Impact with Love Quotes

“And to be more acute about it, our capacity to expand our impact is limited by our ability to grow. If you are doing things well; if you are creating value for others, a meaningful place of employment, challenging work, or innovative products; if you view your products and offerings as a service to the world that positively impacts people’s lives; and if, at the end of the day, you are sending employees home as better family members, then growth naturally should be part of your equation. If you’re doing something with a positive impact, it’s natural to want to do more of it. Additionally, the ability to expand and amplify your voice, to reach more people, to serve more broadly are all a function of the ability to grow. Growth—at an organizational level and an individual level—is about fulfilling potential. There is something deeply meaningful about this as it taps into all the talents, strengths, and gifts we have, individually and collectively.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“growing a business is extraordinarily challenging. Less than 10 percent of businesses ever exceed $1 million in revenue, and a small fraction of those ever make it to $10 million or more; $100 million or $1 billion is extremely rare.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Ultimately, the character of an organization, much like the character of individuals, is defined through times of adversity and how well its leadership focuses on the purpose behind the company. It is made up of not just the public moments but the millions of moments that no one sees. From senior leaders through middle managers to frontline employees, the character of the organization takes shape in small decisions. These decisions are all influenced by what the organization truly values, what it recognizes and rewards in its people. For us, like many, our character is developing every day.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“At TiER1, we see ourselves as smart but humble; we take our client work seriously but not ourselves seriously; we laugh easily; we’re passionate and compassionate, willing to struggle together and support each other.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“The personality of an organization shows up in its relationships with others; it shows up in its brand; it shows up in marketing; it shows up in social media; it shows up in its lobby; and it shows up anywhere its people get together. And again, it is shaped by how leaders show up.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Less clear than values is the idea that an organization has a personality. Is your organization playful? Serious? Hard working? Friendly? Compassionate? Helpful? In aggregate, is your organization like someone you like to be around?”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“To place value on something truly is to make a choice. It really is to value something over something else. And it requires fully embracing the implications of that value.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“The deep question to ask about values is “What does the organization place value on?” The answers can often be found in two key places: how conflict and adversity are addressed what the organization makes sacrifices for”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“This is where many organizations—particularly large, established ones—run into trouble when trying to transform themselves into more human-centered, impactful organizations. While there may be an enlightened leader at the top driving a new direction, reprogramming the mindsets of leaders throughout the organization requires a massive effort. Not because they are not inherently good people—they very often are—but because they were raised up in the work world where conventional mindsets were normal, and they had success in that model. Changing the model challenges their views of their own success, something that is not easy for anyone!”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Much like personal character is defined not in what we say but in what we do, so too organizational character is defined by action. And in this case, it is the actions of our leaders that define what an organization is—not one leader, but leaders throughout the organization; the character is a composite of all the actions of all leaders.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Our purpose is activated through our character.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“It was admittedly great to have moved past survival mode, but after it became evident that we would survive—and likely continue to grow—the question “What now?” repeatedly surfaced. Is that all there is? More growth, more financial success? The risk many businesses run at this stage is they can become absorbed in the transactions. More efficient transactions lead to more financial growth and success, generating increasing wealth. In the process, the business can become hollow. Leaders are excited by the growth and financial rewards, but the business can lose meaning as the organization becomes obsessed with continued financial growth. It was in this process of exploring our future at this stage that this deeper purpose took a deeper hold and a clearer view of organization meaning surfaced. A shift of emphasis occurs over time as organizations evolve. Intentionally managing that shift is an essential task for leaders.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“There are two foundational concepts that bring humanity into an organization and both need to be intentionally developed: purpose and character.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“In this light, we see TiER1—or any organization—as a living entity that, much like a human organism, has its own character, its own personality, its own set of values, and its own purpose. It grows and changes over time, typically not changing who it is at the core but rather maturing, evolving, learning, inviting people in, and becoming something more. It is imperfect and makes mistakes and is continually in a process of discovery. The organization is a composite of all the people that shape it. Seeing the organization as a living, growing, evolving being helps us give shape to metaphors that are important to an organization’s health (including the concept of health itself ); those metaphors also explain why we exist.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“At the center of this belief in organizations lies the concept that an organization is itself an organism. It is a living entity that transcends the structures and systems it is made up of at the moment.