Episode 92. Being the Only “Thought-Leader” In Your Company May Be Holding You Back, Here’s What You Can Do About It
Staff Researcher: Evelyn Gilliard
As a CEO have you ever felt frustrated that you are generating every single idea for your company? Where the strategic and creative weight of your company rests on your shoulders? If you said “yes,” you likely built your company as the primary thought leader!
A thought leader is someone who looks at the future and sets a course for it that others will follow.1
We all know that thought leadership is a desirable status… particularly if you maintain an online presence. You should be looking to the future of your company and setting a course for others. The issue lies when you are the ONLY thought leader of your growing company. If you remain the only thought leader in your entire company it’s going to stifle your growth as every single idea, innovation, and moment of creativity will be up to you!
So what can you do to ensure you are encouraging thought leadership across your company? How do you ensure others feel empowered to operate in their own zone of genius? Focus on encouraging the spirit of thought leadership across your team by doing the following:
HIRING ALL A-PLAYERS
First things first - hire all A-Players. That’s more difficult done than said but it should be your top priority in establishing a flatter organization. You need to be able to trust your team to make the right decisions. If you don’t have full confidence in your team and their ability to be successful without you, then you’ll never be able to relinquish any control because you don’t trust them to get things done on time and efficiently. Therefore, in your hiring process, you need to follow the mantra “Hire SLOW, Onboard SLOWER, Fire Fast.” You’ve seen me talk about it on Instagram and now I’m reiterating it here. To have an A-Player team you need to allow the following to happen:
Allow enough time for qualified talent to apply.
Making sure your hiring process is challenging enough. Your barrier entry should not be too LOW.
Do not base your entire decision off of gut intuition, without also conjuring objective data.
While hiring based on intuition has a place in hiring you need to be able to collect data and objectively compare it to other applicants which usually takes a little more time on the front end, but it saves you MONEY and HURT FEELINGS on the back-end.
2. KILLING THE “CHECK THE BOX” MENTALITY
Your A-players are not just checking the box. They’re not going into your project management software like ClickUp and checking off boxes until the time runs out for the day. While task rabbits have their time and place, they are not helping you take off the mental load of being a thought leader and problem-solving issues as they arise. Instead, they are being trained to come in and expect a breakdown of every little thing that they need to accomplish for that day. Your team members who want to kill the “check the box” mentality are thoughtful with their intentions of what projects they are completing and ask themselves:
Is this efficient?
Is there a better or more cost-effective way of doing this?
Am I being intentional with my time?
3. RELINQUISHING CONTROL & PRIORITIZING AUTONOMY
As mentioned above, you will need to be able to relinquish control from needing to be the only thought leader in your company. Now it may feel like you are giving up your baby to those who won’t love it as much as you, but if you stick with it your baby will be raised by a community rather than a single parent (i,e., you). They always do say after all, that it takes a village to raise a child!
So what is the formula for success in raising this child in a community?
Team is involved in the decision-making process
+ Having a Say
+ Being Heard
- Their Voice Becoming Background Noise
_________________________________
= Improved Communication, Quick Decisions,
and Ideas Coming to Fruition
What you need to keep in mind, though is that while you will be relying on your community (i.e., team) to help raise your baby you are relinquishing control and trusting them. However, at the same time, the parent has the final say over their development. Luckily for all of you, this can be more easily done in a smaller company rather than a larger one that would have a lot of red tape to cut through.
You already know I love autonomy and am a huge advocate of entrepreneurs giving their team the autonomy to finish and prioritize their tasks on their own time, especially if you are hiring mostly 1099 contractors. But how can you give your team autonomy if you don’t believe that the people you are hiring into your team are A-players capable of doing what they were hired to do? You cant!
If you do need assistance hiring the right people and leading your team further than the VIP Day, you should check out The Leader’s Circle Mastermind reopening in June 2022. Join the waitlist today!
