CEO Group Call - Business Efficiency for CEOs
Maximize business efficiency with strategic time management, delegation, and lean startup principles. Learn how to structure your day, streamline tasks, and foster creativity for business success. Discover key insights on sales, outsourcing, and scaling effectively as a CEO.
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Business Efficiency for CEOs: Key Strategies for Growth and Productivity
Running a business requires a balance of strategy, execution, and adaptability. CEOs must optimize their time, structure operations effectively, and focus on what drives success. Here are the key takeaways from the session “Business Efficiency for CEOs” to help you streamline your workflow and enhance productivity.
1. The Domino Effect in Business
Every decision and action in a business creates a ripple effect. Small, strategic changes can lead to massive improvements in efficiency, profitability, and team performance. Understanding this interconnectedness helps CEOs make better choices and prioritize effectively.
2. Structuring Your Day for Success
Time is a CEO’s most valuable asset. Successful leaders structure their day with clear priorities, focused work blocks, and intentional breaks to maximize output. Using tools like time-blocking and the Eisenhower Matrix ensures that urgent and important tasks receive attention.
3. The Importance of Sales
Sales are the lifeblood of any business. Without consistent revenue, even the best ideas will fail. CEOs should prioritize sales strategy, customer acquisition, and relationship-building to maintain business growth. Investing in strong sales processes leads to long-term stability.
4. Task Management with Bullet Journals
Using bullet journals or similar task management systems can improve organization and accountability. This method helps CEOs keep track of goals, daily tasks, and long-term projects while maintaining flexibility in their schedule.
5. Delegation and Outsourcing
CEOs can’t—and shouldn’t—do everything. Effective delegation and outsourcing free up time for high-impact tasks. Knowing when to delegate internally or hire external experts allows businesses to scale without overwhelming leadership.
6. Fostering Creativity
Efficiency isn’t just about streamlining processes; it’s also about innovation. Encouraging creativity within the team fosters problem-solving and keeps the business competitive. Setting aside time for brainstorming and open discussions can lead to breakthrough ideas.
7. Understanding Delegation
Delegation isn’t just assigning tasks—it’s empowering the right people with the right responsibilities. CEOs should build trust with their teams, provide clear expectations, and ensure accountability to make delegation truly effective.
8. Stages of Business Development
Different growth stages require different leadership approaches. CEOs must recognize whether their business is in the startup, growth, or scaling phase and adjust their strategies accordingly. Each stage has unique challenges, from product-market fit to expansion and automation.
9. Selling Before Building
Validating an idea before investing heavily in it prevents wasted resources. Pre-selling products or services ensures demand before committing to full-scale development, reducing financial risks and increasing market alignment.
10. Lean Startup Methodology
The lean startup approach emphasizes rapid iteration, customer feedback, and minimal waste. CEOs should focus on building a minimum viable product (MVP) and refining it based on real user insights rather than making assumptions.
Business efficiency isn’t just about working harder—it’s about working smarter. By mastering time management, delegation, creativity, and sales, CEOs can drive sustainable growth while maintaining focus on what truly matters.
Looking to enhance your business efficiency? Apply these strategies and start optimizing today!
Highlights:
00:00 Introduction to Business Efficiency
00:31 The Domino Effect in Business
01:57 Structuring Your Day for Success
03:36 The Importance of Sales
08:14 Task Management with Bullet Journals
19:50 Delegation and Outsourcing
26:09 Fostering Creativity
32:03 Understanding Delegation
33:14 Stages of Business Development
35:37 Selling Before Building
39:09 Lean Startup Methodology
41:47 Upcoming Workshops and Collaborations
43:24 Planning the March Meeting
51:10 Logistics and Final Preparations
Transcript:
[00:00:00] So I have not done a PowerPoint today because I want to have a discussion. So topic today is business efficiency for us as individuals. And I have one, two, three, four topics that I want to go deeper into.
So one of the thing that I have seen for myself. I only speak for myself. Um, but might be interesting for two or three of you as well. So that when I'm not focusing and I'm not talking business, when I'm not focusing on the number one priority, which is the domino that is getting all the other dominoes to fall, I'm not succeeding.
And I have had discussions with some of you about similar things. What I get, I give you one example, which is. Always a difficult one when [00:01:00] you start a business. So for me, a business is a business when you have an income. Until you have income, it's an idea. So when you have money coming in, then it's a business.
And when you have more and more money coming in, it's a proper business. So everything until then is only an idea. Yes, you can have maybe a legal entity, which is called business. True business is if you have income. If you have monetary exchange with someone else. So one of the things when we talk about the domino aspect is if you not have income, the number one priority is sales.
So I'm giving always that example. I know it's annoying, but I, I just see this as the critical thing. If you don't have sales, You have no business. So the key part from [00:02:00] if we just zoom into that again, what I do when I structure my day, I structure my day. Number one task is domino toss every freaking morning.
And one of the domino task that is above business for me is health. So I'm going out running before I do sports before, and then I do business because I know when I do sales, which is the first business domino task, then I need to be fresh. And that's why I always do sport in the morning. Additionally, I'm an early bird that's helps, but I do this to be on top.
I give, give you a very funny example. Sabine will love this. When I had a very important sales call, which is. Like two weeks ago, very important one. It was very early in the morning. So that sales call was at [00:03:00] seven in the morning. And I did my gym training before, and I was listening to Tony Roberts.
