The job of a CEO is pretty complex, but also very simple. What I've realized in the past year and especially the past few months is that I've been trying to do too much, instead of delegating more and focusing on my job. I was working in the business, not on the business. This is something that has been instilled in me by my family, who have done great for themselves, but are the worst at delegating. Unfortunately, in my attempts to avoid their bad behaviors, I've managed to copy one of their worst.
Going out of our way to help in a critical situation is a good quality and I think we all have it, but everyone should mostly focus on their main job and their own growth.
In that sense, I really liked this metaphor from the Good to Great book by Jim Collins. In it he is comparing a business to a bus:
You are a bus driver. The bus, your company, is at a standstill, and it’s your job to get it going. You have to decide where you're going, how you're going to get there, and who's going with you. Most people assume that great bus drivers (read: business leaders) immediately start the journey by announcing to the people on the bus where they're going—by setting a new direction or by articulating a fresh corporate vision. In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. And they stick with that discipline—first the people, then the direction—no matter how dire the circumstances.
Let's kick off our 2021 road trip!
Great companies share very similar values like integrity, excellence, respect, inclusion and collaboration. What makes us special is the fact that we care about:
We are a squad of like-minded individuals forging an atmosphere of creativity, flexibility and collaboration.
Our values are real and we try to live by them on a daily basis. They are the basis of what is and will be rewarded in individual performance. If they align with your own, you will likely thrive in this company wherever we take it.
There is one reason our clients keep choosing to work with us. One reason why we don’t have a single negative review or unhappy customer. One reason why the people that work in the company learn more here than anywhere else they’ve been. And that reason is - we overdeliver. We do more than what’s expected from us in everything that we do.