The One Question Every CEO Must Use

Kris Plachy:  Hey, I'm Kris Plachy, host of the Lead Your Team podcast. Running a million dollar business is not easy, and whether you are just getting started with building your team or you've been at this for a while, I'm going to bring you honest, specific and clear practices you can use. Right now today to improve how well you lead your team.

Let's go ahead and get started.

Hello, how are you? I'm so excited to be with you. It is already mid-January. I can't believe where we are. I don't know. Everything seems to go by so quickly. I hope everyone had a lovely New year's and time with, you know, intimate family, I suppose is a way to say that. In this year, I just hosted yesterday a virtual retreat, my very first one, and it was so.

Amazing. I know that, you know, because of the circumstances of the world, right? We've all just really adopted a new way of connecting, and I'm a Sagittarius. I'm a number three expression number. I'm an extrovert. I love being with other people who are smart and. Wise and soulful. Right. Really having that interest, which is why I'm just so grateful for the work I do every day.

And so we had this incredible three and a half hour retreat where we all just joined and sort of, I walked them through a process of thinking about the truths we need to tell, the dreams we need to honor, and then the, you know, the magic or the. The goals that we have that we wanna realize and. My hope for all of you, whether we work together personally or not, is that you always remember that despite the circumstances that we are given, and you know, 2020 was an interesting year because.

We all have illness, we all have death. We all have breakups and marriages and relationships, and uh, we all have business problems and all the things, we all negotiate those as humans. That's just part of being a human being. This was the first year in my lifetime where the entire world was negotiating the same circumstance.

And it is quite fascinating. You know, I'm no human behavioral expert, but it is super fascinating, right, to see how people integrated this shared circumstance. So what I have learned. And been reminded of, I guess I shouldn't say learned, I've been teaching this myself for years, but just sort of reaffirmed is that circumstances have very little to do with your results.

It's how you choose to think about them. So as we move into 2021, which for me feels amazing, I'm very excited about. The opportunities of a new year and a, you know, a new January, a new February, a new march, you know what's gonna happen. I think it's also fun and I'm also just so grateful for the incredible women I continue to work with.

Every time we have new clients, I just like, where have you people been? You're so amazing. And it's fun cuz I can tell that they feel the same way about each other. So it's quite a community and a wonderful place. So, I have a lot of podcast ideas. I have been quite busy writing, and in fact, I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Napa.

I, it's a door to door for those of you who are worried about staying in place. I live about an hour and 20 minutes away. I'm getting in my car and I'm getting outta my car and getting in a little cottage to myself because I have a lot of creating to do, and I'm feeling very compelled too. So I'm going to do that.

And so I've been making a list of the topics I want to talk with you about, and I'm sure I will have even a bigger list when I return. But today I wanted to give you a simple one, something that is, um, kind of one of those superpower skill back pocket things you should always remember when you're a leader.

I coach female entrepreneurs, as you know, and what can often happen as your business grows. Is you can lose sight of what you're trying to do. You can get confused. You add bodies to your business, which also means you're adding opinions and perspectives and ideas, and not just towards an outcome, but also to how to get there, how to achieve the outcome, and for a lot of visionaries, We tend to be highly creative and have all the great ideas, and then when we cast them into the team to start to operationalize those ideas, a lot of times things get muddled, right?

It's like, wait, I saw it so clearly and now I don't understand what's happening. What is this? And the same thing is true for your team. They can be in the middle of working on something and get way late or distracted, and all these things happen. And so one of the things, this is something I learned from the very first executive coach I ever met and worked with.

Her name is Vicki Merrill, and she was honestly the inspiration for why I do exactly what I do. And she taught us this in a leadership training that I did. And so whenever you find yourself. Either individually or in a team conversation with a group, or even as you're coaching someone else, you're just having a conversation with someone and you're finding that it's not going anywhere, it's spinning, it's fruitless, it's frustrating.

I want you to keep this question in your back pocket, and the question is, what's the goal? What is the goal of this program? What is the goal of this pricing structure? What is the goal of having customers? What is the goal for moving this thing that we have online? What is the goal for hiring this person?

What is the goal for this particular position? What is the goal as it relates to revenue? Okay. It doesn't matter. You could do it with yourself. What is the goal I'm most trying to achieve right now as I'm sitting at my desk, when I have 14 things I know I need to do? What is the goal? It is a laser for focus.

And Vicky taught it through the analogy of the movie Apollo 13, and I don't honestly remember much of the movie, but I remember this part because it's what she taught us, right? And she talked about how at the very end of the movie, the three astronauts, Tom Hanks, And God, now I can't remember their names.

You know who they are, and if you don't, you can watch it. But this very end of the movie and their little, they're in their little capsule and Tom Hanks is the captain and they're trying to get back to earth, right? And they have these super little, teeny tiny window that's a triangle. It's this small little window.

And he said to them, the goal is to keep Earth in the window. Keep Earth in the window. If we keep earth in the window, we are going to get home. Okay? What's the goal? Keep earth in the window. When you can create that kind of laser focus for your team, you direct their energy in the way that's gonna benefit you and the business the most.

