Michael Dell says a leader's impact changes with company size: big organizations need strategy, small teams need hands-on work. Evan Carmichael shares how a daily walk helps him identify the single activity that adds the most value, and warns that most entrepreneurs waste time reacting to problems instead of driving growth.
Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is understand your point of impact. Over to you, Michael Dell.
Think about the point of impact. If you're running a business with 100 people, the point of impact for the leader is very different than if it's 1,000 people or 10,000 or 100,000. And so that's the frame of reference that I've always used is to say, okay, if I'm leading this organization, what are the things that actually I can do to cause it to be successful? If it's 1,000 people, it's very, very different than it is for me today. So today I'm a lot more focused on strategy because that's the point of impact on a 110,000-person company. On a 100-person company, you know, you're sort of doing any job in the organization. You're doing every job in the organization, you know, potentially. And that might be okay at that point.
[Speaker:EVAN CARMICHAEL] This is a really important message for entrepreneurs, and I think more important for entrepreneurs than for CEOs, because you are doing, in some cases, all the work for your business. And if you have a team, you're still doing a significant amount. And where you spend your time is critical, because if you're spending it on the wrong things and the wrong projects, your business isn't going to grow. I find a lot of entrepreneurs are very reactionary. You're putting out fires all the time, and often you could go home and feeling like you didn't get anything really valuable done today. One of the things that I found super helpful when I was starting my business was when I was walking to work— it was about a 15-minute walk— on that walk I would always think to myself, where can I add the most value today? What can I do today that's really going to help my business grow? Whether it's making phone calls, whether it's creating content, whether it's working with my team, whatever it was. What can I do today that will have a significant impact on my business? That's what I thought every day on my walk to the company. And that would be the first thing that I did before I got distracted, before emails came in, before fires started coming up. I would focus on that so I would know every day that I would get stuff done and be able to grow my business. What I find again, a lot of entrepreneurs, you're so busy just reacting to things, you're so busy doing so many things in a scattered way that you don't get anything great done on the 1 or 2 things that will really help drive your business forward. So understand your point of impact and make that a daily habit. Think to yourself, even if the walk to your office is from your bedroom to the next room, or bedroom to the garage where you're setting up shop, Wherever that walk is, think about it as what is the biggest value that I could bring to my company today to help me grow. So my question of the day for you today is, what's the biggest area of impact that you can have on your business today? I'm really curious to find out. Leave it in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of inspresso.
