“Well you’re bigger, but are you better?”

My accountant uttered these profound words to me after our second year in business.  This was close to 20 years ago after I started my marketing agency in the spare bedroom of our home.

Much to my surprise, we had done really well in our first year, and had moved to downtown offices.  But, we had done exceptionally well in our second year – we tripled our revenues.  Then in our third year we doubled our revenues again.

Over the course of 5 years we grew approximately 800%.  Within that 5 year period we had lost one of our biggest clients, Western Star Trucks, when they were purchased by Freightliner and moved to Portland.  We had to work extra hard to regain what we had lost, and then pick up even more work to continue to grow at the rate we had been growing.

In that season of the company, Profit Magazine ranked us as one of the Fastest Growing Companies in Canada.

We were certainly bigger, but were we better?

I began to ask myself, “How do I define better?”

At the beginning of the business, I believed bigger was better.  I believed more was better.  I implemented an AFM growth strategy: Anything For Money.  You need a Yellow Pages Ad?  We can do that!  You need a radio campaign, complete with a jingle?  We can do that!  You need a logo done cheap?  We can do that!  Our “Minimum Cheque” – the smallest job size for which we would engage with a client – had no minimum.

As we grew though, my definition of “better” began to change.  We began to specialize.  We eliminated our AFM strategy.  We differentiated ourselves.  We began to focus on core strengths, and gradually increased our Minimum Cheque to $25,000.

As the nature of the company began to change, so did my leadership.  Or should I say, as the nature of my leadership changed, so did the company.

I began to focus, instead of trying to do everything.  I attempted to shift into a role where I did less, but more.  I focused on my “unique ability” – those things that I could do better than anyone else in the company.  And, I hired people smarter than me and better than me at the other aspects of the business.

Trying to do everything is the death of any leader.  You end up a mile wide and an inch deep.  Or, like Bilbo Baggins said, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”

Without focus, your energy is scattered in too many directions and you end up with less.  You can accomplish far more if you focus on applying your unique ability in fewer directions.

Less but more.

This concept is articulated wonderfully in the book Essentialism, by Greg McKeown.  He defines Essentialism as the belief and application of “less but more”.  It is “…not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done.”  It’s making the wisest possible investment of your time and talent.

I believe everyone has a unique ability: something you do better than anyone else.  Or at least, something you do extremely well.  Wise leaders focus on their unique ability and hire other people to bring their unique ability to the organization.

Focus is the key to productivity.  And, focusing on your unique ability ensures you are as productive as possible.  Multitasking is not the answer.  Forbes magazine in 2012 wrote the following,

“Unfortunately, our brains just aren’t equipped for multitasking tasks that do require brainpower. Our short-term memories can only store between five and nine things at once. … Instead of actually helping you, multitasking works against you. It’s making you less efficient, not more.”

As leaders we need to resist the urge to continue to take on more and more.  We need to intentionally give ourselves to less and less.  We need to focus on our unique ability.  In order to function at our highest point of contribution we need to focus on making wise investments of our time and talent.

Bigger isn’t better, only better is better.

Less but better.