Are You Spending Enough Time on Growth?

After see­ing the Four Forces of Growth mod­el (fea­tured in my new book), a CEO recent­ly asked me what per­cent­age of time he should spend in the growth quad­rant and which activ­i­ties he should focus on..

The mod­el shows a clear dis­tinc­tion between activ­i­ties that help to dri­ve more growth of the key eco­nom­ic unit of the busi­ness and growth of a busi­ness in the future, ver­sus things to improve a busi­ness. The lat­ter should most­ly be han­dled by the team.

A Con­sen­sus About Time

After talk­ing to many lead­ers about this, there is con­sen­sus that a CEO should have at least half of their week in that growth quad­rant ] on activ­i­ties that will impact the busi­ness beyond the cur­rent finan­cial year: a geog­ra­phy, a prod­uct line, a cus­tomer or an acquisition. 

Strate­gic vs Operational

This is the strate­gic part of the CEOs job, one of their two dra­mat­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent roles:

• Strate­gi­cal­ly grow­ing the busi­ness for the future by get­ting the oppor­tu­ni­ties and the resources to make that hap­pen and
• The oper­a­tional part of their job (if they don’t have a COO or Pres­i­dent) to ensure, on a dai­ly, week­ly, month­ly and quar­ter­ly basis that they achieve what they need to, this finan­cial year.

To tru­ly thrive, be effec­tive, grow, and scale your com­pa­ny over the long term, you need to spend about 50% of your time — depend­ing on where your busi­ness is and what it needs at this point — focused on things that will notably impact the busi­ness, in 2025 and beyond.

The Chal­lenge

Ask your­self:

• Cur­rent­ly, what per­cent­age of your time do you spend in that growth quadrant?
• What would be ide­al for you?

Addi­tion­al blogs

• How Steep is Your Growth Curve?
• Make Your Own Per­son­al Growth Goals
• Chal­lenges are Oppor­tu­ni­ties for Growth

Old Pod­casts

• The Four Forces of Growth
• The Most Impor­tant Num­ber CEOs Rarely Mea­sure