Episode 83 & 84: Scale Your Company & Protect Your Culture with Kayvan Kian
Kayvan Kian wrote the bestselling book What is Water: How Young Leaders Can Thrive in an Uncertain World. Kayvan’s book and his work, as a consultant with McKinsey, seeks to show young leaders how to grow, how to thrive, and how to contribute in any situation.
Recap / Takeaways
Creation is a magical thing that's always happening all around us
Young leaders often have more overwhelm, doubts, and insecurities
What is Water book:
Fish don't know what water is
You need to become better aware of your context (what's around you)
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. (Nietzsche)
You can transform many difficult situations to a positive if you find the why behind it
You must know yourself (what are you good at, not good at)
Making better choices
Ask yourself questions to narrow down your criteria:
Which one makes more money?
What aligns with my values?
What do I personally want?
What things do you want prevent?
Scaling + Growing companies
How do you make sure founder isn't a bottleneck?
Come up with criteria for decision making
How to best utilize the talent you currently have?
People might have been hired for a unique skill, but people have more than that one skill
How to protect the culture that you have?
You don't notice what your culture is
Get an outside perspective - get input from new team members, customers, outside consultants
How to take things to the next level
Don't just look back and measure things that have already happened. Instead find indicators that are forward-looking that you have control over and can measure
Ask yourself: What does success look like? Given that picture of success, if we keep doing what we're doing, how confident are we that we have a good shot at this?
Action Item
Think about what you're contributing to in the bigger sense (for yourself, friends, family, team, and society)