Sometimes a concept is framed in such a powerful way that you feel required to share it (this view may resonate differently with MBA-types). Balaji Krishnamurthy at LogiStyle offers this paradigm to help CEO’s focus their scarce attention:
A good way to examine where a CEO should focus their time is to ask whether the CEO is making an income statement contribution or a balance sheet contribution. Note that some balance sheet contributions create intangible assets, not just financial assets – such as developing people. Income statement contributions are: easy to recognize; can usually be well defined, quantified and measured; have a more immediate impact – as in, this period or this year; and their impact is a one time event.
While I find this to be an invaluable way to think about effortfor business leaders, I was also reading this as ”CEO of Brand You.”
- Are you too dialed into your “income statement” needs to think about tomorrow? Eating everything you kill in-the-moment?
- Are you making the necessary longer-term “balance sheet” investments today to make your work more valuable (or smoother) tomorrow?
- Are you developing new skills (akin to capital improvements in finance speak), or gaining new capabilities (think process improvements)?
As a rule of thumb, CEOs should focus more of their time on developing balance sheet assets and be more willing to delegate income statement responsibility to their qualified executives.
If you are spending all your time doing the same thing you did last year, ask yourself “is this what I want to be doing next year, too?” The only way you are going to jump the tracks is to expand your capabilities.
What can you do you to create the capacity at Brand You to enhance your capabilities? Sleep less? Delegate? Stop saying yes to low-value work?
