Benny Ausmus is the founder of the BIG Change Agency, and for the last 10 years, he’s brought transformation to yogurt factories, IT consultancies, flying trapeze schools (seriously!), manufacturers, accounting firms, recruitment companies, web developers, real estate agencies… just about every sort of business and industry you can imagine. In his new book The Transformational Leadership Compass, Benny synthesizes 14 areas of leadership research and practice into real-world, actionable advice for CEOs and business leaders.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Benny’s Father
When business started difficulties overcame:
“when I started consulting some of the first consulting gigs, I had… First of all, I was very young or certainly young in the game of giving advice and coaching so that was a huge barrier. So, the first challenges were finding a consistent client base, people that would see value in the work we do and work with us. To get the first retainers on board when we started the first consulting business… this is even before big change… that was a challenge”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Favourite Quote:
“watch your thoughts they become your words, what your words they become your actions, what your actions they become your habits, what your habits they become your character, what your character it becomes your destiny”
Recommended Online Resources:
- Jim Collins is the author of Good to Great, Built to Last and How the Mighty Fall. You will find in one place the timeless concepts that emerged from more than 25 years of rigorous research into the question of what makes great companies tick. These concepts are used widely by leaders throughout the business and social sectors.
- Gary Vaynerchuk – Gary Vaynerchuk is a Belarusian American entrepreneur, author, speaker and internet personality. First known as a wine critic who grew his family’s wine business from $3 million to $60 million
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“Treat learning as if it was an asset. Treat your own learning edge as if it was an asset of your business. So, the time that you invest and invest wisely in the right learning interventions to develop your skill set, to develop your ability… Treat that is something that can sit on your balance sheet as an investment for the future and find the right sources for it. The more you learn the more you earn provided it is real-world content. So, I’m not saying duck off and get an MBA, the truth is you are not going to learn how to manage people through an MBA. You are going to learn some cool models and probably develop a network if you go to the right one. But you learn to swim by being in the pool. So have a great coach, learn using practical applied interventions as you go through and invest heavily in that and you will see growth happen far faster for you”…[Listen for More]
More About Benny Ausmus:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” Steve Martin
Other Quotes From the Chat with Benny Ausmus:
- “the idea of making something out of nothing and going out there and having that entrepreneurial spirit I think that that is all the way through me. That is probably why I never worked out in a full-time role. It’s this drive for variety and this drive to create and shape your own future”
- “I think there is a great danger in…I’ve received plenty of advice over the years. The elements that have become wisdom are the things that I’ve carefully considered, tested, reflected on, overcome my own biases and ego and integrate it into the heuristics of how I make decisions in the real world. And the truth is we only do that through real life experience. No that’s an interestingly paradoxical thing for a coach or a consultant to say but here is the idea. A great coach, a great adviser helps their client create the right environment to test these ideas in a safe and iterative way. The best coaches work with these leaders to guide their learning journeys so they can accelerate process of getting this wisdom to bring it all on board. So, you know it’s an old cliché of if I knew 10 years ago what I know now things will be very different. I think a better question is how do I every day get a little bit better. Every day how do I reflect on what I’m doing, parked my ego, step out of my day-to-day whirlwind and tweak and reengineer my own heuristics, my own processes, my own systems of thinking and deciding to make them just a little bit better each day. And if I knew how to do that 10 years ago, I would be 10 years ahead of where I am now. But I’m also kind of happy that I’m doing this every day with myself and my clients because just the process of doing that is what makes life worthwhile”
- “beware of honour and wisdom”
- “I think the greatest secrets are hidden in plain sight… There are clues, there are systems of values and practices and ethos available in books”
- “maintain a strong curiosity to solve important problems while bringing forth a genuine care to make things better for people. And I would say that care and that contribution has to be put before the individual’s desires. So, learn constantly and serve with as much value as you can and do it in a way that makes a difference in the lives of others”
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