Jim Collins in Good to Great shares a concept he calls “First Who, Then What” that I have known for years is important but have not acted upon it. I have let years of my professional life go by without capitalizing on this wisdom and I feel I have missed out on the impact I could have had on those around me because of my lack of follow through. This is changing. I am actively trying to build out my “who” and I want to share with you my framework to creating my “who”.
In a business context, the who can be simple and easy to understand but in a personal context it has felt more difficult to me. It is for this reason I have not made progress – I have felt overwhelmed and did not know how to do it. Thank you to Ryan Hawk for helping me focus and get started.
It doesn’t have to be hard. Here is an activity I invite you to try:
- Get out a piece of paper and pen (writing by hand helps solidify things in the brain)
- Write down columns that describe the areas of your life that are important to you (yours may be different than mine)
- Write down row labels : Above, Beside, Below
- Fill in the boxes with names of individuals who you consider fit well the description
- Set up time to talk to these individuals about the area they occupy in your table
There are three categories of audiences that can teach me, and it is important to surround myself with all categories to ensure maximum learning and growth. Those who are ahead of me in what I want to achieve I classify as “Above”. Those who are my peers, who will challenge me and push me to be better, I classify as “Beside”. Finally, I learn best when I teach. I need to always be actively teaching those who will come after me. These are the ones I classify as “Below”. No one audience is more important than the other.
I invite you to do this exercise. Do not wait like I did. Be intentional about building your personal “who”. Your path to your own personal goals will be realized more quickly when you have the right “who”.
