Meet Chris Howe, the Advisor Who Thinks Harmony is Overrated

Most peo­ple spend their careers try­ing to avoid con­flict. The best advi­sors have spent theirs learn­ing how to use it.

Chris Howe is that kind of advi­sor. He joined the Lawrence & Co. team not long ago, and here’s what you should know about him.

What He Brings to the Table

What I find most valu­able about Chris is that he’s spent a decade stand­ing exact­ly where every CEO strug­gles most: at the point where vision meets exe­cu­tion. He’s done the oper­a­tional work inside com­pa­nies, the per­son account­able for turn­ing some­one else’s big idea into some­thing that actu­al­ly ships. He’s not advis­ing from the­o­ry. He’s advis­ing from the seat.

One role shaped him more than any oth­er. He spent years work­ing along­side a pow­er­ful, vision­ary CEO who kept mov­ing the bar the moment the team hit it. At first it frus­trat­ed him. Then it clicked. The ten­sion was­n’t dys­func­tion. It was the whole point.

That’s the same ten­sion I map out in The 4 Forces of Growth, oppor­tu­ni­ty pulling against prob­lems, courage against fear. Chris lived it for years before I ever put a name to it.

From Island Life to the Boardroom

Chris grew up on a small island com­mu­ni­ty out­side Van­cou­ver, about 10,000 peo­ple, in a cul­ture built around keep­ing the peace. His moth­er was the com­mu­ni­ty’s matri­arch. She died when Chris was in his ear­ly teens, and the com­mu­ni­ty stepped in to raise him. He does­n’t talk about that as a wound. He talks about it as a foundation.

The Belief He’s Most Obsessed With

Ask Chris what he push­es back on most, and he does­n’t hes­i­tate. It’s the idea that good teams avoid con­flict. In his expe­ri­ence, a team that can’t fight well can’t do much of any­thing else. They can’t hold each oth­er account­able. They can’t make hard calls. The ten­sion does­n’t go away. It just goes underground.

He hands teams a sim­ple phrase to prac­tice with: ​“I have a dif­fer­ent set of facts.” Sounds small. Changes what a team is will­ing to say out loud.

What He Looks for in a Client

Chris’s favorite clients have what he calls ​“a screw loose,” in the best way. CEOs will­ing to chase where they believe the busi­ness can go, even before the cur­rent facts ful­ly back them up. Paired with real humil­i­ty, the will­ing­ness to ask whether the prob­lem is the busi­ness, or whether it’s them.

How He Thinks About Leadership

Chris’s own def­i­n­i­tion of lead­er­ship: get­ting peo­ple to want to do what has to get done. He spends real time fig­ur­ing out where some­one wants to go, then lines that up with what the com­pa­ny needs from them. Once those point the same direc­tion, you stop hav­ing to push.

He got the clear­est ver­sion of that idea from an unlike­ly place. Dol­ly Parton.

That’s Chris. Clear about who he is, direct about what he sees, and unwill­ing to let a team stay qui­et about the thing that’s actu­al­ly in the way.

Watch the full inter­view with Chris below.