The Four Leadership Keys that Rocketed Our Organization into Epic Expansion
Occasionally someone comes into our life at just the precise time and just the right way. As I read through my journals from 2003 I found some notes that reminded me of such a person.
I was working as a consultant for a local student ministry in Dallas. Balancing my time between the church and the rapidly growing Wonder Voyage was a bit of a dance. But the dance was going well. One of the volunteers in the student ministry I was consulting for was a man named Steve Farris. Steve had done well in the field of entrepreneurial marketing but he always found time for the teens at his church. Wherever he was needed, Steve was willing to serve.
We saw each other on Wednesday nights at the youth meetings and struck up a friendship. For a reason I still do not understand Steve pulled me aside one night. He told me how thankful he was that I was helping at the church. He asked me several questions about Wonder Voyage. As I excitedly shared the vision for the organization he seemed to light up. Start-ups were his specialty. He then caught me off guard by saying, “Let me take you to breakfast tomorrow. I have a big gift I want to give your organization.” I drove home that night wondering how much money the dream check would be.
At breakfast the next morning Steve sat down with me over scrambled eggs and bacon. “Shawn, I am a consultant in demand. People pay me thousands of dollars to spend a few hours with them assessing their businesses. You have told me enough about Wonder Voyage that I believe I can now give you the gift of my time. If you will accept a bit of wisdom I believe it will help launch your organization into a whole new realm.” Suddenly, a big check did not matter. Steve was about to give me wisdom.
Over the next hour, Steve would share a handful of business secrets with me that became the catalyst to one of Wonder Voyage’s greatest moments of growth. I madly took notes, filling up a napkin with my thoughts, and trying to process the gold he was generously handing to me. These would become the keys that helped me solidify the unique culture of Wonder Voyage.
If you are curious about what Steve shared than keep reading. (Those who own their own businesses or run any sort of organization will find this interesting.) Please remember, this is not a self-help article. This is a chance to learn something about our history as an organization and too remember the hundreds of moments of wonder that make up where we are at today.
Cultural Shapers
Any effective organization understands that their success rises and falls on how successful they are at shaping the culture around them. They can easily identify and communicate their organization’s cultural ethos, primary mission, and unique call. If you cannot shape the culture around you then you will take on the culture and be washed away in the minutiae and monotony that most people drown in.
EX. Wonder Voyage creates and leads trips in a way NO ONE else does. We have a unique ethos and culture we have created. In staying true to that calling we have lost some potential business but we stay busy enough and we all love what we do.
Cultural Gatekeepers
Thus the CEO, director, manager or business owner becomes the cultural gatekeeper. Their number one focus needs to be on keeping the mission steady, the ethos pure, and to remind all of your staff of the unique call of the organization. If he or she does this, the rest will come. That is, of course, if the idea or product or service is of high quality and meets a unique need.
EX. I spend about 25% of my time developing those within our organization, 25% developing strategies and future projects, 25% maintaining excellence in the organization and 25% communicating our unique call to those who would benefit in a partnership with Wonder Voyage.
Info-gathers
The best organizational directors are efficient info-gatherers. They have systems in place to get honest feedback from every level within the organization and from the cliental they serve. This also requires a personality and ego that allows honest feedback (both positive and negative) and the ability to truly care how others perceive your organization, abilities and the quality of what you offer.
EX. On every level of Wonder Voyage, we CONSTANTLY assess how we are doing. This sometimes drives the staff crazy but it has allowed us to target potential critical issues and focus on constantly improving the quality and consistency of what we do. This causes a reinvention of our materials, our staff training and trips every year. A lot of work but the payout has been massive.
Bringing on Staff or Volunteers
When you are interviewing new volunteers or new staff, only bring into the organization those who mesh with your culture. When hiring make sure they meet the following criteria in the following order (as an example: Attitude is much more important that Experience):
- Attitude- are they passionate, willing to learn, and a good fit into the culture you are creating?
- Aptitude- do they have unique skills that will help the organization to grow or skills that will enhance a specific need of the organization?
- Flexibility- do they have both the ability to adapt into the organization and bring something unique that will cause the organization to mature?
- Experience- what have they experienced in life that will show their track record as a person and potential volunteer or employee? When interviewing, ask questions about non-work topics that reveal if this person will mesh with the unique culture of your organization.
Over the next few months, I applied every bit of the advice he gave me. That next year Wonder Voyage grew 60%! Within three years we were 400% larger than we were before I met with Steve. There are innumerable factors to that growth but Steve’s wisdom was a major factor in our health and success as an organization.
I want to thank you, Steve Farris, wherever you may be, for taking the time to listen, to learn and to care. Thank you for believing time is far more important than money and that wisdom far outweighs its worth in gold.