That's why you will be laughing. And, and one of the things he, he was sharing in, in, in the audio recording that I had is that, that your physical state is impacting how your, your energy is. So I was literally dancing upstairs here. Um, through my home gym to get my energy up and get myself pumped for the sales goal.
It sounds super, super weird if I tell you it like this, but it works. So for every one of you, think about what is the number one priority for you. And that can be of course life, but I'm not a life coach. I'm more thinking about personal branding and business. So. As more you work on the number one priority, the domino that gets everything moving, as [00:04:00] easier it gets, whatever you do.
That's one of, one of the topics that I wanted to have a discussion about today. Now I have four more. Any thoughts?
Can you tell us about what? What's the question now? Sorry? What is the question now? If you have any thoughts about what I just said. Yeah, it's true.
Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts regarding that because, well, I am a type of a life coach and um, that's also the thing that why I've told you to move that shoot to must regarding that stretching and yoga part because I was about your performance. So yes, [00:05:00] that is so true. And, uh, way of getting energy up is also because the state of your.
Body is affecting your mind. So if you're like sitting like this, then you will have a worse Mind than if you get yourself up and have the head held held high and all that So if you're and also if you're feeling bad for some reason You can actually start smiling like you can fake it until you make it.
You just smile in front of the mirror or not in the even in front of a mirror and then you actually get happy feelings even though you don't feel like it when you start to smile. Try if you haven't all of you. I was I was reading about the study the other day that they they did a test where some of the subjects which is people needed to take a pen into the mouth.[00:06:00]
And because you do this, you're automatically using the same muscles that are smiling just just for the
show. Let's take it until you make it. It works in this. Yeah. I agree. Totally.
So a little exercise for any one of you going forward, like what, what are the domino tasks that you need to get doing every day? But as well, that goes, if you, if you look into business, what are the domino tasks of every player in your ecosystem? So if you have an external person that is working for you, what is their, their domino task?
If you have, um, a person that is working inside of your business, what is their domino task? And then you do this as well as a, as a business, as a company, what is the number one thing we all together need to be moving right now? [00:07:00] Because if everyone is aligned with that domino task, then the rest will happen automatically.
I was just talking, um, with someone else today, and we talked about The importance of having the right offer. So if you, if you build a business and you have the right offer, the rest, it's going to be easier if you have an offer that people want to buy compared to the other, you have an idea which you're using and nobody wants to buy it.
Like Hosna and I discussed it. I think it was on Saturday where we talked about that. If you have a market where people are selling what you're doing, then you know, it's a market that's going to work. Because other people are earning a lot of money with this. Then it's more how can you use yourself as a, as a differentiator in what you're doing.
But in the end, you have a very verified niche if we talk about [00:08:00] niche that people are spending money. It's more differentiation that you can work with.
So that's domino effect and focus is one part. Now I go into planning. I think Serafin was asking that. I'm a huge fan of. a methodology that's called the bullet journal, and it's not necessarily using the exact thing. So the, the main strategy behind using paper and pen when it comes to task management, I focus now on task management.
It helps me to structure and focus on the main domino task first. So what I'm doing is I have A normal notebook, doesn't matter which notebook, um, and what I'm doing is I have one page per day, like one page per day. [00:09:00] So I have as the starting point, let's say Monday is one day. So this is today with the key tasks that I need to be doing Tuesday with the key tasks that I'm doing.
What I have already is the whole week is kind of the, the number one task is already there. So that's how I'm structuring. What is your number one task right now? My number one task right now is CEO outreach. Okay. That's my number one task. Because it's like, with my business right now, it's sales. So if I have done my sales activity of the day, everything else can pack up.
I still can get clients. Let's say I can post, I cannot post on social media, but still have done the sales part. And it's, it's every day right now it's out CEO outreach is my number one thing. [00:10:00] And with that what I have and that's important thing. Before I have the whole week so I, I have a list of all the different tasks that I've gathered for this week.
So for example for next week I already have the next week, which is almost an empty page but I have already. A couple of things in here where I said I don't need to do this right now I need to do this next week, and then I move that to next week. So what I do is I work on week based you can do the same on month based for me that didn't work out so I focus on on weeks because it's for me it's easier and more tangible.
So I have a list of what do I need to do next week. And then when the week starts, I'm moving and that's that's the trick with with this methodology. I'm moving the task from the week list to the day. So that means I need to read it here and I make an arrow to it and say, Okay, I've moved this [00:11:00] task to the week.
And I'm, I'm always considering while moving that to the week to the specific day. Is this the domino task yes or no. What is the, the order of the tasks that I need to do to be able to be the most efficient person that I can be for my business, for my family, whatever it is. What I do is I mix. So this is like, everything is my whole life that I need to do on Tuesday, on Wednesday, whatever.
And it's only tasks so I zoom in only on task management. For me, super helpful, because I'm very concentrated. And the magic of this is you're when you're moving task into the day, you're considering is this really something I need to do today? Or can it wait until next week? If it can wait until next week, I move it to next week.
And if it's there twice, then I just kill[00:12:00]
it. And I do similar with with my team members as well. But that's another topic. So you need, you need to find a way for yourself to keep on top of all the different tasks, obviously. But the tricky thing is often, at least with me, I love to do certain tasks, and I hate to do certain tasks. And most like for it, for example, that my number one task right now is CEO outreach, and I hate it.
