115: Successfully Taking Over as CEO from a Founder (MBS) with Shannon Minifie

We talk about The Fiji Test often here at Free Time HQ on documentation and making ourselves replaceable every day. The central question: Could a stranger to the business take over without much disruption?

That’s exactly what Shannon Minifie and longtime friendtor MBS put to the test several years ago. As he stepped aside as CEO of the company he’d been building for nearly 20 years, Box of Crayons, Shannon took the reins through a two-year transition process. If you haven’t listened yet, be sure to pair this with episode 051: How to Replace Yourself as CEO with MBS.

Today we hear about Shannon’s side of the experience—navigating a pandemic while parenting young children as a newly minted CEO, and the inevitable imposter syndrome that comes with any leadership role. I chuckled at her reminders-to-self about not trying to impersonate Michael or “build a museum frozen in place” with his ways of operating.

More About Shannon: Shannon’s career began in academia, where she wrote a dissertation on David Foster Wallace. In 2016, she embarked on a new path, starting a career in corporate learning and development, and took over as CEO at Box of Crayons (founded by previous guest Michael Bungay Stanier) in 2019. She encourages in her team an enthusiastic discernment that brings a depth of thinking to bear on everything Box of Crayons does.

🌟3 Key Takeaways:

• The focus changes when you move from working with contractors to having a core team. It’s important to keep the client front and center. 

• Have an identity outside of work: your job is what you do, not all of who you are.

• Go on a listening tour with your clients and team members. Be curious, listen carefully and make connections to better understand what is happening at your company. Remember that something can be real and true, but not need immediate action. 

📝Permission: To “earn your paycheck” over a long period of time. 

✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Take the advice a fellow CEO gave to Shannon—divide your time into four buckets: staying close to the client, staying close to the competition, calibrating your top team, and making your team and organization smarter. 

📘Books Mentioned:

• Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business

• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

• The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

🔗Resources Mentioned: 

• Shannon on the web, Instagram: @boxofcrayonsinc, Twitter, LinkedIn, 

• Page Two Publishing

• MBS.works 

• Coaches: Ernest Oriente, Jill Murphy

🎧Related Podcast Episodes: 

• 051: How to Replace Yourself as CEO with MBS

• Brave New Work Podcast: When the CEO’s Fires Themselves with Michael Bungay Stanier and Shannon Minifie 

• 2 Pages Podcast: Brave Choices: Channon Minifie x “A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again”

• 073: From CEO (Back) to Creator with Pat Flynn

• 081: DAOing and Prioritizing Progress over Perfection

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