Good leadership is paramount to good business. The first thing you have to do as a leader is to establish your purpose.
Podcast Transcription
About This Guest:
Mike Derryberry
Owner & Chief Visionary Officer - Compass Cleaning Solutions
Mike Derryberry is the owner and Chief Visionary Officer for Compass Cleaning Solutions. Established in 2004 Compass has consistently taken the long-term approach to grow the company based on Purpose, Values, and Mission. Their belief that culture and people precede profits and their determination to expand their services has given them a unique place in the Phoenix, Arizona market. They have consistently ranked in the top 10 for Janitorial businesses according to the Phoenix Business Journal.
Compass has been nominated, and selected as a finalist for the BBB Torch Award for Ethics three times, in 2015, 2016, and again in 2020. In 2020 they were selected as the top business in their category and were given the distinction of ‘winning’ The 2020 Torch Award for Ethics.
Mike is an eager advocate of good leadership practices and joined us for the entire month of April to talk about building great leadership in your cleaning business.
Establishing a Personal Purpose
First-time business owners can lose sight of this quickly and long-time business owners probably have left it buried somewhere under the paperwork on their desk. However, one of the most important things to do when you step into a leadership position or establishing your business’s leaders is to look at that personal purpose or the reason why you’re doing it.
The phrase “It’s not about what I want,” pops up a lot in business, but when it comes to your career that’s just not true. It’s all about what you want and why. If you don’t have a purpose that aligns with your position it can and will create conflict, driving down team morale and making work much less enjoyable.
Want to be a good leader? Make sure you have a good reason why and that it corresponds well to the leadership role that you’re assuming.
The Business’s Purpose
If the only purpose of your business is to make money, then you’re going to drive that business into the ground.
Many businesses start with the same purpose that their creator has, but as that purpose grows then that purpose generally will grow and shift. However, it should always remain in a place as a guiding point behind decision-making and strategizing.
Don’t overcomplicate your purpose or it will be difficult to communicate and follow. It should also be the thing in which you recruit and build your team around. The reason is that if a team member isn’t aligned with your purpose, they can cause conflict and projects to veer off-course.
Alignment of Purpose and Company
Why are you in business? Why do your employees work hard to complete their job every single day? Why do you do business the way you do?
Are these answers all the same or different? They should be the same at their core. Your purpose should act as an anchor to all that you and your employees do. If your employees have a different agenda than you do or if your business isn’t structured to align with your purpose, how do you expect to reach that goal?
Consider your purpose as you expand your business, take on new opportunities, bring on new team members, and even as your shape your processes, like hiring, sales, and support.