Like it's nothing I enjoy very much. So that's, that's why I'm pushing myself to do it every day. So it's done. And that's the first task I will be outsourcing as soon as it's on the level that I know it's predictable.
So key point for me from an efficiency [00:13:00] perspective is find a way that you as the owner of your business can focus on the most important tasks that only can be done by you because a lot of things you can outsource. If you have the money to outsource, obviously, if not, you will be the one and only that does everything.
That means it's even more important. So that you focus on the number one thing. If we take my example right now, if I do not do the sales outreach, nobody's doing it. So that means there's no pipeline development and no sales coming in. And it's, it's just a critical part. I have seen for myself. And as well, working with a lot of startups over the last years.
What do you reckon? How much sales would you, or how much time would you depending on sales? Like, I mean, like sales is like, of course, like [00:14:00] calling or texting people, um, like calling people as like, you reach like 30 percent of the people you called roughly. And like five of them, 5 percent are interested in your, what you're offering if you're lucky.
And, um, yeah, but, um, but it's also like, like what you said, like. Strategic wise, you need your product to define your product or define your wording, how you speak to them. Um, it's just like an extra task for you or it's just implemented in your sales activities. So automatically when I do the outreach, that leads sooner or later to calls in the best case.
If not, then I need to refine it. So to your question, so one thing is refining it as I go. And then when I get a person into the call, then I can go backwards. So then let's say I talked to a [00:15:00] CEO has bought or not bought or has certain objections. And then I use this objections, which I write down, let's say.
I gave the example today as well. Some CEOs are convinced that they don't need a personal website, which is critical piece of my system. And I think every CEO should have one, obviously. Um, so I need to bring this objections way earlier in the communication and social media so that it is. Working when I contact and I need to bring that into my contact.
So time wise for me The outreach is the activity where I initiate the sale ask first time for a meeting. That's for me the critical thing everything else when it comes to um Like the sales calls and so are extra so for me the outreach activity, which is prospecting and reaching out. That's the number one priority for me because the sales [00:16:00] calls are if we if we think about domino again, the sales calls are only happening when I do this.
If I don't do sales calls, the domino is not falling. And the sales, uh, outreach, the, the sales call is not happening. So that's, that's, that's why for me, the number one priority is outreach. And then the rest is going to help. And then when we come to product or service, obviously you need to have a defined before so that you know what you're selling, but you can always refine it afterwards when you have a paying customer.
So I would rather sell something that is. less, but it's sold and you get cashflow in rather than waiting and fine tuning to have the perfect product. Like some startups are doing, they, they refine and refine for five years and still have had no sales.
So [00:17:00] time wise focus for me on the outreach activity. And then everything else is on top of, and if you take me right now, I do, I would say 80 percent of my day. Focusing on, on sales in general, like sales, marketing, conversation that lead to sales. And then the, the rest of the, the, the day is really delivering the, the service being on calls with you guys, for example.
Okay, but in this 18% you also mean like having like calls with potential partners or with, um, like corporations, they refer you or. Like everything that brings your, your business something in a certain way. So for example, in my case, because we have two target groups, we have one like with sales architecture that's like people that actually need the [00:18:00] furniture.
And then we have like also the people they offering furniture, but they also pay us. So that's like the two target groups we have. So in the, in the end, both is giving you revenue. But one more with more effort and I need to define how to speak to them and the other one is like already given me, but like way less.
So I cannot live from it. That's the issue in this case. And you know already what you need to focus on more. Yeah. Getting the big customer. Exactly. The, the big shit, the big fish, not shit. I was talking to too much with Sabina before I blame, I blame, you know, Sabina. When I curse, no, we can play with each other as, as much as we want.
I don't care. no, but, but a hundred percent. So, and now of course that starts with the offer definition, but in, in the end is focus on [00:19:00] the one that brings the biggest money. I, I give you an example and that's why don't do keynote outreach right now for me. So if I, I can speak on more stages. If I would push the button and really do a lot of keynote outreach right now, I would speak on more stages.
But comparing to a client, it's way less money. Even if I get 10, 10, 000 per keynote once a month, it's still less than a client. Here's an average value for us is right now 50k for a client. So that means one client is much better than the keynote. This is also recurring revenue for the whole future to come.
Third one I have is delegation. One of, one of the things, and that's Um, [00:20:00] I, I have shared it with, uh, Serafine, there's a book which is called Buy Back Your Time. I can highly recommend that to any one of you, it's a really good book, um, very detailed explanation how you buy back your time as a business owner.
The key thing there is in the end, delegation and delegating the things that, that drain your energy. So what are the things in your business that drain your energy? Example, like for me, one topic, that's why, why I hate to have a German company is bookkeeping. Like bookkeeping is the worst nightmare with the German company and having a German How it's called bookkeeping companies even the double nightmare because they have these stupid tools, which you only can do from certain Um apps and the apps are not working on on apple So you need to download by [00:21:00] every email they're sending you need to download something and open their bs system It's terrible like I hate this As you can feel already.
So this is a, this is a task that I straight away moved to my assistant as fast as possible. So it's, it's kind of a complete time waster. It's literally, you all know what it is like, put the invoices into a box and send them to, to them and get everything organized and shit, and then they're looking at your accounts and say, but their invoice has a different number than what the people are putting on the transfer of money.
