We have two amazing guests for you this week, Roland Siebelink and Cheryl Biron, to weigh in on some of their thoughts about what’s new in the world of scaling up. Stay tuned as Bill and our guests dive into the health of an organization, developing better leaders and people, and how to brace for the upcoming market storms ahead.

Roland Siebelink is an award-winning tech startup CEO as well as one of Bill’s former clients. He is a coach that focuses on mid-stage tech startups and works one-on-one with CEOs to scale their businesses. Cheryl Biron has an MBA in Marketing from The Wharton School and serves as a CEO for One Horn Transportation. She has used the Rockefeller Habits to reduce her demanding role and obtain more freedom. Charyl is also a coach and is the author of The Hot Tub Manifesto!

This panel’s first topic of discussion is the health of an organization. Rajendra Sisodia has an upcoming book on the subject about how to align multiple stakeholders, customers, and employees into a purpose-and-values-driven company. The purpose of a company should not be solely to make money. The ability to make money is definitely in a scorecard, it’s an indicator of company health, but it is a very weak ‘core purpose.’

In order to develop a healthy organization, their leader must be self-aware, and open to being coachable. One in five executives quit the coaching process because it’s uncomfortable to shine the mirror onto themselves and look at their flaws. Roland shares that in this coaching process, it goes a long way to just be kind than to be right. Cheryl agrees. To her, it’s about finding the right battles to fight for and let go of.

The next topic is about the value of people! There are forecasts that there is going to be another recession soon, so what does that mean for leaders, today? Cheryl shares an example of how people can work together for the greater good of the company so that no one does get laid off by taking pay cuts and allowing staff to go on vacation without pay. It’s not an ideal scenario, but it benefits everyone as a whole because they still have jobs during tough times.

Roland agrees with this approach. By being conscious of the market volatility and adapting your workforce to it, you also have the ability to retain industry knowledge. If you had initially laid off your workforce and were seeking the same level of expertise two to three years from now when the market has somewhat recovered, it would be nearly impossible to find these individuals again.

The next topics cover the customer experience, going the extra mile the way Airbnb does, upcoming Scaling Up workshops, the benefits of a daily huddle, getting lost in communication platforms, and visualizing company BHAGs.

Interview Links:

Rajendra Sisodia

John Ratliff

Randall Reeves

Mr . Jenkins Told Me

172: Scaling Up Insights — Coach Panel with Roland Siebelink and Cheryl Biron

Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher