Introduction to CEO Corner
Welcome to CEO corner! It is here that I am going to share my thoughts on things I have read, discovered, done and experienced that I think are inspiring, useful and interesting to young professionals and young leaders and entrepreneurs out there. Likewise, I would like to invite them from time to time to share their thoughts and learnings on this blog too, so if you are interested in contributing please email me at andrew@headbox.com.
Having worked mainly with young people my entire entrepreneurial career I recognise that it is their energy, ambition, curiosity and sometimes downright insanity that has already helped me to make a success of two companies.
2019 Kick Off
So to begin. I am going to start with our Company’s Monday morning kick off. At HeadBox I bring the whole company together (there’s now over 50 of us) at the start of every week to share what it is we have done so far in the month and what we want to achieve in the week ahead. Wherever possible I like to bring a theme to the meeting that will encourage us as a company to keep striving for excellence in all that we do. As the CEO these meetings and what you say in them are important because it sets the tone, the pace, the energy and the ambition of the company. It’s the chance to inspire everyone at HeadBox that what we are doing and learning matters and is making a difference. This week was particularly important because it wasn’t just the start of the week and the month but of the entire year ahead.
The Theory of Yes
I chose as my theme to share a video that my son Jack (who is starting his own company at the age of 19) shared with me based on four young Canadian millennials who have started a movement that now has 3.2M YouTube subscribers. It is based on the idea that saying yes is a very powerful and universal truth. Saying yes, saying why you can do something or achieve something rather than starting from the perspective of why you can’t is galvanising. Although there are a number of messages at the heart of “Yes Theory” that we embrace at HeadBox, I chose to amplify two.
1. The first is the importance of setting goals not just as a company but for yourself too. You are much more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down or share them with people who know you. This forces you to commit to them.
2. The second is about the importance of taking action. What are you prepared to do to achieve your goals in 2019? This was a question I challenged us all with. Start with small actions. They can lead to big things. As Thomas Brag says “One Yes can change your life” so start 2019 by saying Yes!