I don't care. I got the money. It's for someone else to sort of, so that these are things that suck energy and that I delegate. And of course, it really depends how much money you have. But if we, if we take a couple of simple things, so what every one of you could easily do and is [00:22:00] doing already, you are outsourcing to AI.
So there are certain tasks that you can give to AI and there are more and more advanced opportunities, which like basic stuff that you can outsource to AI. Sometimes it requires you to find the right tool and the right application for certain things. But if you just start from a pain, what drags energy, then you can find sometimes, obviously that costs something.
But if you then calculate a human being doing that for you or someone else, uh, or AI, and you have a subscription for it just helps. So for me, I have my team taking care of certain things. And that, that goes into A critical part as well that I have seen is super important try to for yourself But as well for everyone else that is working with you try to [00:23:00] keep yourself in the zone of genius So the zone of genius is what you are One thing is getting a lot of energy from and what you're extremely good
And if you can focus on that, you will be a happy person You will enjoy doing that task and you will enjoy doing the things And then you need to hire and find the other people around you where their zone of genius is what you hate. So example, bookkeeping, if we take my example, my assistant, she loves organizing shit.
She loves organizing tables. She loves organizing documents and, and she really enjoys that stuff. I hate it. So my zone of genius is not that my zone of genius is people. So I take care of the people. She takes care of the bookkeeper. Same, same with like video stuff, like the people that I work with, [00:24:00] they, they, they enjoy 24 seven editing videos.
I have a little bit fun of it. But in the end, after half an hour, I, I don't get energy for that. So I'm outsourcing that to, to, to, to the team members that can do this and have their zone of genius. Because one thing that I've learned for myself was, if you have, if you work in your zone of genius, you will be one of the.
top percent doing that thing. If you do something else where, which is not in your zone of genius, you will never be good. You will be okay, but you will never be good. Example with me, like I can edit videos. It's not too bad anymore. But if you give this, if I give this to someone of my team members, they really enjoy doing it.
And they, they do it every day, 24 seven, they're 10 times better than me, if not more than 10 times. Even though that maybe for a person that does [00:25:00] not distinct between these things, it's not obvious, but it's still 10 times better. Another example, so doing photos, like I have a cooperation with the photo studio here in the Netherlands, and she's doing all photos with me and my clients.
She's amazing in what she's doing. Of course I can take photos with my phone and I have a camera even that does quite nice photos. It's still 10 times difference. So for yourself as well, how do you find the people that are helping you with, with, with the zone of geniuses that is not your zone of genius, like the ones that are painful for you.
And you can then get people on board that help you, like if you look for co founders, how do you find co founders that are different than you are, and that can utilize their zone of genius to drive the business forward. [00:26:00] And the same with everything else.
Last point I have on my list is creativity. And I know I'm German, I'm an Excel brain. My creativity, and let's say specifically when it comes to new ideas, business, new ideas, podcasts, new ideas, like social media posts, always comes when I'm not working. And not working meaning being even in this room because this, I'm in this room.
Not 24 seven, but quite a lot. Um, that's why some of you have have seen me on the bike already. Uh, when I'm on calls. Um, but what I see what I just see a lot is you need to take yourself out of the environment where you're in and going outside of that environment for myself. That's a game changer. And then getting input [00:27:00] from different sources that are not connected to what I'm doing.
So I'm reading books that I'm, that are not connected to social media, personal branding, even not business, where I'm getting inspired, or I'm, I'm listening to podcasts that are completely different topics as well. So it's easy ways where you can get inspiration and, and, and, and get creativity for especially moving of course helps nothing new, you know, but big help.
Vacuum cleaning helps as well, sorry to say. Helps, agree. All mindless things tend to help me to kind of come up with good ideas. So basically, whenever I'm stuck with whatever, something in the videos and what I want to do, what I do something completely [00:28:00] different, like literally. drop stuff, drop the pen, go somewhere else, do vacuum cleaning, helps, or cleaning bathrooms and kitchens, that's also mindless work, that kind of wipes your mind completely, because you hate it, or I hate it, uh, but still it helps me refocus, or I go Yeah, tomorrow I do mind wiping things, I go skiing until 12, uh, and that also kind of resets the mind again, and, and, and it, it helps you, in that case me, to not think about work.
And as soon as you start to not think about work or you, what you want to do, after a while, very fancy ideas come up that you somehow need to remember, if possible, um, and then you can kind of start from, like, start fresh again, which is [00:29:00] good. I also, I also take decisions in that, in that way. If I'm not sure what to do, I do something completely different.
Um, to Get the mind off the topic and then find new, yeah, new inspiration, new ideas, and usually the brain decides what's good for you without you thinking about it. If you have all the objective reasons already somewhere stored, so that's stuff you need to have done, like have all the conversations and then your brain will come up with a decision that is 99 percent good for you and correct.
Great.
Drinking doesn't help, by the way. You mean beer or water? Yeah, no, beer. Beer always helps. Beer always helps. If you want to forget, at least for a while, yes. And if you want to feel bad the next day, yes as well. [00:30:00] But it does not solve your problems. I agree.
Questions, thoughts?
additional topics we can learn from. Well, for me, sometimes it's, it's difficult. Like it's, it's easy in comparable with other businesses with other businesses. I know exactly what to do and I can tell everyone what they should focus on, what they, what they should do next, because it's like kind of an overview perspective.
