Master Your Realm of Control and More from Nashville’s Most Admired CEO Anna-Vija McClain🤯
This week on the Leadership After Hours Podcast I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Anna-Vija McClain founder and CEO of Piccolo, a comprehensive digital marketing company. As a testament to Anna-Vija and her incredible leadership skills she was recently awarded Nashville’s most admired CEO. Here are just a few of my takeaways from our conversation:
In business everyone you know will leave you. Most business leaders believe this is a bad thing, but that is not the case. If someone isn’t a right fit for their position they will most likely be removed from the company or resign. However, a good leader develops their people. So, your direct reports then they will inevitably need to leave to take on new challenges. Accepting this natural life cycle of your business relationships will allow you to see and enjoy the evolution.
Business growth can and should be measured in a variety of metrics. Consistent revenue does not mean your business is necessarily plateauing. While revenue may not be changing much there may be a lot of growth behind the scenes. You may have scaled your team, streamlined operations, mitigated risk and more. The number on the paper may be the same but your company may have grown exponentially in other areas. It is crucial to measure growth from more than one metric.
Master your realm of control. Take time each day to recognize where you are at and understand what is your capacity for accomplishing tasks. Things will impede your ability to function at 100% and that is ok. Take the time to recognize when that is happening and see what you can do to operate at your best given those constraints.
Be willing to ask for what you want. When researchers studied how men and women rise in the workplace, they found that women are far less likely to ask for what they want. They are more likely to wait to be recognized for their efforts while men typically are more boisterous of their accomplishments. In addition, women are far less likely than their male counterparts to apply for a job unless they meet all the requirements. No matter what, you need to be vocal about what you want and don’t shy from opportunities.
The last one I will leave you with is one of Anna-Vija’s business values, “Don’t get offended. Get better.” To find out what she means by this and how it impacts her team listen to the full conversation here.
-Sean