Finally, it means creating a growth-mindset environment in which people can thrive. This involves:

• Presenting skills as learnable

• Conveying that the organization values learning and perseverance, not just ready-made genius or talent

• Giving feedback in a way that promotes learning and future success

• Presenting managers as resources for learning

Yet there are three barriers to scaling up, which we’ll discuss in the next chapter:

• Leadership: the inability to staff/grow enough leaders throughout the organization who have the capabilities to delegate and predict

• Scalable infrastructure: the lack of systems and structures (physical and organizational) to handle the complexities in communication and decisions that come with growth

• Marketing: the failure to scaleup an effective marketing function capable of attracting new customers, talent, advisors, and other key relationships to the business.

Thus, to overcome these barriers your team must master, using our tools, four fundamentals:

• In leading People, take a page from parenting: Establish a handful of rules, repeat yourself a lot, and act consistently with those rules. This is the role and power of Core Values. If discovered and used effectively, these values guide all the relationship decisions and systems in the company.

• In setting Strategy, follow the definition from the great business strategist Gary Hamel. You don’t have a real strategy if it doesn’t pass two tests: First, what you’re planning to do really matters to enough customers; and second, it differentiates you from your competition.

• In driving Execution, implement three key habits: Set a handful of Priorities (the fewer the better); gather quantitative and qualitative Data daily and review weekly to guide decisions; and establish an effective daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meeting Rhythm to keep everyone in the loop. Those who pulse faster, grow faster.

• In managing Cash, don’t run out of it! This means paying as much attention to how every decision affects cash flow as you would to revenue and profitability.

Handling a company’s growth successfully requires three things: an increasing number of capable leaders; a scalable infrastructure; and an effective marketing function.

In summary, growing a business is a dynamic process as the leadership team navigates the evolutions and revolutions of growth. And like the growth stages of a child, they are predictable and unavoidable. To deal with these challenges, the company must grow the capabilities of the leadership team throughout the organization; install scalable infrastructure to manage the increasing complexities that come with growth; and stay on top of the

market dynamics that affect the business.

To do this, there are 4 Decisions that leaders must address: People, Strategy,

Execution, and Cash.

A classic definition of leadership is inspiring others to perform and achieve a shared vision. This is true, but I would rephrase this definition of leadership as the art of building trust and meaningful connections in an environment where results matter. The leader is in charge of supporting the team, and this requires interdependence: being in relationship with others who depend on you just as you depend on them.