Joeri Carty

While these questions may seem overwhelming to you as a CEO, there are key strategies you can implement to create certainty, and a workable plan around all of these areas.

In my experience helping businesses scale and innovate, there are four key ingredients to help you get there the fastest.  This insight comes from helping hundreds of leaders understand and improve their cost profiles, innovate new products, and implementing these strategies.

What do I mean by key ingredients? I am glad you asked, there are 4 subcomponents that define this: Purpose, Vision, Results, Accelerators

Purpose

Being clear on purpose as a CEO is key.  I have found in my work with leaders that often times this is missing or not clear.  In order to be crystal clear on purpose you have to get three pieces right, Why – Who – How.  I refer to this as the WWH principle.  As a leader you must articulate for you as well as your business the “Why” behind your desire to succeed in this space.  Why is important for obvious reasons, without a clarity in this space it is hard to communicate to your teams.

Teams need clarity and a purpose to continue to challenge themselves to get better.  Why helps when times are difficult to keep your teams motivated.  There are plenty of great resources available to help you hone-in on a clear Why.

The “Who” in your purpose is also important.  Who are you ultimately driving for? Are you trying to change the world with your product? Great! Who is your target customer?  Create a narrative around this, and use this narrative when you are addressing your teams and larger employee groups.

This is most effective when you can create a persona and a picture of who you are ultimately wanting to impact in a positive way.  Excellent examples include a person who needs your product to improve their life in some way, or a person who exemplifies your target customer.  For extra credit, having videos of these customers explaining why your product is important really makes a difference.

Lastly, “How” is often overlooked when thinking about purpose.  You need to define as a leader how you plan on achieving your goals.  The most successful teams I have worked with identify 1-3 core values which all address the “How” you expect the organization to achieve success.  If the how is not clear, people will cut corners and undermine what you are trying to accomplish. You can have the best intentions, the best target client, but how you achieved your goal completely erases all the goodness you have tried to get.

Strong how values include areas where you do not waiver when things get tough.  It becomes the way you hold everyone accountable, including yourself.  It is the higher standard that everyone is expected to abide by.

In summary, if you have clear purpose you are ahead of the pack because your teams have clarity in Why we are here, Who we impact, and How we are expected to achieve our goals.

Vision

Clear vision is a must for accelerated success.  You have to be able to 1) define the end goal 2) determine the path and 3) communicate the speed.  The best visions have all three elements identified clearly.  Effective CEOs use this in all of their communications with both their teams, customers, and stakeholders.

Define the end Goal

Said simply: where are you trying to go?  Your vision should clearly define that the end of the journey looks like.  Notice I used “journey”, it is a process that continues to challenge us to get better.  It helps people understand your vision and by when they need to get there.  If you get in your car and you just start driving, when will you know you have reached your destination?  Maybe you wanted to get to San Francisco, but you arrived in New York? You need to have clarity on what the end goal is for your organization.

Determine the Path

The path of how to get to your goal is extremely important.  Clarity on the path will help your team identify clear milestones and drive actions to achieve the goals they need to complete.  If people are unsure about the path, they may waste valuable time spinning their wheels or moving in the opposite direction of progress toward your end goal.

Communicate the Speed

In my experience when speed is missing, groups run the risk of becoming obsolete.  The CEO sets the goal, the path, but when they don’t define speed they are in real trouble.  Another way to communicate Speed is to identify the sense of urgency.  This is the achieve this goal, following this path, by when?  You need to be able to communicate if this is a 3-month goal, or a 5 year goal.  In the highly competitive times we live in right now, you have to move quickly to stay ahead of your competition.

Results

Driving results in any organization is a must in order to achieve your goals.  Driving effective results as a CEO or senior leader has to have 3 important components: Accountability, Change Management, Measurable progress.  You need all three to see significant progress.

Accountability

You have to build simple and repeatable accountability structures to measure results and progress.  I have seen many great strategies and ideas fail because they became less important over time, and no one asked for updates…  The simple way to drive this accountability is make it visible, and hold short but impactful meetings to discuss progress with you lead teams.

Change Management

Build the right level of communication and change in your organization to bring the rest of the team along the journey.  You can build great momentum and people will get onboard and accelerate your results.

Measurable Progress

Whatever you end up taking on, make sure you can measure progress.  If it can’t be measured, it will not be done.  Find creative ways to challenge, but also measure your progress and have people report out every time period.

Accelerators

Accelerators are internal and/or external forces that drive you to drastically move the needle.  Internal examples are: create an execution team, create an innovation space, teach new acceleration tools.  Some external examples are: executive coaches, leadership coaches, external consultants.