Jim Schleckser helps leaders grow their companies by assisting them in opening their point of constraint (also known as the kink in the hose). He is the CEO of Inc. CEO Project, a business advisory group for high-performing, experienced CEOs. Jim has been at the company’s helm for 17 years and counting.
Jim has done business in 40 countries and recently ran a technology business valued at $1.6 billion. He’s a Columnist for Inc. Magazine and the author of two best-selling books, Professional Drinking and Great CEOs are Lazy.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Jim Schleckser reveals what effective CEOs do differently
- How to delegate and not lose sleep
- Discovering the kink that’s stopping the flow of revenue in your business
- The five hats great CEOs wear
- Powering company success through processes
- How the Inc. CEO Project works
- Reworking your business model
- Top hiring tips
- Jim’s favorite books to check out
In this episode…
Dear CEO, if there’s a kink in the hose of your company’s revenue flow, what will you do about it? Are you going to put on your player hat, march straight to the frontlines to drive sales, and hopefully figure out the constraints? Or are you going to wear your analyst hat, dig into the data and figure it out? Whichever approach you take, you’ll be wearing either of the first two hats effective CEOs must wear to remove kinks in their business.
The other three hats are necessary to fix the business areas where the kink exists. Kinks can live in your business model, talent, or processes and systems. Ready to learn more about these business hats?
Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring the CEO of the Inc. CEO Project, Jim Schleckser. They discuss the five hats great CEOs wear, how to delegate without losing sleep, reworking your business model, hiring tips, and more!
Resources mentioned in this episode
- Inc. CEO Project
- Jim Schleckser on LinkedIn
- Jim Schleckser on Twitter
- Jim Schleckser’s Articles | Inc.com
Special Mentions:
Books Mentioned:
- Professional Drinking: A Spirited Guide to Wine, Cocktails and Confident Business Entertaining by Jim Schleckser
- Great CEOs Are Lazy by Jim Schleckser
- Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
- Topgrading: The Proven Hiring and Promoting Method That Turbocharges Company Performance by Bradford D. Smart, Ph.D.
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
- Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate & Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping your Business by Adrian Slywotzky
- Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud
- Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
Related Episode(s):
- “The Pixar Story: The Letter of a lifetime That Started Everything With Alvy Ray Smith, Co-Founder of Pixar”
- “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital”
- “[Top Giver Series] Making Tough Financial Decisions During a Crisis with Nick Araco of AchieveNEXT”
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Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
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Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Insider Stories from Top Leaders & Entrepreneurs…
Episode Transcript
Jeremy Weisz 0:19
Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of Inspiredinsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders I’m here with Jim Schleckser of the IncCEOProject.com. I’m gonna, you know, formally introduce Jim in a second. Jim, I always like to mention other episodes people should check out on the podcast. And one of the most interesting ones is I had the co founder of Pixar on he talked about some Steve Jobs stories from George Lucas story’s amazing. He came out the book Alvy Ray Smith. And check that out. I had Todd Taskey on actually who Jim knows, personally. And big shout out to Todd for introducing Jim and Todd helps sell agencies, and he has a Second Bite podcast. So some of the people that help sell the company, they actually make more money on the second bite. And so check that episode out. And Todd Taskey is podcast and Nick Araco amazing guy, he’s got a network of CHRO CFOs and which complements Jim’s company with the Inc. CEO Project, which we’ll talk about also. So check that out. He has some amazing advice for companies there. This episode is brought to you by Rise25 Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream 100 relationships. And we do that by helping you run your podcast. You know, for me, Jim, over a decade, I found no better way to give to my relationships than to profile the people and the companies I admire in my podcast, the number one thing in my life in my life is relationships. And I always want to give to them in a podcast is a platform that you can shout from the rooftops what that person is doing in their thought leadership. So if you thought about starting a podcast, you should, and if you have questions, go to Rise25.com. And we’re happy to answer them. both John and I have been doing it for over a decade, which I don’t know in dog years is a long time podcast here. So check it out. I am excited to introduce Jim Schleckser, he helps leaders grow their companies by helping them open their point of constraint, which is the kink in the hose. If you check out his LinkedIn profile, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. You know, you can visualize that as a leader, what is the kink that is stopping the flow. And He most recently ran a technology business valued at $1.6 billion. He’s done business in 40 countries. And he’s the author of two best selling books, Professional Drinking, which is not what you think it’s about. And Great CEOs are Lazy, which I listened to. It’s it’s fantastic. It’s a must listen to. And he has run Inc. CEO Project.com for over 17 years. Jim, thanks for joining
Jim Schleckser 3:00
Well, thank you for having me, Jeremy, I’m a little intimidated. I don’t have any Steve Jobs stories, but I’ll do my best.
Jeremy Weisz 3:05
I’m sure a lot of great stories itself. And, you know, I want to get into the book a little bit, you know, Great CEOs are Lazy. And one of my favorite books is the goal, which you talk about in the book, too. And I just want to start with effective CEOs. And what do effective CEOs do differently?
Jim Schleckser 3:25
Yeah, effective. And we really built this model, I’d read the goal years ago, and all Goldratt stuff, actually. But he never really fully deployed it to the concept of the system have a business. You had elements of it, but you never put it all together. And what I found as I was interviewing CEOs that probably interviewed 2500 CEOs over time, is that there’s a real distinct difference between how they spend their time in the business and the outcome that they get. And so the ones that were really performing at a very high level were working, you know, 4050 hours a week, like normal. And the guys that were completely out of control, were working like 80. And it was early question in our interview process. And I found I said, Well, what’s the difference between these two groups, one guy’s busting his hump, and the other isn’t, and yet the one that’s not working that hard is getting a better outcome. So why is it? And the answer is it lies in gold, right? It lies in the point of constraint, the really good CEOs, the effective CEOs, do two things. They find the kink and they fix it, and then they go, Alright, let me relook at it and finding it and if you can, the analogy of garden hose is appropriate here. If you have a garden hose and I’m trying to get flow rate out the end water and it kinks. You can do work anywhere on that hose, but the only place that the work is useful, effective work is at the kink. Same things true in your business. Somewhere in your business. There is a kink a point of constraint that stops you from getting the revenue you want serving the people you want. Getting the relationships you want making the profit, what depends on what it is. And your job as a leader is find the kink and fix it and everything else you do is non value added. And so the smart ones go well, since it’s not value added, I’ll spend almost no time on it. And I’ll spend most of my time on that.
