CEO of the Week: an interview with Steve Perkins
Steve is the founder and CEO of Greenhouse Culture, helping people who are stuck & want fulfilling work, find their next career move.
Steve Perkins is familiar with the feeling of untapped potential. He spent 12 years searching for his career calling, from building superconducting particle accelerators, to launching a culture transformation within a Fortune 500 company, yet always feeling that he wasn't making the impact he was meant for.
After discovering his sweet spot, he started a company to help others clarify and launch into theirs! And Steve is now the founder and CEO of Greenhouse Culture, helping people who are stuck & want fulfilling work, find their next career move, using the Career Sweetspot process. Steve is a professional leadership coach working with executives, entrepreneurs, and corporate teams. And Greenhouse Culture is taking the best of executive coaching and human behavior science, to make personal growth and fulfilment accessible to more people through their Career Sweetspot online course and platform.
Q: Why did you choose your present industry at this time?
Entrepreneurship and Gig Economy on the rise, along with increased pursuit of purposeful work (in all generations), leaves a gap where these people don't know what they're truly best at and most passionate about. Additionally, the fields of personal growth, professional development, and company culture development are typically focused just on insight OR action. We see a big opportunity to provide both insight/self-awareness/inspiration AND practical tools to help people implement their strengths & passions into their work and daily life, or to build their ideal business.
"Entrepreneurship and Gig Economy on the rise, along with increased pursuit of purposeful work (in all generations), leaves a gap where these people don't know what they're truly best at and most passionate about."
~ Steve Perkins. Founder and CEO of Greenhouse Culture
Q: What is the best/worst moment you can remember in your career?
Worst was when I was working as a mechanical engineer at a hi-tech company and the CEO threw a chair across the room in anger. I knew then that I had to set out to transform company culture and free people to love coming to work!Best is every time I see someone have that lightbulb moment about who they are and what they're meant to do, or when I hear a customer's story that they launched their dream business!
Q: Who is your role model or hero?
Jon Foreman - he pursues his dreams, encourages others to do the same, and balances genuineness and living life fully. (He also just writes amazing music & lyrics...)
Q: What is your favorite book?
Multipliers by Liz Wiseman.
Q: Do you use any specific method or system to run daily operations of your business?
It's all about focus and momentum. Growth and excellent user experience require continuously stepping back and assessing the most significant priority, and then focusing on it long enough to overcome inertia and build momentum. So we aim to use the concepts from Essentialism and Deep Work, as well as constantly going between macro/micro - the end vision, and the big rocks today.
"It's all about focus and momentum."
~ Steve Perkins. Founder and CEO of Greenhouse Culture
Q: Looking back - if you could advise a younger version of yourself to do something different - what would it be?
I spent lots of time trying to be what others expected me to be. So I would advise my younger self to develop MY unique abilities. We're usually told to work on improving our weaknesses. However, if I spend all my extra time & energy trying to bring my -8's up to 0's, I'll never get ahead. And I will never be great at or enjoy those -8 things anyway! INSTEAD, I should spend myself to bring my natural 8's up to 10's, because these are the things I'll find fulfillment in and be better than most at doing!
Website: https://greenhouseculture.co
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