6 Steps to Keep Founders in Transition Focused for the Next Chapter
Photo by Vlad Bagacian on Unsplash
Ready to move on to your next big idea? Follow these steps to ensure your personal passion will have the support it needs.
If you’re the founder of a company, what do you do when you find yourself at a crossroads where it’s time to do something else? There are numerous reasons for why a founder would want to transition to a new project, so the reason for it is not as important as how you accomplish the transition.
For example, I worked with one founder who recently hired a CEO to take the helm of the business he founded and ran for 20 years. I helped them set up governance and systems to make the transition run smoothly. This new freedom allows the founder, an individual with great ideas, amazing connections, and strong leadership skills, to move toward one of the numerous opportunities he has ahead of him.
Another founder I know established a successful and thriving business in the healthcare sector. He is a bit older and started thinking about legacy. After a two-day retreat where we sorted through the complexity of numerous ideas, he chose the pathway of starting a nonprofit to accelerate real solutions for the underserved in his state and has found his life re-energized in the process.
While I have worked with many companies that want to scale their passion from a corporate standpoint, I am also working with individuals who want to scale up their passion on a personal level. The strategic mapping process for personal passion building is similar to the corporate model, with differences.
The ABZ model
One of the core principles here is the ABZ model. In my definition of the model, “A” is basically the current situation, the current state of things, like your existing strengths, skills, and resources. “Z” is the big vision of how the founder-in-transition would like to make an impact. And “B” is the appropriate next steps.
Just as we do with corporate retreats, I recommend founders re-evaluate their ABZs at least every six months. This way, we can reflect on whether the “B” activities carried out during the past six months have brought the founder closer to the “Z” vision, and what, if anything, should be adjusted. In some cases, the vision itself changes during the six-month period as the practical “B” steps of realizing it bring new possibilities to light.
Why is this important for change-the-world founders and entrepreneurs? It’s important because not all pathways or transitions ensure impact, so as an impact-minded leader you owe it to yourself to ensure that you are embarking on projects that will tap your zone of genius, attract others to, and energize them around, your cause, and allow you to actually make a difference. Making a difference is what separates people who have good ideas from people who have good ideas and execute on them.
The next time you find yourself thinking of moving in a different direction, ask yourself a series of questions. Here are the ones I ask the founders with whom I work.
Starting with “A.”
1. Know thyself: What are your strengths, especially your zone of genius, and your weaknesses. What kind of resources do you have, human, financial and otherwise? How many of these resources do you want to/can you apply to your business? Is your significant other or family on board with your vision?
2. Solidify your purpose statement: Do you have a rallying cry for yourself that can inspire and energize you and others to follow you? If not, create one. Almost always your personal purpose statement is born from an impactful, personal event in your life. Sometimes it takes some real digging to hit the well-spring of energy that a deep, personal purpose statement can provide. After you create it, post it everywhere: as a screensaver, on a Post-It note. Keep it front and center. Read here for more ideas on how to create a personal playbook.
3. Know thy passion: What area do you want to make a difference? Clearly define the issue that you are passionate about. What is happening in that space right now that suggests there is room for you to make an impact? For example, if you want to create a major impact in the underserved teenage girl community, figure out where that space is not being served and explore, in a deep way, what you can contribute to help solve the core issues. Use data, e.g. what are the top three issues that underserved teenage girls experience? Explore the solutions for each in a deep way. I have recently found ChatGPT to be very good for digging deep on issues and getting to prioritized and quantified data.
Then “Z.”
4. Craft your vision and plot your course: Once you have analyzed the data, craft your vision for what you seek to accomplish, the problem you seek to solve and who will be served by your solution. Don’t forget to also envision what your personal life looks like in the future — it is important to paint a picture of your “exquisite life” that accounts for the impact you want to make and your personal goals.
The more vivid the description of your vision, the better!
Once you have a clear vision, consider your resources and plot a potential course on a three to five year timeline. For example, in the case of the nonprofit founder above, his goal is to move his state from the bottom third of a “USA Today” list tracking his passion to the top third in five years. Now, there’s a motivator for himself and his team!
Last, get real clear on “B.”
5. What’s most important, right now: These steps involve operationalizing your vision and getting very clear on prioritized, next steps by establishing schedules, budgets, hiring or other support. During this phase, you should create a six-month plan that plots the incremental steps leading to the realization of your big “Z” vision in five years. In this phase, you might decide to hire an assistant or right-hand person, spend a small amount on a study to get more data, or to outline a list of experts in the space that you might interview.
Often, when I work with founders who want to do something big with their next chapter, more data is needed initially. Even if the founder has a simple idea for a new product or service, early data on the consumer, competitors, or trends is often overlooked.
6. Execute the plan: Many founders love ideas and shiny new objects, so having an accountability partner can help hold you to your plan. Set up a personal “board of directors,” or hire a thinking partner who is not beholden to you for anything and report to them on a regular basis. Insist on their being candid as well as supportive of your project. This accountability partner is crucial to ensure you stick to your plan and don’t get distracted between planning sessions. It is OK to adjust your course, but I would submit you should only do this at regularly scheduled retreats to make sure you don’t drift too far off track.
Are you thinking about your next chapter? Play with the six steps above and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Sincerely,
Rob Craven, scalepassion
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All credit to my ghostwriting partner, Dave Moore, who is instrumental in getting my thoughts out in a coherent manner & into these blogs. Thanks Dave!