A bit of focus on the personal

It’s one thing to have a great idea – like

It took some very great people to give me a talking to for me to see that I was smothering not just the baby I had created – RedBalloon – but that my family was very much missing out. So I began to imagine taking control of my future. To create a business regime that I wanted rather than be a slave to it.

I recently heard Joe John Duran speak on “Designing your Personal Life”. He shared for 90% of the two hour session about how to get above your business. That is, working on your business not in your business – so that you actually have some personal time to design.

Given he is such a successful serial entrepreneur it is always interesting to listen first hand on how he achieved success and a balanced life. It is one thing to know to step back, it is another thing to achieve it.

Ten of Joe’s findings:
1. You can control where to spend your time – but you’ve got to work to extricate yourself from the daily minutia of the business to ensure you are in the drivers seat – not that the business drives you.
2. Process sets you free, it delivers consistency and we cannot underestimate the importance of reliability. Customers crave consistency of service.
3. If you have to tell people how to do something you have got the wrong people. Tell them what is wanted and let them figure it out for themselves. Decision makers are more expensive but you cannot grow without them.
4. Picture a bottle – quite often the CEO or leader becomes the bottle neck. It is only the CEO that can unplug the bottle – and get out of everyone’s way so they can get on with it.
5. New people coming into a business keep it fresh and innovative. New people bring ideas and will challenge the status quo. You cannot survive with generalists – as you grow you will need to find specialists – who are best in class at that discipline.
6. A business is much more than the founder or CEO. It is really important that a CEO does not see themselves and the business as one in the same thing.
7. The best ideas come from those that listen the hardest… and have time to be creative. It is important to create an environment of listening. Joe says in his experience women are the best listeners.
8. There is a price you pay for being constantly in motion. Spend most of your time on what you are best in the world at.
9. There is no such thing as time management – we were all given 24 hours. It is the leverage you get from those hours that make the difference.
10. Nobody in any business should be indispensable. If they weren’t there the business would keep bubbling along… maybe with a bit of a hiccup. Our job is to make ourselves dispensable.

It is now two and a half years since my colleagues took me aside, resulting in me appointing a general manager. It is all about right people for right roles. I now get to play to my strengths as does she (and the rest of the people in the organisation).

I can go off and work with customers, attend a conference or two each year elsewhere on the planet, do my speaking and the other adventures I have been able to do this year. All because RedBalloon has a great team of people who don’t need me to get in the way…I share my vision, keep us aligned to the values… and keep us focussed on execution. Then I get out of their way.

Though I do think they miss me when I’m gone… Well, Dexter the Dog, head of security definitely does.