My three focuses as a leader this year
I’m back! I’m back! We are officially back from our holiday break and are so excited to do this year with you.
I thought we could start with something I’ve been thinking about a lot for this upcoming year: My vision for the kind of leader I want to be in 2024.
I read a quote not too long ago by Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric. While Jack’s legacy is complicated and I don’t exactly agree with some of the people decisions he made at GE, I do love this quote. He said, “I only have three things to do: I have to choose the right people, allocate the right number of dollars, and transmit ideas from one division to another with the speed of light. So I'm really in the business of being the gatekeeper and the transmitter of ideas.”
I think as leaders, we can be focused on so many things and feel like we have so many responsibilities. Sometimes I lose sight of what the most critical parts of my role are. I know that building a compassionate and human culture and treating my people like gold is and always will be my #1 priority as a leader—and I also love this idea of thinking about myself as being the gatekeeper and transmitter of ideas. I love it because it doesn’t mean executing and doing it all. It means creating an environment that empowers people and removing barriers so that everyone can do their best work and create something awesome together.
This year, I really want to lean into the three elements of Jack’s quote: choosing the right people, allocating resources, and transmitting ideas at lightning speed. And here’s how I think that looks for me in the year ahead:
Choose the right people. I'm so lucky to have the team that I do. I already know that I chose the right people, but I don’t think my responsibility stops there. I see my commitment to them like this: I need to keep them in their “sweet spots,” which means keeping them working in places where they're both motivated and talented. I need to ask them for feedback about what fulfills and excites them and what drains them, and I need to take that feedback and help them stay engaged and fulfilled. I need to regularly check in on my team’s capacity and make sure that they have work-life harmony and that they're caring for themselves so that they can show up at their best at home and at work. I need to check in on our relationships and level of trust and make sure we stay diligent about how much connection time we get between meetings, retreats, and the time we spend on the road together. Last but not least, I need to hold us accountable to our commitments both individually and as a team. When we’re falling short, I need to make sure we lean into courageous conversations and hold each other accountable.
Allocate the right number of dollars. This year, I want to make sure that our resources are aligned with our big focus on growth as we work toward our vision of scaling our business and impact. As a team, we run pretty lean. Our thought is that if we can do it, we don’t need to invest the resources to outsource it. A huge part of this comes from being diligent about building a debt-free company. And while that’s helped us build a financially sustainable company, at the same time, running lean can also hold us back. I want to make sure that we don't hear, “That’s too expensive; we can just do it ourselves” in conversations that are critical for our growth. I want to make sure that money and resources are never the reason why we can't do something. I want to get really good at thinking about how much time and energy certain tasks take us and being intentional about whether we take care of things internally or outsource them. I want to think about where the team's time is best spent and allocate resources to helping us accomplish more things better and faster. I want to put our resources where we need them most. I want to challenge us to think about whether we need to do things in certain ways just because that’s how we’ve always done them. I want to make sure we ask ourselves whether we can use resources to change a system and make it more effective and more efficient. I want to help ignite and elevate an abundance mindset on our team. We've worked really hard to be where we are, and we have the resources for everyone to be able to feel empowered to use those resources and spend those dollars where it really makes sense.
Transmit ideas from one division to another at the speed of light. I really want to lean into my activator strength this year. I want to make sure that I am not the rate-limiting step and that I help get ideas from one person to the next as quickly as possible so that we can make momentum. I want to get away from my tendency to want to make things perfect. Instead, I want to aim to get them to 70% before I pass them off and rely on the team to take them the rest of the way. When I’m short on time, instead of putting something off until I have more time, I want to get in the habit of giving my input and keeping it moving. I want to delegate more things. I want to regularly ask myself, “Is this something that only I can do?” so that I can empower the team more. I want to help the team communicate and give them more chances to connect and share ideas so that we can maximize our meetings. I want our meetings to be the place where we make decisions so that we can encourage an overall team mentality of taking action vs. waiting.
So that’s it: That’s the leadership mindset I truly want to embody this year. I was really inspired by Jack's words, and maybe you are, too. I encourage you to think about what your goals are as a leader this year. Where do you want to focus? How do you want to impact those around you? What is the leadership mindset that you want to embody? Share it with us—we’d love to know!
Let’s do this, 2024. Here's to a year of learning and growing together!
Big hugs,
