I made a very important decision at the end of last year: I wanted to control my time once again.
Let me illustrate a few ways this has impacted my life and my business.
For one thing, I made it a non-negotiable that I wouldn’t take any meetings until noon. That also meant that I wouldn’t come into the office until noon, and instead I would use that time in the morning to take care of myself and my family. I decided to devote that time to focus on my health, fitness, children, and other things that truly matter to my overall well-being.
In addition to taking care of myself, I knew that for the time I wasn’t there, I would allow Crisp’s leadership team to function autonomously and make decisions for the company without me there to guide them.
I saw this as a win-win for everyone — but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t incredibly nervous to implement this new way of life.
When I first made this decision, I felt tremendously guilty. I’ve always been the first one to come in and the last one to leave. How could I really go through with such a huge change?
Fast forward to today, after more than six months of living this way.
- We had our best first quarter in the history of the company.
- We had our best second quarter in the history of the company.
- Our leadership team is a well-oiled machine capable of making independent decisions.
- Crisp is doing better than ever.
It’s amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish.
Getting out of the way truly helped our leadership team thrive. I now spend more time reading, thinking, journaling, and getting fuller clarity over the vision of our organization. To maximize my effectiveness as a leader, I’ve started focusing on maintaining state where I feel mentally refreshed, focused, restored, and confident.
It has worked.
When you look at what makes a leader effective or not effective, it all boils down to the quality and caliber of decisions they make.
We make hundreds and thousands of decisions every day, and they’re all weighted differently. When it comes to running a successful business, you’re going to have to make hiring decisions, firing decisions, investment decisions, and so much more.
If you make the right decisions, you’re going to move your business forward. But if you make the wrong ones, you’ll continue to get stuck — and eventually, you might not be able to pull yourself out.
I believe these decisions are the right ones for our business at this stage. They are helping us get us closer to realizing our vision — and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to operate this way.
