The Growth Whisperers podcast

The Growth Whisperers are Brad Giles and Kevin Lawrence, two advisors to mid-market businesses, one Australian, one Canadian, who each work with CEOs and Leadership Teams across the world with a mission to build enduring, great companies. Each weekly episode covers interesting situations and questions from the world of strategic planning, leadership development, talent and hiring in high growth entrepreneurial companies where real results matter.

#166 Necessary endings 06/12/2023

#166 Necessary endings "Necessary Endings" is a self-help book written by Dr. Henry Cloud. It explores the concept of embracing and initiating endings in various aspects of life, such as relationships, careers, and personal growth, in order to create a positive and fulfilling future. The book emphasises that endings are a natural part of life and are necessary for personal and professional growth. While endings are a natural part of business and life, we often experience them with a sense of hesitation, sadness, resignation, or regret. But Dr. Henry Cloud sees endings differently. He argues that our personal and professional lives can only improve to the degree that we can see endings as a necessary and strategic step to something better. If we cannot see endings in a positive light and execute them well, he asserts, the "better" will never come either in business growth or our personal lives. In this insightful and deeply empathetic book, Dr. Cloud demonstrates that, when executed well, "necessary endings" allow us to proactively correct the bad and the broken in our lives in order to make room for the professional and personal growth we seek. However, when endings are avoided or handled poorly—as is too often the case—good opportunities may be lost, and misery repeated. Drawing on years of experience as an executive coach and a psychologist, Dr. Cloud offers a mixture of advice and case studies to help readers Know when to have realistic hope and when to execute a necessary ending in a business, or with an individual. Identify which employees, projects, activities, and relationships are worth nurturing and which are not. Overcome people's resistance to change and create change that works. Create urgency and an action plan for what's important. Stop wasting resources needed for the things that really matter. Knowing when and how to let go when something, or someone, isn't working—a personal relationship, a job, or a business venture—is essential for happiness and success. In this, the final episode of the Growth Whisperers podcast, we talk about the book necessary endings, our journey together, and why you should consider what endings are necessary in your life. Thank you for listening, it's been an honour to help you. From Kevin and Brad. ----- * Do you love The Growth Whisperers and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our . * Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! * Is Twitter your thing? Follow and to learn more about building enduring great companies. *Like LinkedIn? Follow and --------- Links: * * Newsletters * * ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: #84 The 7 common strategy mistakes from Michael Porter #130 Jim Collins: Level 5 leaders #104 The habits successful leaders use to prepare each week #50 Jim Collins Flywheel Concept: How to build unstoppable momentum in your company #96 The three main barriers to consistent growth #90 Meeting Rhythm - The Annual Strategic Thinking meeting #110 Five most common questions we get about Scaling Up #89 The 4 different types of A players /episode/index/show/thegrowthwhisperers/id/26985483

#165 The top five reasons people regret selling their business 06/05/2023

#165 The top five reasons people regret selling their business There is an entire industry and philosophy surrounding why you should sell your business, but it doesn’t need to be that way. There are many reasons why people choose to sell their businesses and really the reasons can be broken down into two different things. 1. Long Term Goal To Exit: A strategic decision because their plan all along was to sell their business and they have something else more desirable to do with their time (besides golf). 2. Looking for an Exit strategy after losing faith. They hit a point of frustration or desperation and are no longer either enjoying the business or don’t believe they can get it to the next level. The first point is a goal to exit, the second allows you to think it isn't going to get any easier, it might be better to sell. And there are a lot of people who will want you to sell. This means you can feel forced to exit. In this episode we discuss the top 5 reasons people regret selling, and how you can consider different perspectives and opportunities. ----- * Do you love The Growth Whisperers and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our . * Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! * Is Twitter your thing? Follow and to learn more about building enduring great companies. *Like LinkedIn? Follow and --------- Links: * * Newsletters * * ----- Related episodes #19 Mental health in business leadership during COVID19 #79 Eliminate your emotionally taxing issues - lick your toads ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: #84 The 7 common strategy mistakes from Michael Porter #130 Jim Collins: Level 5 leaders #104 The habits successful leaders use to prepare each week #50 Jim Collins Flywheel Concept: How to build unstoppable momentum in your company #96 The three main barriers to consistent growth #90 Meeting Rhythm - The Annual Strategic Thinking meeting #110 Five most common questions we get about Scaling Up #89 The 4 different types of A players /episode/index/show/thegrowthwhisperers/id/26807814

#164 Using the sandbox to stop dumb decisions in the leadership team 05/29/2023

#163 Executive burnout: Building your resilience (2/2) 05/22/2023

#162 Executive Burnout: How do you know when you need to get some help? (1/2) 05/15/2023