When you are unclear. Asking yourself that question gives you that clarity. Okay. Or even talking it out with someone else, Hey, I am lost. Help me figure out what is the goal, right? What is the goal of going on a walk? What is the goal of eating this for lunch? What is like, you could apply this to anything y'all.

What is the goal of saying yes or no to my kid about a thing he wants to do? Okay, so, Your role as a leader is to have decisive behaviors. And I realize that sometimes that's incredibly difficult. And I also know that's even harder when it comes to the human interactions that happen at work. Um, which is why so many women hire me because that's where the managing of the people is tough.

Right. But it's such a powerful question. Even in that moment, I don't know what to do. I have this employee and she's been with me for 12 years and she thinks that she should be able to stay in this role, but I don't really think I need that role anymore. And what do I do? How do I, how do I, right? We spin out because we're connected in the relationship we have all these emotions we see clearly, and the reason we can't is because we don't know what is the goal?

Is the goal to make this employee happy? Is the goal to make this, let this employee keep a job, even if they're not doing their job? What is the goal? All right, so you can contest this. The next time you're in a meeting and you're watching everybody, you're like, okay, this is not going anywhere. Just throw it out on the table.

Okay, everyone, I have a quick question. What's the goal of this meeting? What's the goal of this conversation? What's the goal of this landing page? What's the goal of this onboarding process? Anything y'all. It'll apply. Okay. This is a short podcast. This is like get it. Go. Make it happen. And listen to me.

This is where I'm gonna say something to you. You have to listen to me. How does c e o is starting on January 20th? It's a game-changing program for female entrepreneurs who need to learn how to manage, and I'm gonna be doing a podcast on creating. Versus operating because so many of my clients are creators and they don't wanna be operators.

And you know what? You don't have to be, but you need to understand it, and you need to have competence in it. And I can assure you that buys you confidence. And I don't care how big your business is, your lack of confidence in how you manage people is affecting your business results, and it's also affecting your quality of life.

So January 20th, we are starting how to c e o. We have an incredible lineup of guest experts, and if you don't really listen to me talk about this all that much, I, I really wanna emphasize why I bring the guest experts in because I could just do, you know, a, a program of content for you which, I love to do, but I want you to have conversations with honestly preeminent women in their fields so that you can understand that even a woman who's running a 30 plus million dollar business still had to learn how to do this and what they do with it, what they know about being a c e O as it relates to the team.

Right. So the special guests that we have, Allie Brown, she is like the world's most renowned business coach for women. She's insanely amazing, right? Eleanor Beaton. She is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to you understanding your power and your presence, and your positioning. Brooke Castillo founded the Life Coach School.

She has changed the trajectory of millions of people's lives. And the way she was able to do that is because she learned how to CEO y'all and she hated it. She's gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about it together. Layla, her Mosey, she is a powerhouse duo with her husband Alex, and they've created an incredibly insanely successful business, and they've also had to revamp things.

So she's gonna have an incredibly powerful presentation on necessary endings. As a CEO and as a woman, how do you do that? There's a lot of transition that has to happen in your company. Dr. Camille Brard Wise, who is on my team, I'm so honored to say, and she is an absolute. Vault of knowledge when it comes to conscious inclusion.

Not to mention she has 25 years of experience herself leading and managing large teams, so she's also bringing her wisdom. Tanya Lee, she is the founder of the School of Self-Image, and she helps women really develop their confidence. She's got this absolutely unique and gorgeous methodology. About helping women, especially female CEOs, really upgrade your mindset, not just as a ceo, but as a woman in your space in the world, and who you wanna be.

Emily Sandberg is my cfo and she is a genius and a great coach and such a partner, and she's gonna talk to all of our clients about your relationship with money. As a ceo, you've gotta be thinking about your money. And lastly, Stacy Tussle. And I'm assuming a lot of you who listen to my podcast know about Stacy because she helps people who have small businesses around the world really get more customers either through their storefront or also learning how to build an online presence for that business.

She has incredible insight into c e Oing. So you know, my goal with the work I do is to elevate the connections that women have with one another. I know you've heard me say this, but I believe women are the answer to so many of the current challenges we face in the world. But we all have to find each other because.

There's an insight that I find that women who are attracted to my work have, and when they land with other women like them, it's so validating. And then there's this ease. There's an ease that comes in for you, so I wanna help you. I wanna do everything I can. So I'm, I'm really advocating for you to think about joining me in this program.

If you haven't already joined the wait list, this is gonna release pretty close to when we open the doors, and so you can always go to how A C E O. join.com to learn more. If registration is open, you can register and if it's not open, you can join the wait list and be one of the first to know when it is open.

Okay. All right, so remember, what's the goal? As your superpower question and practice it. Try it once this week. If you use it and you like it and you get a good response from it, share that with me. You can send us an email hello chris plaquey.com, or you can share on Instagram, and my Instagram is at Chris Plaquey.

Coach. You can tag me or you can post on your story and tag me, or you can DM us. I'd love to know how it goes. All right. Thanks for tuning in today. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. One more thing before you go. In a world of digital courses and online content, I like to work with my clients live because I know that when you have someone you can work with, ask questions of and meet with, you're so much more likely to get the success that you want.

So head on over to how to ceo live.com. To learn more about our very exciting, very exclusive program just for female entrepreneurs. We'll see you there.