From Operator to Advisor: What Your Business Really Needs From You Now

Foreign. I'm so glad you're here. We are talking about the beyond the CEO transitions. Oh, and this is Chris Blackie. I'm your host. And this is the Leadership Is Feminine podcast. So last week we talked about the first of the transitions, which is business readiness. Right. And I gave you a link in case you didn't do it yet, to go to the visionary CEO forward slash business ready. And that's where you can take a readiness assessment that will help you sort of discern where is your biggest opportunity when it comes to determining if the business is ready to operate without you in it and if you are ready to let that be true. So this week we're going to talk about another transition. And this transition is moving into the advisory consultant role for the business that you built and the team that you created. I know I've talked about this many times, but I'm going to talk to you about it again because it's one of those visuals that I've always found really helpful. When I was a young intern years ago, I worked for a business that was run by a woman in San Diego. It's called Patty Roscoe and Associates. And it was a travel destination management company. And so, so her team, she built a business that would curate high level events for companies that were doing like, you know, top sales professionals or whatever, like their big events that they would host. And we lived in San Diego, so there was lots of really cool things to do. And I thought for a hot minute that's the kind of work I wanted to do. And so I was an intern and I loved it. It was all women that worked there. It was such a cool environment, except for this one person I worked for who was evil and mean. But that's, that's the Difficult Boss podcast. We'll talk about that one another day. But I have this very vivid memory. So one of the things that was super cool about this work environment too was that it was in an old Victorian home in San Diego that had been converted into an office. And so it just, there was just some element to it that I think was very memorable in many ways because it was female founded business that was all women who worked there. It was in a home that was beautiful and just had this wonderfulness to it. It was a wonderful energy. Patty Roscoe just had a really has still a very powerful energy. She still exists on the planet and she's a really cool person. So she doesn't know me from Adam, which is fine, but I have a lot of respect for her. But Regardless, my memory, and this again is my memory, so I could be wrong, but this is what my memory was. She was a very traditional in the way that you would think of as a CEO, and she was big on networking. She was out in the community all the time. She went to a lot of events and so forth. So she wasn't in the office all the time because her role was to build brand, you know, build relationships, critical relationships, build client relationships, et cetera. But when she was in the office, there would be these meetings that she would host and they would be at this big board table and her team would assemble directors that were all running various events for the business and they would present to her the, the plans for each of the projects or whatever was going on with a particular client. Her role was incredibly consultative, advisory. It was not managerial. They would tell her, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And she would basically, from a mentorship angle, give her perspective, make a recommendation, give an alternative point of view. If they were making selections for a particular event, she would give her opinion. But it was not managerial and it was not controlling. It was consultative. And this is, this is my aspiration for every single woman who runs her own business is to step into the consultative role of your company because you have elevated this business to a multimillion dollar operation. If you are still sitting in the seat that is in weeds, if, if you are still having frontline conversations with clients, if you are still dealing with employee jibber jabbles, if you are still approving things that you should have other people reviewing and approving, if you are still making decisions that, that are three tiers below in terms of pay grade, like we're paying you $700 an hour. Why are we paying you to make this decision when this is a $50 an hour job decision? That's how we know there's work to do. And that work begins with you. The first part of it is even starting to think about yourself as the consultant advisor to your team, not the manager of everybody. So I, I know you can feel the level of the, the required release of control. I know you can feel that. And that's why you don't do it, because you don't trust people. You're afraid they'll do it wrong. And, and they will. People will make mistakes. People always make mistakes. Guess what else? So do you. Nobody ever doesn't make a mistake. Like mistakes are going to happen all the time. It doesn't matter that we have mistakes. What matters is how we resolve mistakes. And if we don't let people learn how to resolve mistakes, resolve issues, resolve problems that they may have even created. How could you ever expect them to lead your company? There are very few clients I have worked with who have businesses that if they make a mistake, like, somebody's going to die. Very few. Every now and then, like, I have a couple clients, a surgeon, right? Someone who treats patients after transplants. Big deal. There are business is and jobs that have very low margin for error. Most of us do not have that. Most of us just have thoughts about people making mistakes, that we have thoughts about perfectionism. We have thoughts about failure that cause huge problems when we grip that bat so tight that there is no margin for error. No one will take the bat from you, mama. They will keep giving it to you because they're like, well, if I screw up, I don't want to be the one she's furious with, so I'll let her make all the big decisions because I don't want to make them because then she's going to be mad at me if I screw it up. Even if you're listening to this and you're like, I don't get mad. I just get really. It doesn't matter. They want to please you, and they have learned to not, not please you. That's why you can't put the bat down. The second piece is we have to learn, and this is the work I do with my clients. We have to learn how to be consultants, advisors, mentors. A lot of people think, you know, I'm a coach. Coaching is different than mentoring. We just talked about this in my sage gathering. You know, what is the biggest difference and coaching is the belief, first of all, that all answers are already available to you, that they're just hidden inside little lockboxes of belief systems and experiences that limit your access to your own wisdom. But as a good coach, my job is to help you reveal yourself to yourself, that you actually came to the planet, into this body, into this spirit of yours with all the wisdom you would ever need. Just like if you're a woman and you have all those eggs in there, you. You were born with it, mama. You were born with your wisdom. Coaching helps you remember it. Coaching helps you believe it. Coaching helps you trust yourself. Right? That's what I believe about coaching, mentorship is, hey, I did that. Let me tell you how it went for me. Let me give you some advice. Let me give you some recommendations. Hey, I've done that before. Here's. Here's some things I learned. Here's what's different about the way you're doing it from the way I did it. And here's why. I think that will work better for you the way that you're doing it. Here's what the industry, what I can tell you about the industry. So mentorship is much more about your experience, their experience. And we're combining that. We're giving it's advisory and it's consultative. There's more focus on action when we do mentorship, advisoring, consulting than when we just do pure coaching. Pure coaching is straight up, what do you think and how do I help you get in touch with that and believe it? Because I know that you know the right answer for you if we let you have it. But a lot of us don't know how to balance telling people what to do and consulting. And that's the dance you have to learn and that's the work I do with my clients. How do we be, how do we step out of that? Because you are so used to telling people what to do and they are so used to you telling them what to do. That. That's a lovely little dance, isn't it? The one that you most want to get out of though, right? So we have to learn how to become advisors in the business that we created. We have to understand that that is actually a role. I like the idea of you becoming an advisor consultant to your business because first of all, it makes the business more of an asset if it doesn't depend on you to run it. Meaning if you want to sell it and you've now moved yourself into this consultative role, you could sell the business and play that consultant role for a few hours a week for a couple years, but you don't have to run it because it doesn't need you. It helps the team become independent. People who have more autonomy and have the ability to gain more mastery are more motivated. You can actually see better when you sit at the consultancy level instead of the operator level. And this is how you actually build a business that has legacy that can exist without you. We move you out of doing and move you into guiding. We move you out of feeling like you want to just be needed to being trusted. We give you space to observe instead of just react all day. So there's a process for you to go through that involves like not giving tactical direction, giving away responsibility and then having check ins and benchmarks focusing on vision, not execution. There's a lot of things that we can do that move you through this process. But first we have to put words around it. We have to start to tell the truth about whether or not this is what you really want. And some people don't. Some people are like, no, I'm going to run my company until I'm done. I don't want to be the advisory consultant role. I get it. I also know that there's those same people freak out when they can't take a vacation. They can't leave the office for three weeks, or they can't call in sick because. Or they. They are sick and from their hospital bed, they're sitting there with their laptop because somebody can't make decisions without them. That is not okay. I don't care. But play. It certainly isn't in my world. Maybe it is in other people. I don't think that's what you were here to do. I think that when you learn how to be the advisor consultant for your business, you radically uplift everyone around you. What is that expression? Rising tide lifts all boats. When you step up, so will they. If you don't step up, they will not join you. They'll stay right where you are. So everybody's going to have to be uncomfortable, which is why we always try and support the team. Right. So you work with me, they work with Michelle. Our, our chief of Automagic. This. We talked about that last week. It's my new favorite. She's our chief of Automagic. She just makes things happen automatically. I don't know why I think that's so fantastic. She said it to me in a sentence like, yeah, you know, and then it's yada, yada, blah, blah. It's Automagic. And I'm like, wait, what did you say? Automagic. That's your new job title. So fun. So I want to just, you know, I. I have so much I could do with you personally if we were working on this, you know, and so there's like. Because I need to know your stuff to help you out of it. But I think the biggest, most important thing right now is what's happening when I talk to you about this. What happens? What is. What are your thoughts about why you could or should or can't become the advisor consultant for your role for your company? What would you have to decide in order to then ultimately take action that starts you down that path? Because it's going to start with you. It's not going to start with them. If your response to me while you're listening to this is, well, if I just had a team, that, then that is not the answer. The first Question has to be, who do I need to step into? What do I need to do to be able to step into this consultancy role? Now, that could mean I need to set new expectations for my team. I need to get about half of my list off my plate, which means, first of all, we need to know what that list is and so does the team. There's a lot to do in here, but it's not hard. It's a commitment. But I don't know why you wouldn't do it. Because the gift of being the consultant advisor to your own company is total magic. It's a game changer. It'll change your life, it'll change their lives. It's so fun. I think we limit the potential of our business by trying to hover and manage over all of it. I actually think there's more potential for your business if you grow into a new role and create room for everybody else to do the same. Maybe I have evidence of that. Maybe you should believe me. All right, so if this is dropping in, as I've mentioned before, and you're like, oh, this is good, I love all this, I need to talk to you about this, then let's just meet and go to my. My website. Visionary CEO. You can click to book a consultation, whatever, a call with me. Because I meet with everyone I work with. We should do that maybe. Have you listened long enough? Are you ready? I feel like you are. Okay, I'll meet you soon. Have a good day. We have so many great things coming up. Are you on the list? Go to the Visionary Cell and add your name. I will send you some fun things, and you'll be first to know about some really fun and interesting things that are coming up, like, say, the Hawaii Retreat. So Visionary CEO notes and get your name on our list.