Lessons Learned from Jim Collins

Build something meaningful by choosing your focus, facing the facts, and following through.

Why pursue a great life when you already have a good one?

It's a question I've been asked many times. Why keep growing? Why keep reaching? Why not be satisfied with what you have?

For me, the answer isn't that greatness will finally make me happy or prove something to somebody else. I want to be an example of what is possible. I want to blow my own mind. I want to see where we can take things.

That is one of the reasons I love Jim Collins's book Good to Great. His work helps me think about business, but it also helps me think about how I want to live.

Good can keep you from pursuing great

It's easy to settle for good. We can have a good business or a good life and never discover what else we're capable of creating.

That doesn't mean you should pursue greatness because you're never satisfied or because you need approval. I think it's important to ask why. My reason is the desire to grow, to contribute, and to explore what is possible.

You may wonder how this fits with my teaching about B-minus work. B-minus work is better than perfection that never makes it into the world. It gets you moving. But that doesn't mean you produce B-minus work and never try for anything beyond it.

Put your work out there. Then see how far you can take it. Not to finally become worthy, but because you want to discover what you're capable of.

Get the right people in the right seats

Collins's bus analogy has been powerful in my business: decide who belongs on the bus, and make sure they're in the right seats.

I like to picture a bus with no bottom. Everyone is running to keep it moving. We don't want passengers who are simply along for the ride. We want people contributing.

I've brought people into my organization who were in the wrong position. In that seat, they were a liability. When I moved them into the right seat, they became a huge contributor.

If you employ people, consider their strengths and where they can perform at their highest capacity. I have high expectations of my team, which makes it especially important to think about where each person can excel.

This also applies to relationships. A friend might no longer belong in the best-friend seat as you grow. That doesn't necessarily mean you need to remove them from your life. You can consider what place they will hold now.

For new coaches, the same principle starts with deciding who you want to work with. First who, then what you will provide for them.

Be willing to look at the facts

Another lesson I love is the willingness to confront the facts, even when you don't like them.

In coaching and in business, we need to state what is actually happening clearly. Keeping it hidden or refusing to look at it prevents change.

Bringing the facts into the open makes solutions possible. Denial doesn't move your business or your life forward. Willingness to see what is true does.

Choose what you want to be the best at

Collins's hedgehog concept asks you to consider three things: what you're deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, and what drives your economic engine.

That question affected me early in my coaching career. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, I committed to pursuing being the best coach I could be at helping people with their minds.

Believing in yourself doesn't require putting anyone else down. You can love yourself, have humility, and pursue being the best in the world at something.

Just as important is deciding what you won't try to be the best at. At The Life Coach School, we haven't wanted to compete on being the cheapest school, producing the most coaches, or growing the fastest. We want to provide the best coach training we possibly can.

That clarity guides our decisions. When passion, meaningful work, and an economic engine come together, your work and your life can move toward greatness together.

Let discipline create results you love

Discipline is sometimes treated as a word that takes all the joy out of life. I've found the opposite.

The discipline of not drinking, eating on protocol, and going to work even when I don't feel like doing every part of it creates results I love. It gives me reasons to feel proud of myself and my team.

Being around people who value discipline creates an energy of contribution and excellence. We plan our days, show up, and stay focused on what we're building.

That isn't a punishment. It's how I want to live.

Build opportunities instead of accommodating problems

One idea that struck me while revisiting Collins's work was the difference between managing problems and building opportunities.

When our customer service department had issues, I started looking for ways to delight customers who had been disappointed. If we had made a mistake, I wanted us to go above and beyond to make it right.

But I realized how much energy we were spending responding from inside the problem. What if we stepped back and changed what was causing it?

Instead of adding people to handle more complaints, we could improve the technology, communication, and follow-through so fewer problems happened in the first place. That helped us keep a lean team by improving how we delivered our work.

The same question applies to your life. What are you spending time accommodating and tolerating? What opportunity could you create instead of repeatedly managing the same problem?

That's what I love about pursuing greatness. It asks us to think beyond what already exists. We can appreciate what is good and still be excited to discover what comes next.