Continuing Growth: For Every New Level There is a New Devil
Do you want to continue growing your business as fast as you have been growing? If you could see where I am standing right now, you would see a symbol of growth, the Inc 5000 letters at the Inc Conference in Phoenix, AZ. I work with dozens of companies that have been recognized by Inc for their fast-growth and want to continue growing. Primarily, I see their founders and CEOs are driven, confident, and committed. Today, I give you this video about the double edge sword of when you want to continue growing. Hint: There is a new devil at each new level. Discover the three characteristics of leaders that want to continue growing.
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Continuing Growth: The Transcript
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Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.
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Drawing your business has a double edge sword grow too fast and you can be crushed under that pressure grow too slowly and your business just isn’t able to capitalize on opportunities that you could.
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I’m here at the INC 5000 conference. These are the representing the fastest-growing privately held companies in North America but they’re really growing at an astronomical rate. To put this in perspective the average company grows around. 30 to 40 percent over a three year period. The fastest-growing company last year was free to star. They grew at over thirty-six thousand percent in the last three years.
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Now I talk about growth is a double-edged sword because I want to share this with you because if you’re a leader of a fast-growing company then you know you’ve got to keep short the sword sharp. That every new level there’s a new double and I smile when I say that because you know that keeping your leadership skills on the front edge and really evolving as a leader is what’s necessary as your company continues to grow. And if you stop growing your people stop growing and therefore the company stops growing. Now I bring this message to you because I work with leaders all the time and I see how driven they are and how confident they must be and how committed they are to that growth.
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But that also comes with some dangerous elements being driven means that you may miss some opportunities because you say safe so focused on what’s right in front of you and you may not see the bigger picture. Being confident you may be too confident so that you don’t ask for help and that’s very dangerous and then you know just being so committed that you really miss out on how you grow the people inside your business is often a challenge.
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All right. And back in the office again I’ve had a great time at the conference but I thought I would unpack this video a little bit so I shared it in its short form. But you deserve a little bit more depth around it because you’re listening to this podcast. I want to elevate the experience for you. I have met with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more than 430 by my calculation. CEO and founders of fast-growth companies. You’ve probably heard me say this before but I’ve probably. Interviewed or talked to more than anyone else in the world that are growing their company as fast as these guys are.
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Now. I just say guys but it is women too. I had such a great time at the INC conference there were three things I mentioned earlier about being driven about confidence and about being committed. Now I want to unpack those a little bit for you especially just for this podcast and then we’ll wrap it up. But when you are driven it is such a defines your identity. Design defines where you’re going. You have this big vision. I work with so many leaders just like you that that is one of the driving forces of their growth.
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But it also gets in the way. They do. They often miss the bigger picture. They get myopically focused on that and it’s great to be focused. But you’ve got to take time to step back and look at the bigger picture. Many times I’m saying to my clients you’ve got to slow down to speed up. And they’re so driven that it drives stress and anxiety in what they’re doing because they fail to see that slowing down has a benefit to their fast growth. They’ve driven ness if you will. I want to share this with you because I see so many leaders just missed the opportunity to slow down to speed up.
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Now let’s go into the other one confidence is so much it’s so needed in our leadership world today because you have to be able to impart your confidence into others so that they are more confident into their work so that they grow up and can really contribute the way you want them to. But when your confidence gets in the way of asking for help. Because you feel like you have to have all the answers or you have to be the one to figure this out. It does stop the company from growing at the pace it could become the bottleneck.
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Confidence overall is not bad in fact we probably need a dose of more confidence but confidence also means being able to focus on what’s really going on so that you can actually talk to others and ask for help that I’ve seen many leaders miss out on that opportunity there in peer groups and that’s great but I’ve seen that you’re really missing out on someone on one time some intimacy and being really vulnerable with someone that’s often doesn’t happen in like an EO or IPO or all these other peer groups out there like Visteon and such.
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So when you really take the time to look at the confidence and look at the negative side of it. You want to make sure you’re aware of what’s going on there. Remember to be humble you don’t have to have all the answers and to ask for help. When necessary. Finally committed we’re going to talk about being committed is such an important piece to the overall growth of the company. But you’re you can’t be so committed that you don’t grow the people I’ve seen so many leaders complain about their inbox being full and about all the time it takes two to do e-mail and they don’t have time to do anything else so they that committed this is not.
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Focused on the right things. Sometimes when you want to grow your business fast it’s easy to be pulled into some of the smaller things. Don’t miss out on the bigger opportunities to grow the people around you to truly be the kind of leader that evolves into world-class status. And that may scare you when I say that because it should scare you. It is a huge calling to be a leader. But I share all of these with you because successful high performing leaders which are primarily my clients. Are all struggling with these things and I wouldn’t want to put a spotlight on it for you so that you could actually learn to recognize it yourself but also continue the growth of your company.
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Now I’m going to wrap this video up right here by saying that every new level is a new devil. And explain that before but just. In very simple terms no matter what your growth level is whether you’re at a million dollars in revenue whether it 10 million was your hundred million with your over 200 or 400 million. I talked to leaders about that all the time. And in fact, at the end conference, every conversation I had someone was happy you know growing faster or having higher revenue or a bigger headcount of employees.
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And so it was just one after another of just amazing individuals. But at every new level, there’s a new double meaning they’re always working on something they’re always working on you know sharpening the saw. They’re always working on themselves if they really want to continue to accelerate the growth of the company and the people around them.
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I leave you with this because this is such a special message for you just coming off the heels of this conference next week we’re going to talk a little bit more about the characteristics I saw of these players at the conference and we’ll dive into that a little bit. So as always lead with courage and I’ll see you next time.
Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.
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