新书连载 | The Growth Coaching Book 企业增长指南 01

 联系电话 ｜021-5407-5836

 联系邮箱 ｜PR@frostchina.com

序言

为你铺设舞台

PROLOGUE

SETTING THE STAGE FOR YOU

My personal coach once told me, “David, if you want to feel bad about yourself, compare your life to others. There will always be someone who is much more successful, taller, better looking, smarter, luckier, and enjoys life more than you" “Wow! This is true!" I say to myself as I experience it every single day in Silicon Valley. Each day on my way to work, I pass the awe-inspiring campuses of Apple, Nvidia, and Workday. These are amazing success stories that make me feel both proud and humbled: proud to be part of the community and humbled when I go into the Frost & Sullivan building.

Having said that, I have to admit that I never really took my coach's advice as my entire career has revolved around benchmarking against the best practices. I have spent 40 years in Silicon Valley and have grown used to being around amazing leaders who seem larger than life itself When I got here, there were Andy Grove, Regis McKenna, Bill Packard and David Hewlett, now, it is Elon Musk and a long list of unicorn kids Over the 40 years of having observed such leaders and having compiled my thoughts, I have grown to accept my failures as a leader. Recognizing my ineptitude has been rather painful. But truth be told, it has also presented me with an opportunity to leverage my growth potential and become a better leader, I now understand that great leaders don't have a basket full of great leadership skill sets. They simply know where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Based on that knowledge, they nurture and build a leadership team around them that maximizes the Future Growth Potential.

As easy as it may sound, the continuous pressure of benchmarking every aspect of your leadership skills, your products, your services, and your company against the best in class can be daunting. But if you want to succeed and lead your team into the future of our global economy, you must set your expectations to some painful experiences and periods of your life. That is where this book can become a guide as it has the potential to improve all aspects of your life. A caveat is in order regardless: if followed rigorously it will be a painful process. And if you don't like to bear the pain from competitive comparisons, setting high goals, and working on your weaknesses, this is not the book for you.

The Growth Coaching that drives this book is all about knowing your true self, building a solid team around you, and inspiring your team to work passionately toward the collective vision or what I like to call your Aspirational Ideal (you'll learn more on this in Chapter 4). This book is unique in that it is a Growth Coaching guide to help you improve your Future Growth Potential as a leader. It will do so by benchmarking your skills to 20 key leadership traits of Steve Jobs and other top-class leaders around the world. Here is what you should and should not expect from this book. The Growth Coaching Book is

i. Not about being right or wrong

The traits in this book are not about being right or wrong. They are like ingredients for a chef or tools for a carpenter. You choose and master the ones that suit you and bring out the best in you and you team.

ii. Not about copying someone else

I am not suggesting that you become a clone of a successful leader What I am trying to do is simply share what my team at Frost & Sullivan has observed and analyzed as tools to help prepare you and your team to achieve your Future Growth Potential.

iii. A fuel for the think tank

Not all traits shared in this book will be universally loved or accepted They are meant to be fuel to spark the think tank atmosphere between your colleagues. It is meant to help you think, “How does this make your team stronger?" You may not agree with all the skills we cover in this work which is good. This sparks a dynamic think tank environment from which we can grow, customize, and build.

iv. A starting point: it is meant to spark the journey

The book can be overwhelming with too many skills to learn and a bar set way too high. Great athletes take a decade to build their skills, and the same goes for great leaders and great teams. This book is just a starting point in your Growth Coaching journey, so calibrate your expectations accordingly.

v. About team coaching over individual

The most powerful and beneficial outcome of this work is to create a great team of leaders moving as one. This is far more powerful than just inspiring one individual on the path.

vi. About making the journey unique to you and your team

This journey is most rewarding when it's unique, it reflects the best in you and your team. Remember that this leadership book is about you and the team you form around you. You can only create a great team if you know your own strengths and limitations and you build a team that enhances those strengths and works on those limitations. The Growth Coaching will help you do exactly that and enable you to understand and work with each team member's unique strengths and limitations.

vii. About enlightened growth over the 1980s growth

We are now in a global economy where all growth must be good growth. As we grow, the world wins and we all win. This makes our journey tougher and more rewarding, The Growth Coaching is all about bringing leaders together to collectively contribute to enlightened growth and create a better tomorrow for everyone.

so, want to read the book? still not sure as to whether or not this book is for you? it's quite simple: if your answer to the following questions is“YES," then you've chosen just the book for yourself.

