Simon Sinek argues CEOs should focus on infinite purpose rather than finite wins. He proposes creating a Chief Vision Officer role to protect long-term vision when short-term pressures mount, keeping the organization's cause alive across generations.
If somebody's a gate agent for an airline, you pretty much want them to have a finite mindset, right? You don't want them to be all so gushy gushy that the plane never leaves the ground. Like I need a beginning, a middle and an end. However, I want them to be like the Venn diagram still has a 10% of the infinite mindset because they understand how I treat a customer actually still matters in the infinite mindset. Because I need you to come back. I need to not just get this plane out today, I need you to come back and fly with us tomorrow. So you want them to have a finite mindset, but you want them to be aware of the infinite mindset because you want them to be aware that they're building something that can outlast them and feel a part of the just. Cause at the most senior levels you want them almost obsessed with the infinite mindset, but they have to be aware of the finite components that are important to keeping the business running because they're going to make policy decisions that are going to affect the front line and they have to know that too. But you don't want somebody in a senior, senior, senior job who's obsessed with the finite because then you get somebody in the CEO job who's really a finance person. And by the way, that's a little aside there. You know, in all of the C level jobs we put somebody's job description in their, in their title. Cfo, cmo, cto. You're not good at reading a balance sheet, we don't make you the cfo. I don't even need to read your resume. And I know that what's a CEO? What exactly is an executive officer? And this is one of the problems. We keep promoting the wrong people into that job because we don't really know what that job does. We need a new title, cvo, Chief Vision Officer. Someone who is the keeper of the vision, the holder of the vision. They are the final arbiter whether it's worth the short term sacrifice for this finite gain. In order to advance the infinite, we need CVOs and generally the, the finite minded people that we need in our companies, those operators, those finance driven people, we need them to be aware of the infinite game, but they're probably not equipped to be the cvo. Some of them can make the adjustment, but a lot of them can't. So I think you have to understand that. We have to understand that finite is not bad. The problem is there's a context for all the finite and what we've forgotten is the context. The infinite game is the context within which finite games exist. They do not happen in a vacuum. An infinite game is not just a series of finite games. It's not what it is. Every finite game must be used to advance the infinite, and we need people to remember that. And the leader is the one who's reminding us of the cause, reminding us of the cause, reminding us of the cause. So we all feel like what we're contributing to and helping to advance. Advance is the key word. There's no such thing as winning, there's only advancing it.
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