366: Discussing the Keys to Growth in Any Organization – with Stuart Leo

Meet Stuart

Stuart is the founder and CEO of Waymaker.io, an intelligent business management platform that helps leaders build a better business in 30 days. Stuart is a thought leader in strategy systems and leadership development. As the founder of waymaker.io, he has led the creation of the way makers’ leadership curve, a relevant, revolutionary way of building clarity, alignments, and remarkable results in any organization. 

So what are the three keys to growth for any organization?

Well, I would say this is very high-level and very simple. But number one, clarity, number two, alignment, and number three focus. The clarity in the fundamentals of what we’re all about alignment in our team, whether it be 1 or 2, or 10, or 20, or 100, or 1000. And focus on the work that really matters, the priorities that matter. And so those three keys; clarity around what business we’re really in, and then the alignment of our team around that and the growth of our team. And the focus, only doing the things that matter. We do an awful lot of things often in business that don’t matter that much and chews up an awful lot of time. And so our ability to focus is one of them the third key to making a difference.

Why is strategy confusing to regular business owners? And how can they be more strategic leaders?

That’s such a good question. It’s a big question. You know, I come from the school of thought that strategy is not a set of actions, but rather a position to hold in the market. And that’s often confronting to a small business owner, if you Google the word strategy, you’re going to get a definition from Google, that says, a set of activities. And in part, it’s kind of mostly right, but it’s also mostly wrong. And I love how I think it’s Professor Michael Porter from Harvard puts it, strategy is not a set of plans that we do. But rather, it’s a position that we create or hold inside a marketplace. And that marketplace could be as big as your local neighborhood, or as big as the world. And I think that’s the first big distinction to make around strategy. Strategy is a position we seek to be or we are in the market, and clarity of that position is fundamental to establishing the activities, or the other improvements we would make around holding that position. And I think most business owners missed that fundamental first step of saying, this is the position we want to hold on to be or our and, therefore, focus on doing lots of things thinking that strategic, whereas, in reality, you only need to do the things that hold your position.

How can a leadership team use the waymaker leadership curve to scale?

Sure, sure. The loser curve and you can jump onto our website when america.io hit the Learn tab, and you’ll find a bunch of resources on there so you can read about it. That gets some get some free resources to help you in your business. The leadership curve works in this simple way. It says, if we want to build market leadership, then we’re going to go through several different stages of growth. Think of our organization like a child, the first stage of growth is ideation. Who, what’s the idea for this business, which is kind of like the moment a child is born? The as, as an organization goes through those stages of growth, it’ll conquer certain skills and set systems. And those, the maturity in the competencies in those skills and systems will allow them to break through those maturity stages, which ultimately increases the value of that organization. So think of a curve from bottom left going to top to right, go to top right, the bottom axis is time. And left-hand axis values, the longer an organization continues to build those skills and systems into maturity, then the higher the value can be created. So long as those skills and systems are generating value toward your end destination. What do I mean by that, if you’re a small business owner, maybe you’re a one or a two-person business owner, your business will have some value, but it will only have the value that it can repeatedly find a customer, close that customer, the value for that customer and create a profit for that customer. And if that relies entirely upon you, then it doesn’t have a lot of value, because nobody could buy that as an asset and continue to grow. But if as a small business owner, you say, Okay, well, at the moment, everything relies on me, but I’m going to put in a couple of systems, that means it’s less reliant on me, then I start to move through the maturity stages, I start to move from, from the early stages of growth into some mid stages of growth, where I’m starting to shift things that I know and things that I do into people around me into systems, which means that it’s no longer about an individual, but rather it’s about a process a system, a team, a value proposition. And, and that’s how we grow to value in organizations, most small business owners do amazing work, but often forget to build a business, not a practice, they forget that they’re running something they own, it’s an asset. And if they treat it like an asset, then they would start to think differently about the business. And, as long as you get clarity in that some people are very comfortable saying no, this is my business, and it’s my job. I like working for myself. I’m only interested, in this being a job. And that’s okay, that’s so long as that’s your strategy. That’s where you want to end up. But many want to turn their business into an asset, they want to sell it or sell part of it or, or have it return an income for them while they’re not there. And so, excuse me, the leadership curve is, is a pathway away. To make that reality I happen to make that reality happen. And it simply works as you move through those stages of growth. There are certain skills and certain systems in certain parts of the organization that you need to conquer. And that if you don’t conquer, that will pull you back to those early stages. And so the leadership curve identifies those. And when you run your business through the leadership curve diagnostic, you see your maturity states in those different schools and systems. And the big idea, it’s really simple is on the maturity curve. As you see maturity, it’ll have some little traffic lights next to the different skills and systems. You want to see green over those early skills and systems on the curve and you want to see that green going further up the curve. And that’s demonstrating identifying where you are or not. And so what we help people see is that gosh, if I can improve these skills or these systems inside my business, then I can start to move this business forward. And contextually we focus on best principles and best practices. You need to relate that to your business and where you’re going, but we surface the gaps and let you see where those gaps are. And then you can set your strategic priorities around those. And so quite literally, it shows the pathway to market leadership, what you need to do and achieve to win. I hope that kind of makes sense Lori.