So unlike in a consulting way, it works perfectly. But for myself, sometimes I have trouble to find anything. What is. The right thing at the time, you know, so what should I focus on right now? Like, of course, like what, what is the thing that brings me, what is this domino stone? And I think this is for a lot of us, it's like difficult to see or realize for himself what is the right [00:31:00] stone.
Agree. That's why it's so. Yeah. But you know, as to do your question of Felix and as I had to, uh, gems, I would say. Um, the first point is to get to know the genius point or the genius tone and also the, um, the, uh, the most powerful point of each person or of myself, and then, uh, the domino test, and then can I, I can define the domino test of my business, uh, out of this.
Um, so I would say When I thought about your writing for your
order, so you mentioned five points. Domino task, task management, bullet journal, and then a genius zone, creativity, and what is [00:32:00] the fifth one? Delegation. Delegation. What does it mean with delegation? I mean, it's part of the genius of, like, how do you delegate tasks? But that's four, Dan. I have four here.
Okay, that's, that's, they're not, it's not four. I have five. It's just four. Genius. So delegation and genius. Okay, that's good because it's possible. So it goes to Charbok. You need to host not remember that chance. Uh, five letter word. Everything, everything is Charbok. You know, okay. Uh, I would say I would, I would order it, uh, differently.
I would say at first genius stone, delegation, genius stone, delegation and then domino task. Exactly. And then bullet journal and creativity, I would order that in, in. So that's my point of view. And about points are different. My points are, for example, allegation [00:33:00] creativity. Yeah. And find points or, and sometimes, sometimes, you know, uh, it was also good point about this delegation because I know my genius point.
And now in on this. And on this level, because you know, in your business as a business development, a startup is like a process and in on each stage, you cannot say it's just, it goes just about fail because in each stage, you're on different stage. So, for example, on the earliest stage on the second on the next stage, you have different tests.
So, uh, I would say, for example, on my Okay. On this stage, I'm just, I'm now, I'm, um, I try to position myself in different collaboration firms and, and, uh, like define the strategy with others and [00:34:00] also, uh, the role of the others. And to go through this project, but, uh, but I mean, uh, the whole time I'm, I, I do like marketing sales, but, uh, in other way, so that's why it's, uh, yeah, it's different when you are like, I don't know how you begin, or maybe it was, how was your, uh, how was, How did you earn money and on the early stage then with your idea?
Um, but, uh, yeah, um, because now you're, you're working also for another company, you know, I, I decided to be totally, uh, just, uh, on my ID as well in my business, uh, the toll, uh, challenges, but, uh, I, I, so I decided to, um, to invest my [00:35:00] time just on my business ideas and not on other business ideas. So. Uh, that's different, you know, and, uh, yeah, I would, I would to hear about your experience on the earliest stage.
In every, every business in every situation is of course different, but when you talk about the ideation phase, it's like you're testing and validating your idea. And that's, if I understood you right, that's, that's what you're talking. So like I said, then it's not a business here. A business for me is like when you're selling, when you're generating income and what I recommend everyone to do is sell before you build.
That's a normal startup. Sell before you build. Uh huh. Okay. Yeah. Like if we, Sabine and I talked about this, I don't know, half a month ago, like we [00:36:00] can, we can literally sell whatever she does. Before she's even starting building a lot of startups, especially when they it's their first startup and they're looking into their first building like huge prototypes and spending like a year on building something.
And then they figure out that they built completely the wrong thing, because they put it first time in front of customers. What I did, I did this with all of you was just sharing it with Marco today as well. So when I was in, in Switzerland. The personal branding agency was not launched yet. I said it even on stage.
So I was in soft launch mode and I was selling the first people already before I have built a huge CEO program. Like I sold the first big CEO before I even have done any. I had it in my mind, but I have not done the structure, nothing. [00:37:00] No, you had the structure because we, you, you asked us to, uh, to ask Chattopadhyay and Chattopadhyay said the same thing as now.
So you have this, you have this idea and you structure this idea. Maybe it's more detailed now, but, uh, yeah. So I have used it for myself, but the business was not there. So I've done this for myself, obviously. So that's what I've used to verify and test, but the big sale came first before I structured the CEO program, not the communities.
Yeah. Like when I took the first big CEO as a client, that's when I, I built the detailed structure. So yeah, it's like a bit, I know it's scary now, but it's interesting. It's like a, a bit somehow blue [00:38:00] thing, but blue thing in a right way because you're believing your idea. So. Yeah. But that's like the best way because then when you have that sales, you have the must to do it.
So that's the best motivation that you have to do it because you have sold it. Yeah. Important. Important, Hosna. You can only sell something you can do. Let's say if we take your example with building an AI startup, you cannot sell that because you will not be able to deliver it in like a week. So that doesn't work.
But if we, if we take you as an example with your like landscape planning, you can sell the landscape planning to someone and you do it afterwards. But we have today, today we have their first collaboration project. We got it. For the, for the AI. Yeah. Super. Yeah. Amazing.[00:39:00]
Yeah. So, so for me, it's in the ideation stage is talking to as many as possible people and my assumptions. Mm hmm. That's like super, super basic, but it's like lean startup methodology. If anyone is interested in that, there's a book, which is called the lean startup thing, which I don't know, 20 years old, but it's, it's still, it's like a scientific method that you use to validate your ideas.