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Great, impactful companies are not focused on a three-to-five-year time horizon. When done right, they make investments in culture and community and brand and trust that have indefinite life to them. No investor will have an issue with an indefinite life; what is challenging is that the investments aren’t quick. They are persistent and require repeated doubling down. Trust and brand are not created in a year or two. They are created through repeated commitment to core values, a commitment that, if it is to be valuable and meaningful, is challenging. Often the most valuable and important investments in these things are made when performance is actually below target and the business is struggling. This is when real character is built, both with employees and with customers. The stories that come out of such investments persist over many years. And unfortunately, trust and brand can be damaged very quickly so constant, intentional focus from leadership is a must, regardless of how the business is performing.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Leaders, whether owners or not, need clarity about the path forward. Leadership alignment with ownership—in purpose, priorities, mission, and direction—is essential to a healthy organization and certainly to an impactful one. Ownership directly affects leadership; ownership directly affects purpose; ownership directly affects impact.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“(Note that strategy and culture cannot be separated; culture is part of strategy!)”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Most founder-led and family-owned businesses, as well as many small businesses that have been bought by an individual and even most franchises, have what I call a paternal owner. I mean this in a gender-neutral sense: The owner is a dominant leader, who takes sole responsibility—and control—of the business. The business is an extension of the individual or their family.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“The decisions owners make have profound ripple effects on families and communities. Ownership is a massive responsibility”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“When I was young in my career, an established entrepreneurial CEO who had sold a couple of businesses told me, “The number one job of a CEO in a growing business is to keep the business capitalized.” I didn’t really appreciate the idea when he told me that; I thought it was a distortion of focus. But I’ve come to realize that while that may not be the most rewarding job, or even the most value-added job a CEO can do, without doing it, effectively everything else ceases to exist. After years of leading a company—and knowing the struggles of other CEOs—I find something insightful about what he was saying. All business impact starts with sufficient capital”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“When individuals form a business, they generally take a risk saying, “I’ll combine your efforts with the efforts of others and create something of greater value than you can do individually. If I’m wrong, I’ll still owe you for your effort. If I’m right, we create disproportionate value and I’ll keep a return for doing that.” Any shareholder who puts something of value into the business (money, know-how, sweat equity) expects to get a return of value for putting that in. However, a key is that return is at risk because until they create value for others as defined by others, they have no value to extract or return.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Money is simply the abstraction of value that allows us to exchange the output of activities in an efficient way.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“capitalism isn’t a sufficient social system on its own. And because it isn’t a natural system for prioritizing societal values, it can incorrectly be blamed for the lack of realization of them.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“To be more explicit, I believe that healthy, positively impactful companies shouldn’t take a position on socio-political topics. There are a number of reasons for this, but at the core of it is the desire and responsibility to support a fully inclusive environment. If we truly lead diverse and inclusive organizations, then, by definition, our organizations will be filled with people with varying socio-political views. Taking a position on socio-political topics—be it guns, voting issues, environmental issues, abortion, or anything else—leverages the platform of the business for the use of the CEO, owner, or leaders and in the process, undermines inclusivity and alienates people on the other side of whatever position one might take. In the process, it hurts democracy, infringing on the rights and responsibilities of each of us as citizens by putting individuals at odds with their own company.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“But the political system is where individuals in society should advocate for the use of resources to strengthen and advance our social systems. When businesses enter the socio-political realm, they undermine the individual voices of their own stakeholders, disrupt the democratic process, and distort social systems.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Wealth tends to coincide with situations where extreme value is created. And with extreme value creation comes both opportunities (in the form of job creation) and societal gain (often making healthcare, education, food, clothing, shelter, and entertainment all more accessible). A principle underpinning of capitalism is that the creation of value is an act of service.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“To believe all of this, one has to believe in abundance, the idea that through innovation, efficiency, improved quality, new ideas, and exploration, we raise the potential outcomes for all in society. Abundance recognizes that improvements for others—which is what capitalist businesses are fundamentally about—ultimately can lead to improvements for all. And it is this efficient drive toward abundance that capitalism contributes to the social good.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“The frustration some express with capitalism—and the overextended interference into it—is misplaced. Capitalism is not the problem. Capitalism does not cause poor education; it does not cause discrimination; it does not cause inadequate healthcare; and it does not cause poverty. And further, the existence of wealth does not cause poverty. Poverty is not caused by wealth; misfortune is not caused by fortune.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Capitalism is not loving. In fact, it has no moral code; as an economic system, it is simply a system for the exchange of value. And it is in this exchange that the social system begins. If the strongest defining trait of capitalism is optimization, its next might be exploitation. At its best, it will exploit inefficiencies and unfulfilled needs and wants. At its worst, left to its own devices, it will exploit people, the environment, and all types of resources.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World