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Glenn Mattson
The content of this recording is copyrighted by Sandler Systems LLC. All rights reserved.
Glenn Mattson
Well, welcome back everybody to the Building Blocks of Success. In the last episode, we discussed transitioning from a rainmaker and letting go of the things that got you to be a rainmaker to now becoming a CEO. We took a look at highlighting the challenges, and the mindsets that need to be shifted and are required for evolution to have your business start to run successfully without you in a different format.
Glenn Mattson
So today we're going to delve deeper into the CEO stage, and that's stage four. Less than 10% of the people I have ever met are in this phase by design, especially the founders. What it means is truly embodying a true leadership mindset and how to effectively manage your team, manage your leaders, and set the crucial distinction between management and leadership.
Glenn Mattson
So as you step into the CEO role, you're gonna find that your approach to decision-making, team dynamics, strategic thinking, and communication is even more vital. So let's explore what it means to be a leader in your organization and how to foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and growth. We talked about this in the past, but you know the key shift that has to happen in the CEO phase is the mindset is shifting from I to we. As a rainmaker, you may have thrived at being a go-to person and the one who had to do all the answers, right? The epicenter, the one who saves the day. As a CEO, your effectiveness will depend on your ability to inspire and empower your team to do those things without you. The shift isn't about semantics, it's about fundamentally rethinking how you view your role.
Glenn Mattson
A CEO understands that their success is tied up to the success of their team. It's essential to foster an environment where everyone feels valued and included in the decision-making. If someone comes to you with a problem instead of answering it, you have to ask simple questions. How long have you known about the problem? What have you done so far? If I wasn't here, what would you have done? And if need be, you can mentor people through the art of assumptive questions. Well, when you thought about this, what were you thinking about? When you looked at it from this point of view, what were some of the things that you were taking a look at or found as stumbling blocks? What you're doing is shaping how they're gonna make decisions without telling them how to make the decision.
Glenn Mattson
Look, when you go to an orchestra, the conductor doesn't play every instrument. They're not running around banging the drums and then picking up the hobo and then playing the violin. They ensure that each musician performs their part flawlessly while working together in a cohesive unit, which just is beautiful music. So as a CEO, you should focus on enabling your team to shine in their roles versus you trying to be the number one shining star. To cultivate this mentality, you've got to regularly hold team meetings where you encourage open dialogue. More times than not, you shouldn't even be running these meetings. You should be sitting back and listening in.
Glenn Mattson
You're gonna notice if you're doing a good job as a CEO because if their faces turn to you for the answers, you're not being successful yet. These meetings that you're running are strategy. The meetings that you're running are with just your team leaders. You're dealing with challenges and opportunities. But by involving your team and the discussions, you've reinforced the ideas, the contributions, and the decision-making filters that you're trying to ensure that they have. I love this one-liner I teach it to all my rainmakers. It's part of something they have to put up in their office, so I'm gonna give it to you if it's maybe helpful for you. You have to turn yourself into a sounding board, not an answer provider. A sounding board, not an answer provider.
Glenn Mattson
Before, you were the go-to person having a script in your head that you have to be the answer provider, you're the one who had to give all the answers, and you knew everything. Now you have to be a sounding board. I'm telling you, go put it down on a three-by-five card, go put it on a piece of paper, and for the love of Pete, just put a frame around it and put it up there. The question is, were you a sounding board or were you an answer provider? It helps you start to change your mindset on how you're dealing with problems and how you're dealing with your team figuring it out. The sounding board is significantly different than an answer provider.
Glenn Mattson
The second piece that I find that an awful lot of entrepreneurs struggle with is the difference between managing and leading. While managing involves overseeing tasks and ensuring deadlines are met, solving problems as they arise, and dealing with leading and lagging indicators, leading is about inspiring, it's about guiding, it's about communicating, and it's about developing long-term results. CEOs do very little, management, very little, but they're unbelievable leaders. Managers are those that drive execution and fulfill tasks. Leadership describes what they're going to become and gets everyone excited about where they're going. Leaders don't get stuck in the minutiae of day-to-day problems. They inspire people to see past those roadblocks, see past those obstacles on where they're going. Managers will often tell you how to get from A to B, but again, leaders are more on strategy and managers are on tactics.
Glenn Mattson
So you just have to make sure that you understand the difference. As a CEO, your role's gonna shift from being a problem solver to being a visionary, you should focus on big-picture thinking, strategic goals, and creating a culture of innovation. One of the things that I have found is that when I was talking with someone as we were walking up Mount Washington, this individual led five different companies, and five different organizations, and started three of them. His ability to take very complex problems and break them down into very simple communication styles was exceedingly impressive. He wasn't stuck in the minutiae, in the weeds. He could translate difficult concepts to everybody so they could understand them in their world, not in his world. He has a master's in economics. Half the people wouldn't understand a word he said if he wanted to speak his language. But having the ability to transfer that information and communicate it in a manner that was inspiring and gave people direction is exactly what a leader does, and that's one of the reasons he's phenomenal.
Glenn Mattson
So, taking a look at some of the things that we have to make sure that we're doing is one simple thing and I always ask my leaders when they have to embark on a conversation with their team and or with staff. I ask three simple questions. What do you want them to feel when you're done? What do you want them to do when you're done? What do you want them to think when you're done? Stay big picture. Stay in the clouds. Don't get in the weeds. Think about that for yourself next time you sit down and have a conversation with your leaders. When you're done, what do you want your leaders to feel? What do you want your leaders to do and what do you want your leaders to think? It changes how you do things, it changes some of the things that you may be thinking about that need to be communicated.