I still do it today. Everything that I'm doing, like all the different things that I'm doing, I'm testing, testing, testing, and then using what works. What's the name of the book? Um, the, what did I say? Lean Startup. It's Lean Startup Methodology or Lean Startup. There are two books. One is the startup version and one is the corporate version.
Use the, I'm not sure if I have it here somewhere. It[00:40:00]
was already digital books.
The Lean Startup. Yeah. From Eric Ries. It's, it's super old. It's like, I don't know, 10 years old minimum. If not, no, way older. Way older. I think it's from the mid 2000s. Super old, 10 years. No, from a book perspective. Sorry, not, not lifetime. But for the soul, it's like 30 something years. Yeah, sure. Now, the good thing about that book is it's just a very scientific method.
Like you put down your assumptions linked to the risk that you have, and then you do the first test verse, like rapid prototyping, all of that stuff. Is is in the end the same thing test your [00:41:00] ideas in this way. And it's and you will find out how to do it. It's just a scientific way of explaining it is super popular.
It was super popular. The book in the mid, I don't know, 2012, 13, 14.
And the key part of that is always talk to customers. Talk to the people that are the potential buyers. It's all logic.
If we take Hosna as an example, that's what you, what you were doing the last weeks, like talking to all the different people, testing, testing, testing. Collaborating. Collaborating is the best way. Nowadays, it's workshops, business workshops, it's collaborating. Collaborations. I have also my first workshop with Iran Swiss Chamber of Commerce.
Bring [00:42:00] delegations to Switzerland. Yeah.
Where are the rising stars? Rising stars. You, you get the invitation is, um, I'm going to send you the link. You can also attend the workshop and the delegation will be in June. I can also give you a stage to, I would do that.
The rising star stage. The rising star stage. Yeah, that's a good idea. We just need to be aligned with the topic a bit. So it's not that out of the I would say, but for, for who interested, please book the week, June,[00:43:00]
June, June, 9th and 9th of June to 14th of June. And we have also Persian night here in Switzerland. It's a Persian dinner and Persian music. Sounds perfect. On Friday night.
Good. Then let's spend the last 15 minutes on March meeting. I was talking this morning with Berlin and she offered a meeting location to us.
Um, yeah, so, so what we have is kind of the meeting location. Topic wise, what I would love to do with all of you is Presenting on stage. So last time we did the part which was focused on [00:44:00] building the signature keynote. Now I would love to get to the level of stage presence and speaking on stage. And we can go more into the details.
So we are going to meet in Lachen. Lachen? Yeah, genau. Also ich möchte euch sehr gerne willkommen heißen in meinem Haus. Würde mich sehr freuen, wenn ihr kommt. Ich sehe, dass mein Haus den Platz auch bietet für eine große Gruppe. It has a large garden, three large rooms, eight sleeping areas. Um, the village is very beautiful.
Oh, the village, yes. And, and for two days it has everything [00:45:00] we need. Exactly. So you are really very, very welcome. Yes, Good luck. What
a pleasure being here. I understand about half of it. That's good. She's inviting us to her house and there are room for eight people in there and, uh Do you speak German? Yeah, exactly. You have, you have to, yeah, take, you have to take a, uh, German course. Ah, she does. You're already on level nine already.
Yeah. Good. You have, you know, you have this talent, so
then you can practice with us. Exactly. So we, for, for that, I have to practice for a month. And then, so for that meeting we have right now, uh, uh, uh, what did we say? [00:46:00] We have Felix, we have Alina, we have sna. Obviously Bela Frank will join as well. He texted me who else
I most probably coming.
How much space do we have then for how many people? Um, you can also bring your, your.
You can bring also your child, your, your son.
Who can bring the son? Yeah, you can, you can. I don't have a son, I have a daughter. I met him. [00:47:00] You can bring them your daughter, it's much better.
Yeah. So, right now we have Hosna, Felix, Adelina, Belen, Frank, Jens. It's six. And? And Sabine. Sabine. Seven. And maybe Catalina.
I didn't ask her, but I think she will come in. So, that's eight. Yeah, she should. I want to speak Spanish with her. Sí, claro. Tu hablas Spanish a lot. Yes. I need Catalina to I can't hear you. Oh, Pepe Len! He speaks Spanish too, I'm sorry. Yes, [00:48:00] all right. And Frank too. Exactly, Frank too. So there will be eight people now, right?
Yes, including you. That's good.
So Lachen is one hour away from Zurich. I don't know where you live exactly, Hosna. I live in the city center. Um, uh, I live in the city center. I live in the city center. So if I get a place, then I live with you. I sleep there, otherwise I can also commute.[00:49:00]
And if I know it before, a friend of mine lives in Pfeffikon, that's like two villages away, so maybe she has a spare room. But I need to ask, depending on how much space you have money. Good. Pfeffikon, Schweiz. Perfekt, das ist hier um die Ecke. Um die Ecke. Ivan is just texting, he is also having a couch. Are you also in close by or
in Zürich? Are you joining the weekend? Ivan?
Yes, 22nd of March. March, yeah. Um, I have to say goodbye. I have an appointment. Okay. Bye. Ciao. Bye. Good, I [00:50:00] will, we will text in the WhatsApp group to see who else is coming. Adios. Yeah, exactly. Hasta luego. Ciao. Vaffanculo.