I. Does Growth Coaching align with your aspirations?

Hopefully, this book and you have a common uniting factor, which is he Aspirational ldeal. It is meant to help you maximize your Future Growth potential as a leader, lf that doesn't light your fire or you have been told tread this book or, worse yet, your spouse has said that you need this book then you are probably wasting your time.

Ⅱ. Are you willing to take risks, experiment, open your heart, be vulnerable, and become totally immersed?

Achieving growth is definitely not easy. If you want to see your leadership potential grow, you will have to put in the work. You will need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. You will have to take risks explore unchartered growth zones, and dedicate yourself completely to your growth journey. You will need to have your eyes set on the ultimate goal of maximizing your Future Growth Potential. This includes your ability to take your company, product, team, or leadership style to a powerful level in the future. Look at it as an Olympic bar that you will be setting your sights upon.

Ⅲ. Do you want to be a better leader, a great leader, or an inspiring leader?

If you are in a leadership position and/or are passionate about improving and inspiring those around you, this will be a great system to follow and integrate into your working life.

Now that we have established that this book is for you, I'll let you in on a few tips on how you can use this book to its fullest.

i. Keep an open mind

To get the most out of Growth Coaching, it will be helpful to go in with an open mind and heart. You will encounter things that you don't like, things that make you skeptical, or things that you might find counter productive Focus on the things that will help you, skip the parts that don't work for you, and work on the parts that do. This book is all about you. Its only purpose is to make you Insanely Great.

ii. Have an aggressive pursuit strategy

The Growth Coaching sessions that you will be exposed to in this book are not created to make you a better spouse, a great friend, or an amazing human being, They are all about making you an Insanely Great leader as measured by your Future Growth Potential. To achieve this, you must take big risks, scare yourself, make big mistakes, upset people, get into trouble. and try again.

A great daily check-in is to ask yourself, “Did l scare myself today? Did I try something different? Did l push the envelope?" This cannot be an easy or enjoyable journey, If it is easy, then you are most likely not doing it right. And if that's what is happening, then I suggest that you put this book aside for the time being and go get a new Growth Coach

iii. Take what resonates with you

Not everything covered in this book will spark joy in you. This Growth Coaching process can be taken in its entirety or can be piecemeal based or what inspires you this month, It is also not a quick-fx program. Remember if this is what you seek, it will take a lifetime of work and transformation.

iv. Involve your community and team

You will need more than one Growth Coach. You will need you community to support you through this difficult journey. There will be lots of low points because the entire process of benchmarking and setting Olympic-level standards is one of failure, frustration, and very rarely a victory, It doesn't matter! Experimentation and failure are the only progressive ways through, That is why a key trait to embody, which we will cover in this book, is the importance of Celebrating Failure. So, be vulnerable and have some fun while embracing your failures.

My team at F & S has developed the Growth Council App. The app provides its users with access to various F & S services including Grow! coaching. You can play around with the app to make your Growth Coaching journey fun, interactive, and exciting, Our Growth Council App will be your best friend through your coaching journey. Here's what it will do for you:

i. Check where you are and where you want to be:

ii. Benchmark your leadership skills with that of your peers and other top leaders of the world;

iii. Track your progress;

iv. Connect you to other like-minded and aspiring leaders;

v. Link you to a coach who is right for you; and

vi. Support and motivate you through your assignments and activities. 

And through all of this help, you will be able to not only evaluate your Future Growth Potential but also maximize it!