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Built for Growth: How Builder Personality Shapes Your Business, Your Team, and Your Ability to Win
A Wall Street Journal Bestseller Are You a Driver, an Explorer, a Crusader, or a Captain? Many factors shape the success or failure of a new business, whether it’s a stand-alone startup or a venture inside a larger corporation. But the most important and least understood of these factors is the personality of the entrepreneur, the particular combination of beliefs and preferences that drives his or her motivation, decision making, and leadership style. And your builder personality is the one resource you can directly control in growing a business that wins. Simply put, who you are shapes how you build for growth. Built for Growth decodes the interplay between builder personality and new business success. Using a patented analytic methodology, authors Chris Kuenne and John Danner discovered four distinct types of highly successful entrepreneurial personalities the Driver, the Explorer, the Crusader, and the Captain. Each is motivated, makes decisions, manages, and leads their businesses differently. Kuenne and Danner blend pioneering research and exclusive personal interviews to illustrate how each type handles the five dynamic challenges in building a business of lasting value: converting ideas into products, galvanizing individual talent for collaborative impact, transforming buyers into partners, aligning financial and other supporters, and scaling the business. With assessments and tools, including a brief Builder Personality quiz and in-depth profiles of each builder type, Built for Growth is the ultimate guide for how to play to your strengths, complement and compensate for your gaps, and build a successful business from startup to scale-up. Its vivid stories and practical advice show how you can unlock the potential of your builder personality to shape your business, your team, and your ability to win in the marketplace. Please visit builtforgrowthbook.com to learn more and access the Builder Personality Discovery tool.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published June 6, 2017
59 people are currently reading
560 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
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May 7, 2018The writers break down the very complex aspect of Business personality into 4 - The Driver, The Explorer. The Crusader and The Captain
With every business venture, different personality types are necessary. This book aims to help you determine what your entrepreneurial personality is and how you can leverage it to the success of your business(es)
The assessments, tools and quizzes provided help the reader better understand how to properly use their strengths and identify gaps in their capabilities
The authors tell stories of popular businesses and the business styles of their founders/ CEOs
In summary, this is a really good guide to helps you identify your leadership style and determine how to positively impact the growth of your business
With every business venture, different personality types are necessary. This book aims to help you determine what your entrepreneurial personality is and how you can leverage it to the success of your business(es)
The assessments, tools and quizzes provided help the reader better understand how to properly use their strengths and identify gaps in their capabilities
The authors tell stories of popular businesses and the business styles of their founders/ CEOs
In summary, this is a really good guide to helps you identify your leadership style and determine how to positively impact the growth of your business
June 6, 2017
Interesting insights into four distinctive entrepreneurial personalities. I wrote about it here: https://www.inc.com/theodore-kinni/th...
July 12, 2017
Personality matters and how you (and your colleagues) present and portray themselves can have a marked impact on your success. This is the key message of this book, which suggests that a founder or key leader’s personality and outward presentation can make a significant contribution to a project’s or company’s success, working in conjunction with other well-known factors.
It can be one of the few factors you can directly and specifically influence with a degree of certainty, yet it seems to be often overlooked. This book may help you change that and certainly if you manage to get this area under control then it can have the potential to influence other areas for mutual benefit.
The authors used an analytic methodology to identify four distinct personalities that can be found within successful business builder personalities, and here they leverage this with other research, interviews, academic information and real-world interactions to great effect to present their views. The result is this book and its potential to let you transform yourself, with a guided toolbox at your disposal, and then the rest of the future success pathway is down to you and your possible creations.
The book was written in a clear, hype-free manner, which provides a credible and informative read. No faux inspiration or ‘blowing smoke’ was needed here. You may read this and still feel it is ‘not you’ but that need not be a failure of the book or the reader. Leadership is not for everyone, some people work better in the shadows than in the spotlight, but still there is scope for positive change for all thanks to this book.
It is certainly something worthy of closer consideration and may be a vital aid to you going forward.
It can be one of the few factors you can directly and specifically influence with a degree of certainty, yet it seems to be often overlooked. This book may help you change that and certainly if you manage to get this area under control then it can have the potential to influence other areas for mutual benefit.
