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Founders are often considered the driving force behind the success of a business. Their unique vision, creativity, and leadership skills can impact the growth and culture of the organisation. In this interview, we will be discussing the role of founders in business growth with Sophia Barros and Zoi Saad, co-founders of Eunoia Mindset. They will share their insights on how founders contribute to business growth, the qualities of successful founders, the impact of a founder’s vision, the importance of innovation, navigating challenges, creating a supportive company culture, balancing vision with practical considerations, and advice for new founders. Let’s delve into their perspectives on how founders are the key to a business’s success.
- How do you believe founders contribute to business growth?
Zoi: As a founder, you are your business.
Your beliefs inform the values and standards of the business.
Your values ARE the culture and the brand.
Your vision and purpose very often gives rise to the business’ vision and mission.
Sophia: The business was born out of your creative genius; your unique ability to build and deliver solutions to address that gap you identified. These skills are reflections of your creativity, strategic thinking, and relationship-building abilities.
That’s why so many founders find it hard to replicate their system and step out of the doer role themselves, because very often they haven’t stopped to reflect on these organic steps, on the automatic actions they take, and map them into a process – a winning formula.
Zoi: Often founders forget it was their unique spark – not only their sweat – that they can thank for their success.
- In your experience, what qualities do successful founders possess that drive business growth?
Zoi: They value growth and evolution and specifically make time for growth each week (at the level of their business, but also themselves). They are;
- self-aware and authentic about their own limits
- curious and eternal learners
- approachable and empower others
- understand the importance of collaboration & connection
- passionate about their vision and impact
- How can a founder’s vision impact the growth of a business?
Sophia: A Founders vision can either be the flame of hope that unites an entire organisation behind a movement or it can become a man-made ceiling on one’s capabilities. When people know WHY they are doing something, their resilience and commitment grow exponentially – their motivation grows because they feel purposeful and needed and their level of fulfilment is significantly higher leading to greater loyalty. The thing most people don’t realise is that your vision not only serves to attract your tribe (your true fans and allies) but equally as important, it repels the naysayers.
- What role does innovation play in the success of a founder and the growth of a business?
Sophia: A Founder’s primary job is to be a problem solver. They set a target (the vision), then (directly or indirectly) compile the team to help get them to that target – despite the obstacles. Think of obstacles like boulders and innovation like a monster truck. If we can create a culture of solutions and empower people to be agile, there’s nothing we cannot achieve.
- How can founders continue to drive business growth even during challenging times?
Zoi: Be clear on your 3-year & annual vision and your MOST important thing for the next 90 days and maintain momentum – consistency over intensity.
Create space so you can be agile and take advantage of opportunities when they arise – as well as reflect on progress and walk away from ideas that are no longer working to utilise resources wisely. Practise emotional agility and mindset rituals to ensure you are operating from your genius zone – because challenges require our A game.
Sophia: How you show up right now will set the tone for how your team and support networks show up.
Zoi: And remember, that when you zoom out, this period no matter how challenging, is just a blip in the road of your journey and that ingenuity and evolution are often born in challenge.
- How can a founder create a company culture that supports growth and innovation?
Sophia: Innovation only happens in safety – in environments where failure is encouraged. We need to know it’s safe to try and fail in order to try at all. A Founder can do that by acknowledging the growth and learning that comes from EVERY project, even the ones that did not create the outcome we expected.
Zoi: The key is not to shame your team for mistakes, but to inspire them to take risks. Sometimes, you need to trust in them first, so that they can trust in themselves.
- How do you balance the founder’s vision for the business with the need for practical considerations when it comes to growth?
Sophia: There is a 3 part framework we use that tempers Vision with Strategy & Action.
We use a series of filters to help drill down on what the core priorities are right now and work on 1 core project at a time using a 6 Week Sprint framework.
Zoi: That framework has a series of questions, which captures the core operational and strategic concerns for the business at any one time.
Sophia: The biggest win of this framework is that it safeguards against overwhelm and shiny object syndrome which tend to keep founders stuck in the dream stage of vision-only thinking.
- What advice would you give to a new founder looking to drive growth in their business?
Zoi: Growth comes when we have made physical, mental, and emotional space for it. If you are not attracting that growth right now – the solution is not always to push harder, very often it’s quite simply to step out of the way – on an energetic and emotional level – and a lot of that has to do with changing how you respond to stress and challenge.
Sophia: It also has to do with how you control your focus. Very often growth is determined not by what we say yes to, but how good we are at saying no.
So step 1: get really clear about your vision and what growth you want for your business, and set very practical, bite-size objectives that take you closer to that outcome. If that’s not something you’re organically good at – get some help to map this out from a strategic coach or business coach.
And step 2: get good at baby steps. Simplicity is king – especially for new founders. Imagine your strategic map from Step 1 is drawn up on the wall, but the room is dark and you can only shine a light on one part of it – your next step. Your job is to focus on that one baby step and nothing beyond it until it is achieved; this helps with the overwhelm.
Zoi: The key mindset is to see yourself not as the person you’ve been until now, but to see yourself as the Founder that’s achieved your vision. Then take actions based on what that person – future you – would do.
We hope the insights shared in this interview will inspire founders to harness their unique strengths and lead their businesses towards sustainable growth.
Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Take action, embrace innovation, and continue to be the driving force behind your business’s success by getting in contact with Eunoia Mindset today.
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