‘We Help CEOs and Executives Bring Clarity to How They Lead and Manage Their Organization’: Monte Wyatt, CEO of AddingZEROS

“At AddingZEROS, our purpose statement is Transform the Business World by Releasing the Potential of Executives and their Organizations.”

 An organization would be nothing without its people. And even the best people need skilled leaders to keep them motivated, support them, and guide them in finding creative solutions to challenging problems. But leaders don’t appear from thin air. If organizations want leaders to step up in executive positions, they need to develop them. This is where executive development comes in. It can solve all of these problems and more.

Monte Wyatt (CEO) and his company AddingZEROS are among the few companies that works with executives to achieve exponential growth, helping them grow in multiples rather than small percentage increases. The firm provides organizations with the tools and the guidance to add zeros in every aspect of the business – revenue, margin, profit, customer acquisition, customer retention, employee engagement, employee retention, and community involvement.

Monte Wyatt, CEO of AddingZEROS, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review.

Interview Highlights

Q. What was the motivation behind starting AddingZEROS?

AddingZEROS is an executive development firm helping CEOs and executives bring clarity to how they lead and manage their organizations. The foundation of our teachings and work with clients is based on our definition of a successful business. A successful business is Sustainable, Predictable, Stable, Consistent, and has an Emotional Connection. Sustainable, meaning the business should outlast everyone that is in it. Predictable, meaning we know what actions create what results to predict the future. Stable is all about our people. Stability is created through high engagement and high retention of team members. Consistency, we all want to know what to expect from a company or department no matter who we interact with. Emotional Connection means that people love who we are and why we do what we do. A company can have great revenue and profit but not be considered successful. This definition was created to help organizations of every size succeed in the business world. Yes, we must have revenue and profit in a business; that is one of the measurements of success.

Q. Tell us how you help your clients?

We call our process of working with clients “Strategic Thinking, Execution Planning.” To achieve the definition of a great business, an organization needs discipline. There are two types of discipline, individual and organizational. We help our clients with both. Executive Development focuses on helping executives be the best leaders and managers by learning new skills and making them part of their daily actions. Organizational Development helps the company create discipline and consistency through all departments and teams. We have identified five organizational disciplines that every company must have to truly grow. The five Disciplines are Strategy, Business Development, People, Execution, and Mission. In each discipline, there are decisions to make. The decisions are around who we are, what we believe in, and how we will do things. Once these decisions are made, we help turn them into behaviors in the organization. These decisions drive our direction, uniqueness, culture, and goals. That is the first step, “Strategic Thinking.” The next step is “Execution Planning.” Strategic Planning is great, but Strategic Thinking with Execution Planning gets the work done and helps us achieve our goals. The Execution Planning process helps identify priorities, critical time frames, and owners for activities. Our role is the facilitator. We facilitate the process to ensure that all executives are participating and aligned. This allows the CEO to be in the discussion vs. just driving the discussion.

Q. Developing a skill requires understanding themselves seeing the need for change. How do you make an individual develop a new habit that solidifies the change?

There is a math formula that I teach, Be x Do = Have. To have what you want in life, you have to be the right person and do the right things. It all starts with the have, the result that you are after. To make a new habit stick, there first must be a reason or an outcome that you are excited and driven towards. Once you are clear on the outcome and it is motivating to you, you must identify who you need to become. How do you need to think, how do you need to behave, how do you need to communicate and build relationships? Then you need to decide what you need to do, what actions need to be taken to achieve your outcome. By going through this exercise and being fully committed, you will create new energy, new focus, and new habits.

Q. A well-defined mission and vision is the secret behind the success of many firms.’ What is your company’s M&V statement?

We are living in a microwave world. Everyone wants more, wants answers, and wants achievement right now. Mission and vision statements are long-term feel-good statements. Every organization should have a clear purpose statement that answers why we are in business. This should be very motivating to every person in the organization. At AddingZEROS, our purpose statement is “Transform the Business World by Releasing the Potential of Executives and their Organizations.” Every day we focus on developing executives. When people grow, their business grows. When executives grow, everyone on their team grows. To help fulfill our purpose, we focus on teaching executives to think strategically. A major reason why executives get paid is to think. Think creatively, think abundantly, think long-term, and think for new solutions. This concept is at the foundation of how we help our clients.

Q. What would you say are the top skills needed to be a successful leader and manager?

I first would like to define the difference between a leader and a manager—a leader influences with passion and focus. A manager creates competence and productivity. Leadership is an action, and management is a function. The world is using the two words interchangeably. They are not the same. Anyone can and should be a leader; not everyone can or should be a manager. To be a successful manager, you do need to learn leadership skills. To put it into another view, we lead people and manage processes. No one wants to be managed, nor should they—lead people with vision, energy, and direction. Manage processes to ensure we accomplish the right tasks at the right time with the right results. To be a great leader, you must listen, communicate clearly, and see the big picture. To be a great manager, you must know the right priorities at the right time, you must be able to train and develop your team to be the best they can be in their role, and you have to know how to help your team achieve their goals.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

We have had demand and interest in executives becoming in-house certified facilitators for their teams. We have created a training and certification process for executives to learn our tools and facilitation skills to incorporate into their companies. We see a great opportunity here. This could be similar to 6 Sigma. I am very excited about this direction.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

We have a 10-year goal of impacting one million executives. Our global team of executive development experts are always looking for great facilitators and thought leaders to help us serve our growing global client base. So many businesses are re-evaluating their strategy, direction, and team engagement. Our unique process is making a significant impact, and it is gratifying to see our client’s results.

Every executive and organization, including myself and AddingZEROS, can benefit from an outside facilitator. To help determine how best we can assist, we offer a complimentary Strategic Thinking session to uncover how each organizational discipline is doing and where you can gain quick wins. Visit www.AddZerosNow.com or email me at monte@AddZerosNow.com to talk with a facilitator.

The Visionary Leader Upfront

Monte Wyatt serves as the Chief Executive Officer of AddingZEROS. Before starting his business coaching practice in July of 2004, Monte’s extensive career included sales representative, sales trainer, sales manager, customer relationship marketing manager, and market development manager through 14 years in the agricultural input industry.

Mr. Wyatt earned a B.S. from Iowa State University in Agricultural Business with Sales & Marketing specialization. For him, family comes first. He is a father of three amazing daughters, Katie, Alison, and Janie. They are the loves of his life and keep him grounded every day.

“There is a math formula that I teach, Be x Do = Have. To have what you want in life, you have to be the right person and do the right things. It all starts with the have, the result that you are after.”