ResultsLab: Be Excellent (with Balance)

Dear Reader,

I’m back! You may not have noticed, but I was fortunate to be able to take a month off to address and recoup from family health issues. Prior to taking a break, I was drained and unfocused – not guiding our team in ways I find important. I determined I needed to model our organizational value to Be Excellent (with Balance) and when I put the idea forward to our team, they were very supportive. That’s because I have an amazing team who understand how this value can be lived (taking time for self-care and wellness), and how it impacts us as individuals and as a group. While the time for reflection was not as abundant as I had hoped, the time to address issues and step back has allowed me to return with renewed focus and clarity. I’m also excited to share we have another team member taking a month to hike the Colorado Trail, an adventure that has been on her list for some time.

While away, many asked how I was able to take off the time as the CEO of a company. The answer is because our team practices operational strategies that allow the business to sustain bumps and much-needed breaks. Our core practices follow the model we teach our clients:

Maintain a clear organizational strategy (Design) – We articulate who we serve, what are we trying to accomplish and how are we going to do that, and we revisit that on a quarterly and annual basis.
Align goals and metrics to drive activity (Measure) – Here we identify key metrics we use to stay on track with the goals we've set as part of our organizational strategy. When I returned from this break, the team was quickly able to share where we were on new partnerships, workload, finance, quality of engagements with our clients, and all the progress that had been made.
Embrace systems and processes that allow us to act upon our data (Act) – Using the identified key metrics, we are able to make data-informed decisions to guide continuous improvement. While I was away, the team was able to identify opportunities and put steps in place to improve some of our processes (e.g. around forecasting staffing needs).

As leaders, in whatever role we are in, we are responsible for ensuring our operations are set up for success – even while we are away. We’d love to help you think through how to put these practices in place for your own organization.

If you’d like to learn more, we offer a 30 min consult available at no cost.

Finally, as we approach Fall, I hope you can find time to step away and make time to focus on wellness. “Self-compassion is an easy list to write, and a hard list to live.” – Dare to Lead, Brene Brown

Let's connect,