So, the rest we will find out. So we will be a fun group, but what, what I said with Belen is we can sleep at her place for free, but we need to organize and then we go shopping and buy groceries and stuff. Yeah, from Friday to Sunday or from Sunday to what, what, what are the dates? From Sunday to Friday.
Friday to Sunday. Yeah, I have not checked flights yet, but most probably I will come on Friday as well. Yeah, so from Friday to Sunday as, as the last time. Yeah, I need, I need to check, like, flight [00:51:00] stuff. Yeah, let me know so I can, um, try to do that at the same time. Tonight or tomorrow. Yeah. I can, if anyone need help, it's like cooking or preventing food, how many people I can assist with that?
Very good. Buying it in Germany, it's cheaper. That's a good idea. True. And you're coming with car anyhow, right? Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Let's figure. Adelina. Yeah. I just, I want to share something about this topic. It's a good idea because prices are lower in Germany for food, but for example, you need to be careful and to check the regulation for Switzerland because sometimes they just stop car at the borders.
I used to go for grocery in, uh, Constance and, uh, yeah, it's necessary to declare, for example, for meat, it is raw. If it's more than one, I mean, that was last year. I'm not aware if something [00:52:00] changed mid to while, but if you had like a one kilo of meat, It's maximum one kilo of meat per person that is in the car.
What it's over that, uh, this, this specific, you need to pay taxes, which is 30 francs or 40 francs per kilo, for example. I think they don't know and they don't, they don't take this on a scale. Like we never had a problem. Most probably, if you have a German car, they will not stop you. If you have a Swiss car, they will stop you, I guess.
Yeah, we had this with a Swiss car. We had like, we had this control. Everything was perfect because I was already in contact with the rules at that moment of time. I think they changed it again from 1st of January. And my daughter was so funny, just showed her tongue to the gentleman who controlled our car.
Good. That's a good[00:53:00]
Okay, so we are at least most probably nine people. If Ivan is coming as well, and the rest we will figure out. Christian, you're not coming, right? Most likely not, no. Okay. He needs to ski. Probably, and, uh, doing some stuff with my wife, which overrides everything else. That's agreed. That's an overriding rule.
Good, Christian. Yes. Good. Then we'll see each other. Some of you I will see this week. Um, the rest we will see next Monday and yeah, next Monday. Good. Bye bye.
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Transcript:
Personal development masterclass. One of the topics that's dear to my heart, because of what I have seen over the last 15 years is that personal development is quite seldom in organizations. It's not really taken, uh, in a proper way, at least in my eyes. So that's why I'm really keen on sharing this today.
So we have two. main perspectives. One or two topics for today. One is personal development talk versus performance evaluation. And then we do a deep dive into how I'm doing personal development talks. And then we do questions in the end. Personal development. So we have one part, which is the personal development talk, and then we have the performance evaluation.
And a lot of organizations, focus on performance evaluation. And the difference between those two is that the performance evaluation, the main part they are focusing on, or the main source of that is the company. So the company is on the top. And from there, it goes into, the individuals and the different tasks that need to be done to accomplish what's happening in the company, what is required to do to be done in the company.
And the individual that is doing the task is the last point. And then inside of the performance evaluation, you're looking backward. So you look, how did this person perform in the past? The development talk is the opposite. So the most important part of the. Development talk is the future. Where does the person want to be in the future?
And it has nothing to do with the outcome of the company or where the company wants to be. The goal of this is, and why, why do this personal development talk? I believe that if we are developing people in organizations beyond what the organization needs, they will contribute more to the company. They will contribute better.
So the goal of what I'm doing with development talks is finding out what the people desire and going deeper into that. And we will have a look at that in the next couple of slides. And then look, what are the different tasks of the organizations that fit the person and what the person wants to be. And then you marry these two things.
And then it works as well from a performance evaluation perspective. So that's my perspective on development talk and performance evaluation. Let's go into personal development talk a couple of, I think it's almost two years ago or something. I've developed this in as, as a worksheet. So if anyone is interested in getting this worksheet as a PDF.
Happy to share that. So, the starting point of a development talk is really a setup of the atmosphere and the place. So you are going to do a development talk with another person. So you are the manager and the, the other person is like reporting to you and then you're meeting up. So what you need to make sure of is that you have, an appropriate place.
The best case is always doing this outside of the office environment in a. In a place where people feel well, the atmosphere is super important. The time of the day is important, not doing it on Friday afternoon, for example, when people want to go on the weekend, of course, you need to be aware of your relationship with the other person, depending on how deep your relationship is.
You of course have then a perspective on how deep you can go. And how much that is. And then what is important as well is that you put the note-taking responsibility to the person that is inside the room or is working with you. So me as a leader, I always give the note taking responsibility for the other person because then you see what they understand and what they get out of that.
And then I always do as well. A version in front of us so that people understand this. So printing out this worksheet as an example, if you do that in a physical space, then you print it out and then you go into the development talk. And the starting point of the development talk goes really wide.
Looking into what's the personal vision like. I always ask these as open questions without showing them the worksheet in the beginning. Who do you want to be? And that's very, very, very wide. Like, who do you want to be? What does it mean? Some people who have never had a conversation like this, struggle with this.
