Becoming an Impact-Driven Business Leader

Are you a leader that sacrifices health for the sake of growth? In this episode, our guest is Zach Estes, a Manufacturing Engineer by trade; who has experience in manufacturing operations, hospital operations, and media operations, and now leading Path for Growth as Chief Operating Officer alongside Alex Judd. He’s passionate about healthy growth and applying operational principles in life and business.

In our conversation, Zach digs into some lessons he learned from his time as a manufacturing engineer that has helped him to be an effective operator in today’s business landscape. He stresses the importance of visibility in business and how manufacturing principles can be applied to any type of business. Zach breaks down the principles that he uses to run an efficient, effective, and enjoyable business and what has led him to achieve healthy growth. Listen and enjoy!

Transcript

[00:01 – 06:58] Opening Segment

• Zach shares his journey as a manufacturing engineer

How he ended up being the COO of Path for Growth
Helping leaders grow their businesses without losing themselves in the process
• Make work visible for better communication and understanding between team members and customers

[06:59 – 19:58] Path of Healthy Growth for Businesses

• Zach discloses the four steps to Path for Growth

Standardization, documentation, evaluation, and improvement
• How Path for Growth help businesses achieve success

• Why individual growth is a key element

Not sacrificing one’s personal life to achieve success in one’s business.
• There must be intentionality and energy put into pursuing healthy growth to maintain a flourishing business

[19:59 – 32:11] The Importance of Downtime

• The key to a successful company is having a clear mission, focus, and passion

Leaders need to communicate these values to their team for them to be attentive and motivated
• Why downtime is expensive, and leaders need to be aware of this to manage it effectively

Planned downtime vs unplanned downtime
• Taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually is important for long-term success

[32:12 – 35:52] Closing Segment

• Learn more about Zach with the Rapid Fire Questions!

• Q&A: Should you share your financials with your team?

Key Quotes:

“If you know how you create and deliver value for your customer, then you’ll know how you don’t do that to you.” – Zack Estes

“If you know where you’re going, or if you know what your responsibilities are, then it’s a lot easier to determine what it is you should be spending your time on.” – Zack Estes

Practical Pointers

Make your work visible. That means that your tasks, projects, standards, and documentation should all be visible and clear. Some work adds value, and some does not; when things are unclear and not visible, when you don’t see everything that you’re doing, you often end up doing a lot of wasted work.

Operationalizing your business involves four key steps: Standardize, Document, Evaluate, and Improve.

Develop a future org chart so that you know where you’re going and not only where you are now, and each role has individual success statements so that we know what to expect from every role. As Zack said, if you know where you’re going and you know what your responsibilities are, then it’s a lot easier to determine what you should be spending your time on.

Communication is key. If you can communicate to your team what’s valuable and what’s not valuable, and also have a sense of what you’re supposed to accomplish, you can more efficiently reach that aim and that goal.

People want to know that they’re doing valuable work, that what they do matters. A leader needs to communicate that and tell them why their role matters, so that they are attentive to what the organization’s mission is supposed to fulfill.

Show notes

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Guest Bio

Zack Estes

Zach Estes is a Manufacturing Engineer by trade; who has experience in manufacturing operations, hospital operations, and media operations, and now leading Path for Growth as Chief Operating Officer alongside Alex Judd. He’s passionate about healthy growth and applying operational principles in life and business.

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