Building Thriving Start Ups: A Process
As we wrap up this series, having a process or road map is key in determining your success on your building journey.
The builder talents do not address every factor that affects a builder's success. Non-personality variables such as skills, knowledge, experience, and other factors also play a role.
The Gallup Builder Profile 10 talents explain who you are, what you can do, and what you believe you are meant to do.
You won't know what you can build until you know who you are. And just like an athlete in training, you constantly work at it to get better. Self-awareness is like a muscle—exercise strengthens it.
3 Step Process
Step 1: Self-awareness
Is a self-model of yourself. An internal schema, if you will, of your personality, you can use to understand your behavior. It's how you view yourself and the world around you.
When you get your BP10 report from the online Gallup assessment, please read the detailed descriptions of your talents. You may know these about yourself or you may be surprised and unaware of certain aspects of your personality. Either way, make note of words or phrases that stick out most with you for each of your top four talents.
When you create your self-model, your brain experiences what Gallup calls the strengths advantage. Focusing on what you are good at—your talents or your strengths—improves your performance.
Gallup's research shows there are practical benefits to learning about and working in your strength. They have found when individuals and teams use their strengths, employee engagement increases by up to 15%, the enterprise's profit rise by up to 29% and sales jump by up to 19%.
Step 2: Board of Directors
When you have an understanding of your top builder talents, you're ready to form your personal board of directors.
Successful builders admit they didn't get where they are by themselves. Like them, you will need support. Sharing and feedback from others is important.
Who do you want on your board?
People you trust, whose opinions you value, those who will be honest with you, who know more than you do, and who can help with your growth and development.
Some roles to consider for your board: coach, mentor, role model, expert, accountability partner, complementary partner and someone with shared interests. You may want as few as two or as many as 10 board members. Keep in mind diversity of ideas and expertise will be beneficial in your journey as a builder.
Step 3: A Plan & Journal
As you begin to focus on your talents, start a journal that captures your positive experiences based on your talents, your plans for the future, and the steps you'll take to reach your goals.
Every time you spot a behavior in yourself or others that reflects your natural talents, write it down. Make a note of three occurrences every day when you do something naturally well and it makes you feel good. This trains your brain to identify and use your strengths.
Next write down your plans for the future. What do you want to do, and a process that will get you there?
Write down your interactions with your board members. Connect their feedback forward to your goals. Keeping a record of your actions allows you to see how you make decisions and increase your self-awareness. Your journal will become a historical record you can revisit to assess what led to your success and failure.
Remember building self-awareness takes discipline. You have to train your brain and use your strengths.
Knowing yourself is foundational to your success.
But cultivating self-awareness is just the beginning. The leap to actual building something of economic value is much bigger and requires more work.
The keys to building are creating self-awareness, recognizing opportunities, activating on ideas, and building a team.
What are you building?