So they start with, yeah, I want to be a manager. I want to be something specific. So they go very, very, very specific and they don't really look into the future. So the first round of this, I just, Help them to find out who they want to be and they write down, they write down a manager. I want to be a good father.
I want to be whatever they come up with. And then I go to the next question and I show them the next question, not before. So why do you want to be that person? So then they're reflecting on the answers they have given and then they go back and refine who they want to go to be. And that's an interesting process because what.
You as the manager that is holding this development talk are doing, you're literally shutting up and just asking open questions to tell me more. How, how does that feel? What does that look like? What would that look like in the future? So you only ask open ended question when that gets the person talking and reflecting.
So if you're saying this, what does it mean? So, and then they're explaining, explaining, and they go in a loop between who am I going to be? And why do I want to be that person? So until they have clarity, and the first loop is always. The starting point where they don't know what's going to come, then who am I going to be?
They come up with high-level topics and then they go, Why do I want to be that person? Then they go back to Who am I going to be? And then they go deeper. And I always then give them a perspective. Okay, think about five years, 10 years from now, who do you want to be? And then they go more particular in all of these things.
And then we go, we don't close this, we keep it, we put it aside. And then we go to the next sheet, which is a personal development map. So I want them again to reflect on certain questions. And it doesn't matter in the order, I just take them clockwise right now. But it's really going and answering the specific questions.
What do I want to learn? So you're asking this, the person that is in front of you. So what do you want to learn to be that person? So linking it back to that person of the future. And then you're asking, what do you want to improve? And then they come up with things. So it's, it's like writing down the, all the different topics and then what do I want to leave behind?
And then they come back with topics that they want to leave behind. Another question is what excites you? Yeah. And then going deeper into this, who is important to them? And then what is important to them? And when you have done this circle, you go around it and they were deeper in this topic.
What quite often happens then if you ask them, so how, if we go back to the other one, is that still the same thing you want to be? Because they have now clarified what they want to be. and answer the question, they go back to this one and then clarify, no, no, no, I want to be this, I want to be this. What I always ask them, in this part is to paint a picture.
So when, when we have finished with this one, I go back to this one. And say, from a personal vision perspective, imagine a picture and describe the picture that you see on the wall. And then they describe to me who they want to be and who they are going to strive to be inside of a picture and explain everything that is around them.
I've had, for example, a person that told me where they are going to live, what, how it feels, um, in this picture, where the kids in this picture, where the wife or husband and, and going really into details and then linking this to. A job perspective as well, because in the end, we are at least this part is in a job environment.
So they are linking that to the job environment of who they're going to be working with as well. So these two are super powerful. And then you go into the next step, which is a goal perspective. So it starts with the staircase. So in the top right corner, we have what is the goal. And the starting point is really, um, defining that goal.
So if you want to be this person in five years, what is the goal for the next year for you to be very specific? And of course, you can do smart goal setting and all of that, but it's in the end, What does feel right for that person? What is the development goal they want to reach in one year from now?
And then they formulate that goal. And then you go to the bottom of this page where you look into where do you stand today on a scale from one to 10. So they're rating themselves on how close are they to that goal. If they're close, then they're at 10 or 9. If they're far away, then they're at 1. And what always happens is they're somewhere in between, obviously.
So when they have rated that, then you look into what are the things that get you closer to that goal, meaning moving your scale from 5 to 10. And that's what they are writing down above the stairs. So, above the stairs are the things that are getting them closer to their goal. And then they're defining this in bullet points and formulating that out.
And [you do that obviously all in a conversation. You ask the person who is doing the development talk, you are asking them questions to get them moving. You're asking them clarifying questions about the topics that are put, into the sheet. And then the next part is, what are the things that getting you further away from that goal?
So downstairs, if you think at it from a staircase perspective, and then they're writing these things down and then they have a clear picture of a goal staircase where they, they know they want, where they want to be linking that to the vision that's five years from now and the goal picture, and then they rate themselves.
And have then clear understanding of that are the things I need to do to get to my goal and that are the things I should not be doing. And then the last step of the development talk is getting specific. So now we zoom into one year and actionable goals that help them or tasks that get them towards the one-year perspective.
So what are the things they're going to do? When are they going to do this? What do they need to make happen to be able to do this? What are the things they need help with and how I'm, how they going to measure them? So it's a very, very simple setup where they write down literally the different steps that help them to get there.
And they're putting measurable goals towards the goal. And this is roughly. I would say one and a half hours, even if we go through this right now in a theoretical setting in, let's say 15 minutes in a real conversation, in a coaching style, where you ask the manager or coach the other person to find out what they are desiring and where they want to be.
It takes roughly one and a half hours if you do that well, sometimes it's faster depending on the relationship as well. The fascinating thing with this is it has zero to do with the company you work in and one hundred percent to do with who they want to be. And as well as zero to do with you as their manager, if you're their manager, like your perspective, your opinion on anything of that.
Um, just to give you a couple of examples, I've had people that told me that they want to be. building their own company in the next five years and they worked in the company and I was their manager they told me because they trusted me that they wanted to build their own company and we built a plan for how they were going to build their own company and I've had situations where people told me that they want to get married in the next five years and then we built a plan to get them towards marriage getting married and looked into how that does that work with the career perspective same with kids and all the other things so this is a development tool you That I use with everyone that is working with me over time because I believe that as further we as managers and organizations help people to develop as better it is.