older or younger. Industry experts or industry "freshmen". They would “enable” the mentee to come up with answers to problems rather than be prescriptive. And different from a coach, a mentor works to the agenda of the mentee, whilst a coach sets the learning agenda.
Reflecting on this, I recently I found myself looking up to one of my sources of learning...my 18 year old son. Whilst not necessarily fitting Dr Kogus’ definition of a mentor, in that he doesn’t really give me too much of his time (😊) and isn’t attempting to help me meet my goals, what he has done has had a huge impact on me, and reminded me of a few really important leadership principles.
Having successfully completed high school last year, he was accepted into a great University degree. He has deferred his studies at the start of the year, and 2 weeks ago left to travel through Europe for 6 months with some mates. Apart from his airfare to and from Europe, he was on his own to fund his 6 months overseas.
So 6 months ago, he embarked on his first career job – selling electricity and gas sales in temporary shopping centres kiosks. This was his method to earn his travel money. This is not a job I would personally find easy at all, and initially I thought this was not going to benefit him at all. It was a high risk activity in many ways. Having to put himself “out there”, face repeat rejection, get paid only upon success, and be sent all around the state to sell, were all hurdles that needed to be overcome.
With his goal being to earn himself 6 months worth of travel in Europe and create a nice buffer for his return home, he walked through these challenges DAILY with courage, enthusiasm, and commitment. His dedication, persistence, and fearlessness was inspiring. He was well prepared, and practiced his sales techniques on me and anyone else that was game enough...... He was up early so that he could meet the first patron at the shopping centre, and home late after everyone had vacated the centre. He was acknowledged as their number 1 performer on many occasions throughout his 6 months, and whilst proud of his own achievements, he demonstrated an understated level of excitement and humility that was beautiful to experience.
So, just to be clear…there is NOTHING extraordinary about what my son did or achieved here. My point is that without him knowing it, and by me being open to view and watch what he did and how he did it, he provided me with tremendous learning and inspiration.
My three other children provide the same learning opportunities for me. Regardless of their decades less of life experiences, I should not shut myself off to what they can teach me.
And this is where I truly believe everyone I am in contact with has something to teach me.
As I reflect on my career experiences, I have had those long-standing loyal employees who demonstrate dependability, sincerity, and punctuality, one day at a time. I have had staff members who teach me and remind me how to be open, vulnerable and authentic, and how attractive and powerful that is for a leader. I have people who remind me about how important detail can be in certain situations, and I have experienced others who have enthusiastically pushed into new paradigms to challenge our strategy! I have had people who have shown me how to have a purpose and belief, and how to be persistent and relentless in striving for this. I have had front line staff who have reiterated the importance of the customer in our business and shown me how to do this. There have been SO many people I have worked with that have provided lessons that will stay with me forever and have helped shape me into who I am AND who I am becoming.
We often gravitate to learn from those that have done what we do, people who are "proven", or who are recognised as experts. But if we look around us, at our management team; our back-office staff; the front-line personnel; the machinery operators; our family members; and the thousands of understated people we come in contact with in everyday life, we will find great inspiration and plenty to learn from. Why shut ourselves off to lessons that can help us be our very best? As leaders, the better we are, the more effective our team will be, and the more likely our business will grow without pain.
So as a CEO, and with the top role in your organisation, who are you turning to for learning and inspiration?