The authors used an analytic methodology to identify four distinct personalities that can be found within successful business builder personalities, and here they leverage this with other research, interviews, academic information and real-world interactions to great effect to present their views. The result is this book and its potential to let you transform yourself, with a guided toolbox at your disposal, and then the rest of the future success pathway is down to you and your possible creations.
The book was written in a clear, hype-free manner, which provides a credible and informative read. No faux inspiration or ‘blowing smoke’ was needed here. You may read this and still feel it is ‘not you’ but that need not be a failure of the book or the reader. Leadership is not for everyone, some people work better in the shadows than in the spotlight, but still there is scope for positive change for all thanks to this book.
It is certainly something worthy of closer consideration and may be a vital aid to you going forward.
August 7, 2017
Any entrepreneur, active or thinking of starting or buying a business, should read this book. Kuenne and Danner have done a tremendous job researching and defining different types of business owners, or as they call them Business Builders. They describe successful partnerships and how various personality types can (or may not) work together effectively. Any entrepreneur should understand their business strengths, weaknesses, management and leadership styles. This book will help business builders do that and is a great resource for personal and career development.
January 27, 2018
Good book I'm placing on the shelf for future re-reading. Great insights for how your personality should mesh with members and new recruits for your team/venture. There was considerable fluff in this one, and I found I identified strongly with two of the four builder types, but not completely with either one, so I felt a little lost throughout the book. If you're starting a business that requires a strong team to found and/or aggressively grow, this book will be required reading before you begin!
March 10, 2018
This book was read through my involvement in a leadership book club. As I read this book and even experienced how it is structured, it really became just another Gift test type book.
Not a lot to write due to the material it was covering. The gift test was fine and then each chapter takes on each gift from the test results. It does give you different categories, titles etc for you to store away as part of what different gifts make up each of us.
In all fairness, I probably critique this kind of book harsher than most because of the amount of gift test type books that I have read.
Not a lot to write due to the material it was covering. The gift test was fine and then each chapter takes on each gift from the test results. It does give you different categories, titles etc for you to store away as part of what different gifts make up each of us.
In all fairness, I probably critique this kind of book harsher than most because of the amount of gift test type books that I have read.
June 27, 2018
READ JUN 2018
This is a good resource for any entrepreneur working independently or within the constructs of a traditional organization. The authors take a bold step in recognizing the impact a founder has on the organization. Their model describes four builder personalities that approach growth in unique ways. If you want insight into your growth profile and more importantly, to understand how to leverage and expand your growth potential, this is a must read.
This is a good resource for any entrepreneur working independently or within the constructs of a traditional organization. The authors take a bold step in recognizing the impact a founder has on the organization. Their model describes four builder personalities that approach growth in unique ways. If you want insight into your growth profile and more importantly, to understand how to leverage and expand your growth potential, this is a must read.
June 3, 2017
It has been a revealing experience reading this book. Even though I don't own or manage a business now, it pays to know what type of builder I would be once I get there.
This book is helpful for anyone who wanted to scale their businesses to the next level and create a team of people who will make sure that things will happen.
This book is helpful for anyone who wanted to scale their businesses to the next level and create a team of people who will make sure that things will happen.
March 1, 2018
Built for growth allows the reader to identify what type of organizational builder they are or want to become and.it gives them a roadmap to follow to do just that. While certain sections are tough to get through they are totally
ypes were uncovered. I would recommend this book to anyone planning to branch out on there own to start their own business
ypes were uncovered. I would recommend this book to anyone planning to branch out on there own to start their own business
June 24, 2017
Building your leadership style
Great book for reflecting on your leadership style and how you can enhance your skills to help your company achieve its next level of success.
Great book for reflecting on your leadership style and how you can enhance your skills to help your company achieve its next level of success.
August 21, 2017
Insightful for those inside and outside the entrepreneurial journey. And a simple framework to explain the whys and motivations of various types of leaders.
November 3, 2017
3.5. Quality content with many learnings but the nuance of builder type is lost after assignment a bit causing conflict.
January 22, 2018
simple concept, with practical insights about understanding entrepreneur personality types and how they intersect when building teams.
March 5, 2023
Read this as part of a class in graduate school. Kuenne is one of the nicest, most caring professors ever.
June 22, 2024
Gave me a different perspective.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews