How to Grow as a Leader so You Evolve Your Team – In Just 7 Minutes with Gene Hammett

Resources/Links:

• Do you want the core principles from Inc 500 founders that drive their growth? Get one worksheet with 12 principles of fast-growth: http://genehammett.com/worksheet

Summary

Gene Hammett is a leading expert on high-growth company culture and leadership. He has interviewed more than 400 CEOs of high-growth companies to understand the core principles of fast growth. Gene consults companies to activate new growth and reduce the high cost of ineffective leadership.

In this episode, Gene shares the most important aspects of company growth and how he helps companies grow and evolve as leaders.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:13 – Gene’s ideal client: it’s the founders and CEOs of fast-growing companies
• 01:18 – Problem he helps solve: Leaders seem to focus on the strategies of growth and not necessarily the people.
• 02:48 – Typical symptoms people experience with that problem? We hear all the time people are overwhelmed. They get so many opportunities in front of them that they don’t really know how to focus on what’s next.
• 03:48 – Common mistakes people make when trying to solve that problem: I think a lot of people think more work, more hustle, more grit, is what’s necessary to power through most of the problems that are happening in the business when the reality is some of the time, which is really most of the time, we’ve got to just slow down and take perspective over what’s really going on.
• 04:48 – Gene’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): If you sat down in a blank sheet of paper just kind of scribbled out all the hats you’re wearing and all those projects that are on your kind of menu, if you actually start assigning different people that have even better skills in certain areas, if you can’t do that you really get some problems inside the team aspect of that. And that’s really, another issue that we have to get into.
• 05:39 – Gene’s Valuable Free Resource(VFR): http://genehammett.com/worksheet
• 07:10 – Q:’What makes me credible to talk about fast growth?A: I ran a fast-growth company. I started a company from just an idea to put 5 Million in two years. I took that to about 15 employees and I really struggled as a leader to evolve once I got complacent. And I think that my experience working in fast growth, hands-on in the trenches. But also working with over 400 leaders, makes me very credible to help people see what they can’t see themselves. Help them to slow down the speed up and help them really create more of practical workshop.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“We've got to just slow down and take perspective over what's really going on. And that's one of the things I helped my clients do is help them slow down so they can speed up,by getting perspective over those problems.” -@genehammett Click To Tweet

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland:[00:00:09] Hello everyone. A very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by Gene Hammett. Gene, good day, a very warm welcome and where are you hanging out?

Gene Hammett: [00:00:20] Atlanta, Georgia.

Tom Poland: [00:00:21] Atlanta, Georgia, the home of the braves, is that right?

Gene Hammett: [00:00:24] It is.

Tom Poland:[00:00:25] Try to know something about everywhere. So, folks for those of you who don’t know Gene, we’ve been in the same JV, joint venture mastermind group, for quite some years. But for what’s more important to you is that he’s a leading expert on high-growth company culture and leadership. He’s interviewed more than 400 CEOs of high-growth companies so that he could understand the core principles of fast growth. Gene consults companies to activate new growth and reduce the high cost of ineffective leadership. So, our title today is “How to Grow as a Leader so You Evolve Your Team”. Very interesting. We’ll get to that in just seven minutes as always. Gene, our seven minutes starts now. Question number one, who is your ideal client?

Gene Hammett: [00:01:13] Well frankly it’s the founders and CEOs of fast-growing companies. They know they want to keep going fast and it’s a big challenge as the pressures of the market, the pressures of hiring people, developing people. And I work with them on the defining moments of their growth at a personal level inside the business and then also just strategies to grow the business.

Tom Poland: [00:01:36] So a blend of the personal and the business, I guess on recognition of the fact that it’s the people that are growing the business, right?

Gene Hammett: [00:01:44] Absolutely.

Tom Poland: [00:01:46] Yeah. Okay. So, you can’t separate the thinking of the person with the growth in the business. Question number two, just six and quarter minutes left. So, what’s the problem you solve, how would you define that?

Gene Hammett:[00:01:56] You know, there’s a lot of problems that you have when you want to be a more effective leader. And one of the biggest ones is you seem to focus on the strategies of growth and not necessarily the people. So, when you think about growing your people you’ve got to grow yourself. And frankly, they’ll read books, they’ll pay attention to podcasts even, but they don’t do as much work as you would think on actually challenging your own thinking, challenging the mindset as a leader so that they can continue to grow the company and grow those people.

Tom Poland: [00:02:31] Thank you. So, if you’ve got this person who’s, say they’ve just joined you as a client and they’re an absolutely ideal client but before they did that, what are some of the typical symptoms that motivated them to reach out to you? What are they experiencing when they had the problem? Five and a half minutes left.

Gene Hammett:[00:02:48] We hear all the time people are overwhelmed. They get so many opportunities in front of them that they don’t really know how to focus on what’s next. They don’t have the people; they’re always hiring someone else new. So, there’s a lot of typical symptoms in there but one of the core ones is just that feeling of overload and being a little bit unsure of themselves because they have to make so many decisions and they have to make them fairly quickly.

Tom Poland: [00:03:13] Right. And they are important ones, consequential ones. So, question number four, just over four and half minutes left. People are under this problem of overwhelm and having to make all these decisions fast and understanding the, there’s a lot of consequences hanging of them. They’re going to be aware that they’re experiencing those. So, question number four is what are some of the common mistakes that these people might try to solve that problem before they find you?

Gene Hammett:[00:03:38] I think a lot of people think more work, more hustle, more grit, is what’s necessary to power through most of the problems that are happening in the business when the reality is some of the time, which is really most of the time, we’ve got to just slow down and take perspective over what’s really going on. And that’s one of the things I helped my clients do is help them you know, slow down so they can speed up, by getting perspective over those problems. Looking at those symptoms and really trying to find the core issue that allows them to keep moving forward and be the kind of leader that they really want to be.

Tom Poland: [00:04:14] So it sounds like you’re getting to the cause of the mayhem as opposed to just trying to clean up some of the symptoms.

Gene Hammett: [00:04:23] Yes. You got to get to the core issue.

Tom Poland: [00:04:25] And I heard this great saying the other day, it’s an army saying apparently, slower is smoother and smooth is faster. I thought that was quite clever. So, question number five is what is one valuable free action that an audience member could implement that’s going to move them towards solving the problems? It’s not going to solve the whole thing but it’s going to help them a bit.

Gene Hammett:[00:04:48] I like to think about these things as something you could probably do tomorrow over a cup of coffee. Doesn’t take that long to do but if you sat down and looked at all of the activities that you have going on and all the hats you’re wearing as a leader, you need to be able to identify people that you could hand off those projects to. So if you sat down in a blank sheet of paper just kind of scribbled out all the hats you’re wearing and all those projects that are on your kind of menu, if you actually start assigning different people that have even better skills in certain areas, if you can’t do that you really get some problems inside the team aspect of that. And that’s really, another issue that we have to get into.

Tom Poland: [00:05:27] Rather than another opportunity. So, thank you for that. Two and a half minutes left, question number six. What’s one valuable free resource that we can direct people to that’s going to help them a bit more.

Gene Hammett:[00:05:39] So I’ve been on a really big push today, I’ve got, I say today but it’s every day, because I’m really excited about what I’m doing. I have rebranded my podcast. It has been called Leaders in the Trenches. It’s now called Growth Think Tank. I only interview people from the Inc. 500. These are the founders and CEOs and they’re growing at typically more than 1000 percent over a three-year period. That’s what it takes to get in the top five hundred. And so, I have had probably 20 to 25 interviews in the last two months and have organized them into the twelve core principles of fast growth leadership and its worksheet really is quite powerful. I can give you the URL if you want that.

Tom Poland: [00:06:20] Yes, please.

Gene Hammett:[00:06:21] It’s genehammett.com/worksheet, G-E-N-E-H-A-M-M-E-T-T dot com forward slash worksheet. And on that is not only the twelve principles but it aligns to the episodes that have been published and some are yet to be published yet of the core principles of one leader that’s walking through that depth. So, all you could do is pick the one that you want to learn more about and then you go right into that interview.

Tom Poland: [00:06:47] I know now you well enough to know that this will be, this is an incredibly solid value. It’s not simply a free cheap giveaway, it’s, it’s, go get it, people. It’s genehammett.com/worksheet. Gene, thank you for that, incredibly valuable. I’ll be opting in myself. Question number seven and just over 45 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Gene Hammett:[00:07:10] What makes me credible to talk about fast growth?

Tom Poland: [00:07:13] Good question, and the answer is?

Gene Hammett [00:07:16] I ran a fast-growth company. I did in 2001, I started a company from just an idea to put 5 Million in two years. I took that to about 15 employees and I really struggled as a leader to evolve once I got complacent. And I end up writing a book “The Trap of Success”, and I think that my experience working in fast growth, hands-on in the trenches but also working with over 400 leaders, makes me very credible to help people see what they can’t see themselves. Help them to slow down the speed up and help them really create more of the practical workshop.

Tom Poland:[00:07:50] Amen to that. Gene Hammett, thanks so much for your time.

Tom Poland: [00:07:55] Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.