Glenn Mattson
The third piece I wanna share with you is developing your team. Before you were developing staff, before you were developing mid-level managers, now you're developing your managers into leaders. Things like vision, being a better coach, how to inspire people. How about accountability? 87% of managers choose not to hold their people accountable. It's sickening. Do you think your people don't wanna be good? Do you think your people like feeling uncomfortable and don't have confidence and courage? Great leadership is making sure that your managers are fulfilling their tasks and helping the people become the best version of themselves. So, accountability, responsibility, ownership.
Glenn Mattson
How about getting rid of excuses? It’s one of the biggest vampires that we have inside of firms. It sucks 40% of the effectiveness out as a leader. I always say that the team can only be as strong as the shadow of its leader. If the leader has a big shadow, it's one strong team. If the leader has a very small shadow, that's how big the team is. You have to realize a team will watch what you do with two eyes, but listen to what you say with one ear. So, we have to have the ability to empower people to be self-sufficient, to think differently, and to own their word. Please write that down. So developing your team, one of the best things I can share with you is making sure that they have the ability. So, to be an effective CEO, it's crucial to invest in your team's development. This will create more than just training that they're gonna need. It's a way of creating a culture of continuous learning, of continuous curiosity, that no matter where you are, you can always become better.
Glenn Mattson
As you make this transition, consider implementing mentorship programs with your seniors, helping them become the next leader. This not only helps them develop their skills but also strengthens the team's cohesiveness. Why wouldn't you take someone who struggled and now is knocking the cover off the ball as a salesperson to work with some of your junior individuals? Not necessarily just in the tactics, but on the head trash and the fears that they had and the hard work that they had to put into it to become successful, 'cause it's not easy.
Glenn Mattson
Have your team set personal goals and understand how to reach those personal goals within the company objectives, because one of the biggest gaps between execution and goals is that people don't buy into or understand how the company's goals are gonna impact them personally. There is some big stuff we're talking about here, and another one I wanna share with you for the CEO level is embracing accountability.
Glenn Mattson
Accountability is a successful mindset, and there's no way that you could have a successful rainmaking practice if you didn't have a successful mindset. This means ownership, responsibility, and accountability are the same thing. When you look at something beforehand, that's responsibility. If something goes sideways, that's ownership. If it's afterward, that's accountability. You have to have the ability to eliminate excuses. You have to own your shadow. Remember I said that, the team is only as strong as the shadow of its leader. So it never waivers by making sure that your team knows, that if they say X, it's going to get done. So I can't stress enough that having someone own their word is insanely powerful. Insanely powerful. So something as easy as if you are an individual who pushes the snooze button every morning, you have to stop it, right? You're supposed to get up at a certain time. That's the first whim junction of the day.
Glenn Mattson
As a CEO, having the ability to foster a culture of accountability is essential. This means establishing clear expectations and holding everyone, including yourself, responsible for results. Everyone makes decisions. They have to own the decision, they have to own the result of the decision, and they have to own the impact of that decision. That's accountability. Accountability starts at the top. Model your behavior on what you want the team to do and how you want them to act. Own up to your mistakes. Own up to setbacks. When it's you, make it you, and own it when it's you. Make sure that you incorporate regular check-ins and performance reviews so that you can help people become the best versions of themselves.
Glenn Mattson
The last piece I wanna share with you is probably the most difficult for many, and that's creating a vision that's easy to understand for the future. One of the key responsibilities for the CEO piece and the CEO seat is creating and communicating a compelling vision of where their business is going. That everyone from the people who are meeting those who walk in the door to those that have the corner offices, this vision should inspire, and unite your team towards a common goal. You have to take time to articulate the long-term vision to ensure that it's not just a statement on a wall or a piece of paper where you sit there and say, ya ya, ya. It's constantly referred back to as the vision, where we're going, and the ability to communicate that effectively, to hit the hearts of everybody is very important as a CEO.
Glenn Mattson
So having them understand how their world fits into the bigger picture is one of the greatest skills that I've found. I can't tell you how many meanings I've been involved in where upper leadership is going to the left, they're going to the right, and they're going into rabbit holes, and the CEO stands up, listens to everything they say, eloquently moves past it, and gets everyone inspired again on what we're focused on. You have to get your head out of your backside and focus on the big picture and don't get stuck in the minutiae.
Glenn Mattson
So as we conclude today's episode, let's recap the essentials of the CEO mindset. Transforming from a rainmaker to a CEO involves embracing the we mentality. Differentiating between leading and managing, investing in your team's development, fostering accountability, and creating a compelling vision for the future. The mindset is, remember, the team could only be as strong as the shadow of its leader. This transformation is not just a change in role, it's a profound shift in how you think about yourself and leadership. Remember, your success as a CEO depends on the success of your team. By empowering them and cultivating a group collaboratively, not only will you elevate your organization, but along with your position for long-term success and balance.
Glenn Mattson
Thanks for joining me today. In our next episode, we're gonna explore the scaling of your business as a CEO and how to navigate the challenges and growth. Until then, this has been the Building Blocks of Success.
Glenn Mattson
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