Can you share your most successful or favorite networking experience that you’ve had?

Sure, I think most people unless you’re that super extroverted person, somewhat quite fearful of networking. I know I was early on in my career, it was like, gosh, walking into a room or may not know people, you know, what do I do? What do I say? And I think one of the helpful things is to make networking not about yourself, but about the other person. And I think when I had that aha moment, it became a lot easier because you shift the focus on Gosh, what do I need to say to be? What questions can I ask? And, so the most successful experience in networking I’ve had is choosing to forget about yourself, focus on the other person, and ask questions about them and being interested in their work and the value that I create for their customers. And by default, that will come back to you that will return serve. And, when you connect with somebody because they felt listened to and understood, you’ll have a much stronger connection and relationship to establish your value proposition and what you do and tell that person about your services. And so the most successful experience I’ve had with networking is forgetting about myself, and being interested in other people.

So how do you stay in front of and nurture these relationships you’ve created?

What’s different? I guess we’re in a digital business. But the principles are the same. If I throw my mind back to a previous life, where I was in a small business and working in a small business, or local community, the same principles, and that is pick up the phone that whether that be a team call, zoom, call mobile phone and messenger chat, or LinkedIn chat, pick up the phone, and regularly reach out to people and talk to them. It doesn’t have to be business-related or sales related, it can just simply be, Hey, how are you going? And, that relationship management, or that relationship-building process really, is simply about letting the other person know, hey, I’m here for you if and when you need it. And I think a lot of small businesses, even if they have a team around them, they’re still in, often incredibly alone. And small business owners do it incredibly tough. They don’t have boards around them or mentors around them. And so your network becomes people that you can sit down with and have a coffee or wine or, or a chat and ask questions that you can’t ask your team. And that’s important. So I think that that capacity to build relationships regularly goes okay, there are 10,15,20 people that I’m going to regularly pick up the phone and talk to that’s a discipline to build into your weekly habits.

If you could go back to your 20-year-old self, Bruce, what would you tell yourself to do more or less of or differently concerning your professional career?

Save more, invest more risk, and set higher and more aggressive goals, because the world is so safe around you that you can afford to. You can afford to achieve way much more.

What advice would you offer that business professional who’s looking to grow their network?

I’m sure tons of growing your network. Get out there and do it. It’s so important. And from a winemaker’s perspective, feel free to jump on trial our products, reach out and talk to us. We’d love to support you and help you. It’s very simple. Once you get through and learn some simple strategic steps to make your business better. So that promise is true. If you take the diagnostic and put in place the actions recommended, you will start building a better business in less than 30 days.

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