I’ve shared a number of big ideas relating to CEOship and business performance over the past few weeks as my collaboration with Ellie Seilern has deepened (keep your eyes peeled for a retreat we’re hosting just outside London in October that is shaping up to be pretty special):
- Attunement (reading/understanding your business at an entirely different level)
- Coherence (clearly and decisively seeing what does/doesn’t belong in your business)
The above two concepts are Step 1 and Step 2 on the way to the final step in this sequence: Wholeness.
Businesses want to be ‘whole’ (which is another way of saying fully performing in more typical corporate language). Your business will give you signals constantly about where they are whole and where they are not. But you have to listen to them and be brave about making changes when they are called for.
Lack of wholeness shows up in very practical ways:
- A below-par strategy that holds a business back
- A dull culture that doesn’t inspire a business
- A talent plan that fails to build the necessary skills
- A pricing policy that is unfair
The list is infinite but not overwhelming. It’s just the truth of business-building: there are many aspects of a business that require shaping.
Seeing your business through the lens of Wholeness is a useful technique in that it cuts out the clutter, noise and complexity of business-building and sets out a clear path to full performance.
This is the core value of these concepts that I’m teaching you: they simplify the complex.
For perennially busy CEOs, this is gold. CEOs, according to pretty much any research, are barely holding on, or failing. That’s not a judgment, it’s just a fact. And it means that the CEO themselves needs to be tending toward Wholeness in their own right if they are to drive their business toward Wholeness. One begets the other.
So the sequence is:
- Develop the sensory capabilities to Attune to your business in a way that reveals truths and insights
- Notice what is Coherent and what is Incoherent in your business
- Build what is not in your business and cut out what shouldn’t be in your business to lead it toward Wholeness
Throw away reflection questions at the conclusion if these missives feel trite, but I do want to give you the benefit of valuable insight before you move ahead with your Monday activities. So here we go:
Q: All things about your business considered, does it feel ‘whole’? (i.e. complete and fully formed)
Q: What is the most glaring example of where your business is unwhole? (don’t think too hard about this as your best answer is intuitive and immediate)
I recognize that concepts such as Attunement, Coherence and Wholeness are stretching but I share them with you because they are the conduit to a better career, greater fulfilment and more joy.
All are driven by constructing/being a part of a business that is truly wired to succeed in today’s evermore complex business environment. The other half of you and your businesses’ potential lies in wait and these concepts are the path to get you there.
More to come on all of the above as I get into greater depth over time, but I hope that I am revealing to you a better and richer way to build and lead businesses as a CEO.