#161 Rating your firm on Jim Collins 7 Good to Great principles (2/2) 05/08/2023

#160 Rating your firm on Jim Collins 7 Good to Great principles (1/2) 05/01/2023

#159 The most important number that CEOs rarely measure 04/24/2023

#158 Living and working in your Sustainable Sweet Spot as a leader 04/17/2023

#157 Jim Collins: 6 characteristics of right people in the right seats 04/10/2023

#156 Five expensive hiring mistakes to avoid 04/02/2023

#155 The 9 books every CEO must read 03/27/2023

#154 The 7 mistakes leaders make at annual strategy meetings 03/20/2023

#153 Liz Wiseman’s Multipliers - how the best leaders make everyone smarter 03/13/2023

#152 I’m worried that I’m micromanaging my team - what should I do? 03/05/2023

#151 I’m thinking about appointing my first COO or President – what should I do? 02/27/2023

#150 I have a key executive that I think is ineffective – what should I do? 02/20/2023

#149 My Gross Margin is dropping – what should I do? 02/13/2023

#148 We need to increase pricing but the sales team is resisting. What should I do? 02/06/2023

#147 Jim Collins Three Rules of Engagement for Healthy Teams 01/30/2023

#146 Why the greatest leaders obsess over their goals 01/23/2023

#145 Stephen Covey’s Time management matrix 01/16/2023

#144 Planning to win in 2023 - Cash - (5 of 5) 01/09/2023

#143 Planning to win in 2023 - Execution - (4 of 5) 01/02/2023

#142 Planning to win in 2023 - Strategy - (3 of 5) 12/26/2022

#141 Planning to win in 2023 - People - (2 of 5) 12/19/2022

#140 Planning to win in 2023 - (1 of 5) 12/12/2022

#139 What’s more important: Right People or Right Strategy? 12/05/2022

#138 Why the One Page Plan works 11/28/2022

#137 The Four Forces of Growth: What CEO’s need to focus on to sustain growth 11/21/2022

