Val Wright - Thoughtfully Ruthless: The Key to Exponential Growth

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Copyright 2016 by Val Wright Consulting. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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ISBN 978-1-119-22257-6 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-119-22258-3 9 (ePDF);
ISBN 978-1-119-22259-0 (ePub)

For Andy, for your love, friendship, laughter, and boldness to move across the other side of the pond, and utmost unwavering confidence in me.

This book would still be floating around my head as a perhaps-one-day aspiration if it weren't for the following people:

Jeannene Ray, Heather Brosius, Lauren Freestone, Michael Friedberg, and the team at Wiley. Your thoughtful feedback and great partnership resulted in a book that will transform how executives rapidly grow their businesses.

Alan Weiss, my strategic advisor, author of over 60 books and godfather of the most dramatic vibrant community of consultants, speakers, and authors in the world. Thank you, Alan, for continuously pushing and challenging me, and creating the ultimate community that I learn from every day.

My remarkable circle of clients, colleagues, and friends who kept asking me to write this book and cheered me across the finish line. Your positively relentless optimism is infectious.

My three daughters, Naomi, Keira, and Olivia, whose boundless energy, continuous curiosity, and love for everything adventurous teach me valuable lessons each and every day.

Finally, my mum and dad, for teaching me that anything is possible with the right confidence and support.

In 30 years of executive and entrepreneurial coaching around the globe, I've observed that people tend to begin their day in one of two ways: It's either yet another glorious opportunity for success, exploration, and personal growth; or, it's a long, slow crawl through enemy territory.

Mind-sets inform behavior, whether consciously or subliminally. My dogs' mind-sets are always positive. If there's an open gate, run through it. Many people's mind-sets default to the negative. Let's do an analysis of the rewards and risks of proceeding through a gate unexpectedly found open. Is it a trap? Could there be danger lurking? What resources should we gather?

Of course, by the time these questions are meticulously answered, someone else has launched Uber, invented the iPhone, and won the Super Bowl. He who hesitates these days is no longer lost, but rather a nonperson. In a turbulent world, we need speed and boldness and a carpe diem attitude. The metaphoric gate doesn't remain open for long.

Can you imagine John Donne (and Ernest Hemingway after him) taking the time and analytic intensity to write, Identifying the populace for whom and not for whom the cacophony in the campanile sounds instead of For whom the bell tolls? Yet in the age of big data and persistent turbulent times, I see too many people slowing their pace rather than increasing it.

Val Wright has opened the gates at firms such as Xbox, Starbucks, and Microsoft and then urged talented people through them. For a quarter century, she has fine-tuned what she calls thoughtfully ruthless approaches to better create and exploit opportunity by intelligently leveraging time, energy, and resources. She has coached, worked with, and interviewed leaders globally and found the wisdom in what I call healthy selfishness: If you don't put your own oxygen mask on first, you're not as able to help others and will eventually be useless.

The filters we are blessed with in the aging process, as the horizon becomes closer and we begin to regret what we might not complete, can be used at much younger ages if you allow yourself the opportunity. Val doesn't assume the reader is damagedas so many business books dobut does believe that there are behaviors and skills that aren't always understood, let alone utilized at the most propitious moments. That's why suggestions here such as avoiding regret roulette and letting go of the mediocre seem so obvious and useful, while also so neglected.

I've known Val for several years, and she is one of the true all-stars I've had the pleasure to coach and support. She practices what she preaches, in that she's forthright, fast, and factual. She suggests nothing that she doesn't practice herself and that I've seen a thousand successful people employ consciously or naturally. Val will drive you toward the conscious competency of ensuring that the techniques that follow can immediately and pragmatically improve your life and career.

The question that remains is whether you have the thoughtful ruthlessness to do so. That bell tolls for thee.

Alan Weiss, PhD

Author, Million Dollar Consulting, Million Dollar Maverick, and more than 50 other business books

Not enough people can say I feel in control, I am achieving my priorities, I am energized and inspired, and I have discretionary time to use as I choose. Too many people are exhausted, miserable, and focused on the short term. Leaders who are thoughtfully ruthless with their time, energy, and resources will catapult themselves ahead of the competition. Unlimited energy, increased discretionary time to use as you choose, and a backup team who support you is your reward for being thoughtfully ruthless.

When I suggest to my executive clients that they need to be more ruthless, I often see them wince. It has connotations of being brutal, selfish, and heartless. Once I explain my definition of thoughtfully ruthless, I get more nods and acknowledgment that this could accelerate results. For me, being thoughtfully ruthless means managing your energy and resources by being direct, being imperturbable, and focusing on the long term, while recognizing that your time is precious and you can control it, ruthlessly.