CEO IDENTITY SHIFT: From Builder to Scaler

Being a CEO is a big job. It’s even more challenging in some ways for technical experts in that role because they not only have to take on the new responsibilities, they have to shift their perspective and their identity. One of those identity shifts is from builder to scaler.

Repeatable Systems
As that technical expert. It’s so easy to think about the problem in front of you and just get it done. Just solve that problem as the CEO. You need to step above that and focus on your business as an engine. How can you make it repeatable? How can you add processes and systems so that everything doesn’t have to be touched every time? The more predictable or manageable systems you can put in place that can deal with the different variations that hap come along, the better your team will be able to scale what they do and the better your company will be able to, you know, add funds and people and, and grow your business without limit.

Culture as Infrastructure
Culture is often thought of as an HR kind of a function thing that you have to do. I see it as a huge competitive advantage for scaling businesses that do it, uh, in a certain way. Think of your culture as your company’s infrastructure. By that I mean, if you instill in your team a very clear, shared understanding of why you’re here and how we do things and what we value and what we focus on, if everybody is on the same page for that, that scales day to day activity because people can know what to do much more clearly and much more aligned if they have that shared understanding. And it doesn’t require a meeting, it doesn’t require you to tell them a 14th time that we think of things this way or that way. So that culture can become that instruction manual inside everybody’s heart and mind.

Get Out of the Way
And then finally, as the scaler, you need to get out of the way. You’re used to being the one that pushes things forward. And the temptation is to stay involved in things where the reality is other people now know better what’s happening on the ground. They now know better how the product works in detail. And if they don’t, you, that’s another reason to get outta the way. ’cause you need other people to have the excellence and the leadership of different parts of the company. And you’re the one that’s focused first and foremost on where you’re going and reminding the team of where and why. So step back, get out of the way uncomfortable, but really, really valuable for scaling your business.

B2B Clarity
As a scaler. You have the ability to make your company so much more than you can make as, as an individual contributor. So you need to make sure your mind is in the right place to help your business get there.