Every business needs two types of people – an Expander and a Container.
The Expander is the one with the big ideas – the visionary. The Expander tends to live in the future, with visions of what is possible running through their mind and lots of ideas. This person is often the entrepreneur/Founder/CEO of the company.
The Container is the person who plugs into the vision to bring the “how” to the table. The Container lives in the now and has a strong understanding of what it will take to bring the Expander’s ideas/vision to life. ← This is exactly what I do as an OBM
This concept was shared by Barbara Corcoran (of Shark Tank fame) while speaking at an event a few years ago. She was sharing how her role as an ‘expander’ was balanced out by a key member of her team working as a ‘container’. All of her big ideas got run through the filter of this woman on her team, who would guide decisions around what they would (and wouldn’t) move forward on. Even though Barbara is the face of her companies, she attributed much of her success to how the two of them worked together.
For a business to truly thrive the Expander and the Container need to work hand in hand.
- The Expander can come up with all the brilliant ideas in the world, but if they don’t have someone to help prioritize, plan and get things done, these ideas never come to life.
- Likewise, a Container might be awesome at getting stuff done – but they are often not the one with idea after idea and great big vision.
Imagine you want a drink of water… you need two things: 1) the water and 2) the glass to put it in. If you have water (ideas) but no glass (container) then the water just spills everywhere, making it impossible to drink. Likewise, if you have a glass but no water you are left thirsty.
Here’s an example of how Expander/Container relationship can work:
The entrepreneur (Expander) wakes up one day with a brilliant idea for a new program. They hop on a call with their OBM (Container) and say “Guess what? I just had this awesome idea… I want to do X and I’m thinking we launch it next month, this is going to rock the world!”
Their OBM replies, “That’s great, I love that idea and I’m also aware of how much we have going on right now. We are already working on launching Y for next month, so how does this fit into the current plan? What would you like to re-prioritize?”
[Side note: Can you see how the Container is bringing a reality check in here, while at the same time still really honoring how excited the business owner is – a good Container doesn’t deflate the Expander’s passion.]
The entrepreneur says “Yes, you’re right… I forgot we already had Y planned for next month. So when can we fit this next program in?”
To which the Container replies, “Well I know it would take 2-3 months for us to really prepare and launch this correctly. How about I take a look at our overall plan and see where this fits in best and I can get back to you when we chat again on Monday.”
When this type of relationship is in place there is balance between passion & reality – both of which are essential in business.
The bottom line is – we need each other for all this to work. And when we honor the value of what we each bring to the table – and work together – that’s where the magic happens.
Are you an Expander in need of a Container? let’s chat!
