Hey Friend,
It's now been four weeks of being a CEO and I feel like I've started to settle in a bit. What's perhaps surprised me the most is that I don't honestly feel all that different. I'm leaning quite heavily into 'just being me' – by which I mean I'm engaging with people how I would do so naturally and I approach decisions the same way as I would any decision (i.e. with copious amounts of questions) – and it seems to be working out. I even had a team member say to me encouragingly: "Be the CEO you want to be."
The thing that's been most 'new' to me would be learning about the dynamics of working with a Board, which has meant my 'field of vision' has expanded somewhat.
In this fortnight's Ko Lab, I'll cover an exciting honour for ColourSpace, the notion of 'proximity to intent', and reflections on Stephen Fry's excellent audiobook 'Heroes'.
I'm delighted to share that...
ColourSpace has been announced as a finalist in 2021's Ethical Enterprise Awards, hosted by Moral Fairgrounds. First and foremost, it's a great honour, and when I look at the other finalists, I feel quite humbled by the company that ColourSpace is in. I'm extremely grateful to our community, our artists, our supporters, and our clients.
However, I also have to admit that when we were first contacted about our nomination, I didn't accept straight it away. My biggest concern was around how it might be perceived, to be the CEO of a well-established institution, whilst also accepting a nomination for a completely different business.
What if people think I'm not committed? What if people think I'm being flaky or distracted? What if people find it confusing for me to be the face of two distinctly different organisations?
Firstly, I will clarify that everyone I work with fully understands that I'm doing both roles, and I've been openly transparent about what I'm doing on both. I even actively share experiences across both organisations so that both can gain from the cross-pollination of lessons learned.
I also appreciate that much of this discordance lies in my own head, that I should be true to myself and not be beholden to other people's expectations. However, I'm also keenly aware that I don't always get to control that narrative, especially when I'm also ostensibly the public face of two organisations.
If you're reading this newsletter, if you know me personally, then you may understand to some degree the deeper connecting tissue between Leadership Victoria, ColourSpace, and Curiosity Journals that is congruent with my broader world views and my 'true north'. But for those who don't, their only exposure to me is through the sporadic, algorithmically influenced lens of LinkedIn which is at best surface level and frequently bereft of context.
Of course, what I'm describing is the greatest tragedy of our current information landscape. My initial thought process was to 'lean in' to my authenticity, disregard what other people think, and exclaim that people should be more curious and open-minded.
But on deeper reflection, I don't know if that's good enough because I know that we're in a world where people act on limited information and can be quick to judge with significant implications, and I have to own the responsibilities to those I work with.
To quote Spiderman: "With great power, comes great responsibility."
'Proximity to intent'
So I used my morning jogs to reflect on this, and what's bubbled up to the surface is a concept I'll loosely coin as 'proximity to intent'. So it's time for some theory crafting folks (the 'Lab' part of Ko Labs)!
My thought process is this: If I both understand what someone says (the subject matter), and how they like to say it (their style of communication), then I have close proximity to their intentions. I understand what they mean, not just what they say. I can read between the lines, I'm willing to forgive clumsy use of language, I trust what they say, and I'm willing to accept their narrative, though I don't necessarily have to agree with it.
If I don't know what someone's talking about, and I don't understand how they like to express themselves, then I am quite distant to their intentions. It can be a lot easier to misconstrue their intent, I might nitpick at the things they say, and worst of all, I might override their narrative with mine.
Here's a 2x2 I literally just drew up to try and articulate this (by literally, I mean I distracted myself halfway through this newsletter to sketch this down. Welcome to my brain!):