As you build a business, whether you seek to simply employ yourself and support your family or you plan to grow a community of leaders and co-workers in pursuit of a common goal, you need to be very purposeful about your vision, values and mission. In the day-to-day busyness and the unavoidable stresses of entrepreneurship, there are a million temptations to do it an easier way, do it a faster way, cut corners or take a few liberties to make your path smoother. I’m all for learning from others so you don’t reinvent the wheel, but at the same time you must consider that business in the past century has been about maximizing profits and shareholder value, at great expense to the communities and ecosystems that support our very existence. When it comes down to the crunch time, you must have the courage to say “I will do it the hard way because it is the right way” and hopefully, you must have assembled the support team around yourself who will back you up. That means that from day one, you need to be clear with the people around you – employees, suppliers, financers, customers – what you feel is “the right way” and do not compromise.
Yes, I know very well how much more comfortable it is to take the easy way. I’ve been there: three years ago I realized I was no longer giving true 100% value to my clients but was scared to turn away from the contract that put a roof over my head, especially as a self-employed person with a baby on the way. When I began my maternity “leave” I told my biggest client that I wasn’t coming back as the same person in the same role I’d been in the past. I essentially let go of “the vine” without having the next one in my hand. It was terrifying but it also felt right. Rebuilding my business on my own terms after my son’s birth, giving value to each client in each minute and hour I serve them, is so much harder than I had it before, but I feel ten times more alive now.
Being a leader of a values-based business is not about one big decision, though. It’s not about writing some mighty vision statement that sits on high and directs the actions of all those associated with the business. Values-based leadership is about the small decisions you make every day, balancing the often competing priorities of community, ecosystem and profits.
I’m hoping that during my Business Break-Away session on October 2, we’ll have a chance to explore more of the practices of strategic planning for values-based businesses and get a good dialogue going in support of each other.
Tags: Business Break-Away, leadership, values