#137 The Four Forces of Growth: What CEO’s need to focus on to sustain growth This week we're talking about a new book that Kevin is working on entitled The Four Forces of Growth. We talk about the four forces, why they matter and what you can do to focus on growth. Here's an excerpt from Kevin's website outlining the four forces of growth. The 4 Forces of Growth We’re about a third of the way through this year, and it feels as if we’ve already burned a year’s worth of energy. Many people have slipped into troubleshooting, problem solving and pivoting within their businesses and I’ve seen some amazing ways that teams have rallied to change, improve and come out stronger and more unified. It’s incredibly impressive. So, now that we’ve made it through this initial storm, the key is to make sure that we become masters of prioritizing and focusing on what matters most. Unfortunately, when things become more chaotic – as they likely will be for a while – and there are many different perspectives and opinions, people often put their energy where their logic tells them. And they won’t find out, until a few months down the road, that it might not have been the best choice. That’s when the difference between strategic thinkers and amazing executers start to show up. Some people, for whatever reason, are better at figuring out the higher impact places to put their energy, and what to leave alone. Whether this is you, or not, the key is to have the right tools to help you and your team pick what matters the most – and to ensure you don’t get distracted and deluded by logical thought in an illogical time. Defying Logic From the beginning of recorded history, there have been people who pursued ideas and actions that defied logic. Like Leonardo Da Vinci who conceived a flying machine well before the Wright brothers took to the sky, or scientists in the 1700s who began to think that disease was caused by micro-organisms rather than bad blood or bad air. These unique people were drawn to hard, risky pursuits that contained very little instant gratification and, in many cases, sustained struggle and sacrifice. They were motivated and inspired by the impact of their pursuits and had the courage to push ahead – even when the logic of the day told them otherwise. Last August, I started work on a new book about this topic and, little did I realize that it would become incredibly important six months later. The premise of the book is to find a simple way to help people to evaluate their decisions – to truly understand if their priorities really help or hinder their growth. I’m fascinated by people who do the unthinkable and continue to defy logic, to persevere and succeed. After much research, I chose the analogy of flight and the pilots who defy gravity for extended periods of time. CEOs and pilots are very similar, both from a leadership perspective and they ways they make amazing things happen. The 4 Forces of Growth In an airplane, pilots have to pay attention to the principles of flight – Lift, Thrust, Weight and Drag: Lift is created by the wings and contrasted by the weight of the plane and gravity. When you get lift and thrust you get altitude The thrust of the engines pushing the plane forward is fought by drag, the resistance of air. Pilots – just like a CEO – must pay attention to these principles or they’ll quickly succumb to the forces of gravity. Here’s how this relates to the world of a CEO and leader: Lift happens when leaders lift their heads to look at opportunities – the future possibilities that help the business to get to a higher altitude of more revenue, more customers, more profit Weight are the problems we get sucked into Thrust is the courage to push ahead, make decisions and get into action Drag is fear and doubt as we spend too much time contemplating, delay decisions and are less likely to act boldly. Opportunities and Problems, Fear and Courage are the 4 Forces of Growth that shape and define four states we can find ourselves in, at any given time: Agony, Analysis, Growth and Improvement. Growth is the result of courage and opportunity: increased revenue, new customers, new products, new services, new markets. It’s solving a problem for somebody new or solving a new problem for someone you already work with. It’s not about doing what you already do today – it’s about expanding in some way. Growth is the accountability of CEOs who should be spending most of their thinking and action time in that box. And if the CEO is not, it’s very difficult for the company to grow. Improvement is when you have the courage to move ahead but your energy is focused on solving problems. While improvement is good, it won’t grow a business on its own. It can make customers happier, improve margins and costs, and streamline operations. It’s wonderful and equally dangerous. This box is normally owned by the COO who needs to be focused on making things better. The challenge here is understanding the problems that need to be solved and the problems that need to be ignored. Knowing how to make the decision on which problem to focus, or not, is the value of an amazing CEO or COO. (We’ll talk more about this, in future.) You could stay in this box all day long and that’s the risk because problems never go away. In many companies we work with, that are really focused on growth, we leave a couple of percent in the expense structure of the business for problems that we continue to pay for, so that we can reallocate more energy into growth. These are strategic decisions that generally only a good CEO can make – to not solve problems and to not optimize all their costs so that they can grow healthily and quickly. Analysis is on the other side of courage. This is where you look at opportunities but you’re fearful or hesitant to make a decision. This box is generally mastered by the CFO – the yin to the CEOs yang – who challenges and throws reality and practicality at some of the CEOs strategy thinking. That’s why the CEO or CFO pairing is so critical. A certain amount of analysis is very good. We need it but, at a certain point, we also need to make a decision, a test or a move, so only being an analysis obviously isn’t good. The question is how much do we need? Depending on the CEO, this can vary. If you have a very growth-oriented, visionary CEO more analysis is often needed for balance. And a fairly analytical CEO might not lead as much on the CFO for additional analysis. Agony happens when you’re a fearful victim, stuck in problems, and indecisive. This is analysis paralysis – a very painful place where problems become overwhelming and you can’t find your way out. This is possibly the most dangerous state of all because it can degrade the mental health of individuals, of teams and, in a worst-case scenario, the entire company. To move across the line into improvement, you need to find – or borrow or rent – the courage to do something. Generally, audit/legal/compliance own this box, and they need to look at problems, in order to keep us from getting into trouble. While we need to be compliant, and aware of the problems that can really hurt us, we also need to make decisions and move ahead. You don’t grow a business here. A Matter of Time As you look at this model, where is your time spent? Some CEOs would say they want to be 80% growth, 9% analysis, 9% improvement and 2% agony. And others – depending on the state of their business and the strength of their team – might be 40% growth, 10% analysis, 40% improvement and 10% agony. While there’s no right answer here, the key is being conscious of where you and your team actually spend your time, and to make sure your focus is in the right place. The reality is that you just can’t expect to have a company that grows 30% per year, year on year, if the CEO spends 10% of their time in the growth box. Red Flags When we do strategic planning sessions with companies, we always try to make sure there’s enough energy allocated to the Growth box for the company to reach its goals. And, obviously, we’re always analyzing and improving things, in the business, so that it gets stronger as it gets bigger. A red flag is when the CEO of a growing company spends too much time administering or analyzing their business, versus doing the things that create growth. Sometimes these are easy distractions that may create a lot of noise and seem important, but they aren’t the best use of your time. From Kevin's blog ----- * Do you love The Growth Whisperers and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our . * Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! * Follow us on Twitter and Learn more about building enduring great companies. ----- ----- Links: * * ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: # 50 Jim Collins Flywheel Concept: How to build unstoppable momentum in your company # 16 Jim Collins # 84 The 7 common strategy mistakes from Michael Porter # 43 The top 7 best practices for weekly meetings # 69 What is a Topgrading virtual bench and why you need one # 88 The hidden cost of not having a team of all A-Players # 96 The three main barriers to consistent growth # 83 Why strategy should focus on producing more profit - not market share /episode/index/show/thegrowthwhisperers/id/24990969

The Growth Whisperers podcast

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