As a philosophy researcher, I firmly believe that CEOs should tap into philosophy. It’s a game-changer. It powers you up. It fires up your team.
I once guided a client who had made big bucks – $200 million from his company. He was seasoned in business and life at 50. And me? A CEO of a marketing firm with a philosopher’s heart. I dived deep, asking him questions, just like I do in my academic work.
He said, “No one’s dug this deep before,”
This threw me off. To me, these questions were simple, even obvious. My goal was to understand him, to solidify his big ideas into solid plans.
Here is my takeaway. People don’t ask enough questions. They don’t ask the right questions. Here was a multimillionaire CEO, 50 years old, and he hadn’t faced someone who challenged him the way I did.
Philosophy isn’t about finding easy answers. It’s about learning to ask the tough questions.
Ask the right questions, and you’ll get the right answers.
This kind of thinking can open your mind. It can lead to a vision that lights a fire in you.
You need a mission. Something you and your team would give everything for. In the end, a successful CEO has one key job: Keep growing a vision. Make it so big, it’s hard to grasp. But make it so compelling everyone wants to follow.