I kicked off the week listening to Episode 108 of the 10X Talk podcast, which was all about what it takes to create a self-managing company. Sounds very aspirational doesn’t it? [If you haven’t heard the 10X Talk podcast with Joe Polish and Dan Sullivan then I highly recommend you seek it out.] How does one create a self managing company? It starts with having a 10X bigger future vision and a desire to consolidate and automate what you are already doing. More on that in a moment.
The fourth week of the month rolls around quickly and this Tuesday Chris and I sat down with Aniko for another brilliant 1-2-1 mentor session. I admit that I find long term visioning pretty challenging (even my Wealth Dynamic Profile concluded I’m NOT at my strongest starting from a blank piece of paper). However Aniko is helping guide Chris and I to draw out of ourselves a vision for the next 10 years. Once this is done we can cascade down our ‘KIK’ that supports our ‘VV’ (in Progressive/Rob speak this refers to our Vision, Values, Key result areas, Income generating task and KPI’s).
This is proving such a crucial exercise and over the coming weeks solid time will be invested to paint our 10X vision and get clear on the ‘KIK’ that supports it. Whilst this stuff is a challenge and makes your brain hurt, it’s great to pull yourself out from the operational stuff to do this. Even in the short time Chris and I have spent working on visioning this week it’s been incredibly rewarding and exciting to map out our ideas.
Looping back to the 10X Talk podcast and Dan Sullivan’s message, we definitely want to create a self-managing company, starting with our SA business – a major reason why we’ll be looking to hire a new team member in Q4.
I had a real light bulb moment this particular podcast and a positive re-frame that I think could help others too. It’s particularly relevant to anyone working with a team, whether that be directly employed by you or people in your supply chain. The mindshift I took onboard thanks to Dan Sullivan was this:
“It’s impossible for my team to let me down because either I get the result I want or we get a new lesson to teach us what to review and improve for next time”.
How impactful is that?
Tony Robbins has a similar message that, ‘Problems are the gifts we grow from’. Putting this into recent context, we’ve had a pretty operationally hectic couple of weeks on the SA front and slip ups from suppliers have cropped up. This reframe has really helped dissipate my initial frustration and instead view things from a constructive and learning perspective.
As Dan Sullivan puts it, “the essence of a self managing company is being willing to be a continuous learner and having a cooperation mindset.” He wisely says that, “It’s impossible to fail if you’re willing to be a constant learner”.
I’d love to know if this message also resonates and if you have any similar reframes, please share for us all to learn.
Here’s the link to the podcast if you’re keen to listen to the whole talk:
http://10xtalk.com/what-it-takes-to-create-a-self-managing-company-joe-polish-and-dan-sullivan/