What's New / Blog: Latest Blog Posts

In last Sunday's NY Times, Adam Bryant did an interesting interview of Barbara Krumsiek, the CEO of the Calvert Group, a socially responsible investment firm. She was asked about her experiences when she first became CEO and I thought her answers could be utilized by a business owner at any stage of a business' growth.

 

 

She said she was given advice by an executive coach to ask each executive to, "Tell me about your job, but now tell me what you think you do here that is not in that job description that you think is really critical." And then she also asked people to tell her "one thing that's going on at Calvert you think I don't know that you think I should know." Both questions would elicit a fascinating perspective on where the company is heading and where it needs to be heading so she could steer the ship accordingly.

She also said she doesn't like the metaphor of career ladder but prefers the analogy of a group of people on an obstacle course because that more accurately reflects her win-win value system in the workplace. My success doesn't impede your success. I like that. That is how we operate at Imagine Group, and I think in the workplace of many of our small business clients.

The other thing I found really fascinating was how she describes her role in the company. She says "I'm the kind of person who delegates everything. On a day-to-day basis, I feel I get paid to make a couple of judgments. I get paid to identify what is really working right now for Calvert. I want to stay on top of the two or three things that are, at this moment the most important things driving our good results right now. On the other hand, I get paid to identify the two or three things that are really broken and stay on top of those. So if you're on either end of that spectrum, you're going to see a lot of me."

In a small business, the delegation part is not usually the norm, but there is still great value in stepping back and trying to assess what your businesses core strengths are and what are the few broken things that need attention. Getting that perspective can help guide every day decisions and lead to increasing success.

Thanks for the advice, Barbara!