‘The variety of niches individual humans can occupy is immeasurably greater than the niches available to individuals of other species. This is our forte as well as our flaw. One of the distinctive attributes of the human psyche is that it takes wildly diverse and creative shapes. But the capacity of most earlier human cultures to support that diversity and autonomy seems limited compared to contemporary options.’
Bill Plotkin: The Journey of Soul Initiation
I’m midway through reading ‘The Journey of Soul Initiation’ by Bill Plotkin. I’m reading it because I want to get closer to my true calling in life – the very specific contribution that I am meant to make during my lifetime. I feel very close to that purpose, doing the work I’m doing, but there’s more to me, and I want to know what that ‘more’ is.
There is more than one type of CEO. What kind of CEO have you chosen to be?
There are an infinite number of approaches to being a CEO. There didn’t used to be, but alongside the broad evolution of our culture, which now provides the multitude of niches that Plotkin speaks to in the above quote, the optionality of the CEO position has evolved and increased.
Your CEOship is most accurately reflected in the ‘tone’ of your business. The CEO can be fragmented into dozens of pieces: how a CEO approaches strategy, or culture, or developing talent, or how expansion is approached, or how technology is or isn’t embraced.
But the tone of your business is an all-encompassing marker that aggregates your various attitudes, approaches, and techniques. Tone is singular, and if you really want to know what kind of CEO you are, ask your people about how they would describe the tone of your business.
There’s no prescription when it comes to tone – only that you’ve chosen your tone intentionally, and that you’re strengthening that tone in whatever way is appropriate or effective.
Businesses can be tough. Businesses can be gentle. Businesses can be brave. Businesses can be cautious.
As a CEO, you need to choose what works for you and what drives your business closest to optimal performance.
But to not know the tone you’re trying to strike means that a tone will be set for you. And it might not be the tone that you want, or the tone that you need.
As your journey through life continues – both personally and professionally – there is a niche that is waiting for you. You might seek it out, or you might not, but it’s there regardless. I would argue that your greatest success and joy lie in uncovering this niche.
Reading the book, I am aware that this ‘soul journey’ is not for everyone. Many people don’t have the curiosity or the will to go that far into their own purpose, and that’s fine. But there are degrees of journeying, too, that will bear fruit, and I encourage you to be very thoughtful about the CEO that you are and the CEO that you might become.
Given the amplification of the CEO position throughout your business (which is far more broad-reaching than CEOs realise – by quantum amounts), you are setting the tone of your business one way or the other.