Wyse thoughts for September

A new season, a new purpose, a new you!
Watching the sky darken and the rain patter outside, it's clear that summer is on its way out and that autumn will soon be on its way. Like many business owners I’ve been using the past few months to formulate new growth strategies and prepare for the new season ahead. One of the first things you need to think about, as I’ve discovered, is the famous concept framed by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great: ‘First who, then what – get the right people on the bus’. This begins with you and knowing yourself and then to know who you need in your team and then you can all move in the right direction together, even if, occasionally, that direction needs to change.

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ – and although this doesn’t always seem helpful at the time – preparation for what is to come (and the direction you may need to go in) is nonetheless always key. Growth of any company should be as a series of waves (read my previous blog about preparing for the ‘great wave’ here) and entrepreneurs need to learn to use these waves to move both themselves and their companies forward.

Each wave will bring with it new challenges, not least the dilemma faced by all business founders, who having turned their original passion into a purpose they share with others, must learn to let go a little and balance their role between developing their idea into a resistant model while remaining its creator. This is where we can all learn from the corporate world; moving into a new growth era with your company should be a little like moving into a new job – as your company grows, so you move up the entrepreneurial career ladder.

I am trying to live by my own advice, particularly as I’m preparing to ‘onboard’ myself into a new growth era as I lead Wyseminds into the launch of ‘Your Journey online’ and the company’s biggest investment to date. I have been asking myself ‘what do I want to be?, what do I have and what do I do?’. I need to think about myself as a leader but I also need to find the balance between being the creator of Wyseminds as well as creating a sustainable model going forward. Here are just some of the questions I’ve been pondering over the summer:

Where will I add the most value and where can I position myself to do what I need to do?
What's the best way of working to protect the core of what I have built and also give me the confidence to let go?
What words best describe me over the next four months?
What network do I need to succeed, what do I already have and where are the gaps?
What stakeholders do I need to grow for the future and what values do they need to have?

Finding the answers to those questions means that I am now ready to launch the project – to coin that old English adage – I am practising what I preach.

Evolving your role every season or for every major project will ensure that there is alignment between yourself and your growing business. By evolving in this way, you will always find the best way of working for you, as well as others, after all, as author and academic Noam Wasserman wrote in his book (and for the Harvard Business Review), The Founder's Dilemma, ‘four out of five entrepreneurs are forced to step down from the CEO’s post’. While you may not wish to grow your business to a state where others would be in a position to demand this, it may be that your business ends up demanding you to step down as it runs out of the support it needs.

As we like to remind our entrepreneurs, every new “season” you should seek to make yourself “redundant” from your current role by asking yourself these key questions. Growth is a series of waves for your business and for you, so don’t get left behind, either flailing in the shallows or drowning in the deep water.

As part of the Wyseminds support programme we support all of our entrepreneurs to reposition themselves into their new role to lead their next growth era. Working with Loviisa for the past 6 months we asked Loviisa, Founder of NAPP how she is onboarding herself into a new growth era as she takes the investment step, with big plans to support expat families across the Netherlands.

Where will you add the most value and where will you position yourself to bring the greatest impact to your 3 year vision?

I know more than ever where I am strongest and that’s when I am selling my business and what my services can bring people and companies. What we stand for is so clear to me now, our values are defined and I can clearly explain to my customer the difference NAPP can make to relocating families. I can clearly tell my story making the benefits seem authentic, which enables my message to bring a feeling of trust, one of our key values at NAPP. My new role is leading the message and being in the position to be seen as a stable founder, leading the vision through, what will be, a new team.

So what will you not do and what's the best way of working to protect the core of what you have built and not being pulled back to the old pattern of doing things?

I have total confidence in creating a team and ecosystem of people that can both support the past and the future. My organisational values are strong and I know the people I am looking for. I started my business because I love people, I see my team as actors and actresses on a stage and I am excited to inspire and direct the play. I have translated my vision into key strategies and where the gaps are for key resources that I need. Having clear values will enable the team to understand the journey I want to take. I don't want to babysit anyone and I won't have to, I can give them roles rather than tasks which will inspire them to really be a part of a journey rather than just a job. I am excited that I can answer in a more strategic way “who is the team”, letting go is all about trust and knowing what you need begins with trust in yourself.

What are you missing in stakeholders and your network? Building your network is key to the success of onboarding into any new role, how do you view this?

You are so right, my current ecosystem is full of great entrepreneurial people, the energy and support I have achieved from this network has got me here. Now I need to consider how I add to that to bring more depth to who I am surrounded by. I need to be able to place myself into positions of opportunity and to learn from others who have already achieved “establishing ground” with their businesses. Stakeholders and my network is a strategy in itself to ensure I am supported with the right advice with role models.

What are the key 4 words that define how you will be for your company in the next 6 months?

Energetic, for sure and trusted. I want to be clear and focused on the direction I am taking so others feel trust towards me and what NAPP can deliver. Influential in what I am doing so others are believing and can see impact early. Over the next 6 months I want to be inspirational to others. Using my vision and story I hope it's inspirational to everybody involved now and the future team, customers and partnerships.

Most importantly of all, I am so excited to get going. Just talking to people both potential team members and potential key partnerships is a part of why I started this entrepreneurial journey in the first place.

“The project economy has arrived” (Harvard Business Review Dec 21) I bookmarked the article as one to remember as it discusses “projects displacing operations as the economic engine of our times'' and although the article concedes that operations (the way we run organisations) have brought good things, such as efficiency and productivity, it points out that if we wish to move on from a flat line of growth, then – in the Western world – the real driver lies in company projects and it is these projects that should be seen as the engine room of a business fuelling short-term performance and long-term value creation. Each project can – and should – change organisations and therefore create greater opportunities of growth.

The global economy aside, this dynamic project theory can easily be applied to small and medium-sized entrepreneurial businesses, which are – let’s face it – some of the best generators of change out there. Take your longer term vision and break it down into a series of defined growth projects, with each one addressing a specific problem, or defining a specific purpose – with the goal always in mind of what will bring you the greatest growth.

As ever, setting the scene is an important part of this: if you wish to use a project strategy for growth you must ensure it feels big and people are a part of the change that creates new value or you run the risk of only looking at projects as a way of improving operations. Be clear on your purpose and the benefit it brings and launch it in a way that it feels like you are going to make the biggest difference – believe and it will happen!