From entrepreneur to CEO, by Nancy Dorrier

We are talking to presidents and CEOs all the time. And doctors and health care administrators and museum directors, to not continue to think of themselves and to not continue to be the worker/entrepreneur.  There is such a pull to do the work and miss the bigger picture. 

We are also talking to them about not only being the CEO, but also being a remarkable leader and a visionary leader who sees the bigger picture, who sees the people and resources he or she has.  Really sees.

We are talking about not just dealing with what is immediately at hand, although important. And important to deal with what is immediate, including the failures and breakdowns and lessons learned.  And important to deal with, and have him or her deal with, failures as if they are 100% responsible for them.

That is our work, day in and day out, to have conversations with business leaders to think beyond, to create beyond, to go beyond.

Not just the challenge of the day, but the challenge of growth beyond this year, beyond five years. Beyond our lifetimes.

There are the products and the markets and the people, and we especially focus on the people, the biggest best most brilliant resource for all areas of company growth.

And we focus on that CEO

Working on the company not in the company, for example,

Working on getting all those pizza parlors located on college campuses and delivering hot,

Not just inventing recipes and tossing the dough in the air.

What are the questions beyond the ones the bank is asking today?

How big do you want to get?

How creative can you be?

Who are the best people to have around you to think up the future, create the future – the ones who understand they don't know everything, who are eager to explore new possibilities, untried ideas?

Who are the ones who can engage in an inquiry, who can take the failure and look at it and what happened and who they were that the failure occurred vs. pointing fingers and ranting on about somebody else?

Who can pony up with you and look with you and not need the right answer to be the first idea, the first out of your mouth?  Who can listen and observe and engage with you?

How big can you be?

What are the breakdowns you should expect that come with growth?

What are your values?

Can you be true to your values no matter what?  Otherwise it will come back and bite you in the ass.

What keeps you awake at night?

Who are your mentors?

Who do you go to for support, for advice?

Do you know how to be coached?

How to listen to advice?

How to ask for it?

What is your arrogance factor, humbleness factor?

Are you cool on the pocket? 

And the funny thing is, and it seems true all 27 years of our life as consultants, that we are best at working with our clients on what we are working on ourselves, best when we take our own coaching.  We are studying, reading, asking.  We are flying things up the flagpole.

What business are we in even?  Where are we the most successful?  What do we love about our work?  What is the biggest difference we make and can make for our clients?

What work is most profitable?  How do we train new consultants and have them keep their wits as the training keeps coming at a breakneck speed?  Compassion mixed with no nonsense and accountability.

How to create contracts with larger companies who are used to and understand doing business with consultants?  What is our value proposition in their language not in our self-satisfied with ourselves consultantese? 

Authenticity, integrity, love, accountability, joy – our values.

And we love Don Holzworth and Jean Orelien, our clients and our teachers, now opening their doors to the business community to have this conversation on May 21 at Jean’s office. www.dorrierunderwood.com