Showing posts with label actions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label actions. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Get OUT of Your Business NOW

OK.  So I need to say this today.  This has been driving me crazy and I need to send a wake-up call out there.
GET OUT OF YOUR BUSINESS NOW!
I mean it.  You need to step outside of your business, stop working IN it all the time and work ON it!
Really, how on earth can you see what is going on, what the future of your business is or  if you are still on track with your mission by staying buried under the day-to-day tasks that really should go to someone else but you keep hanging onto them because no one else will do it like you do it - or so you think!

Can you tell I am frustrated?  I hear over and over again how hard it is to keep businesses moving forward, except there is no thought to actually checking to see the progress of the business.  When I ask how the business is being marketed or if there is a marketing plan I get 'the deer in the headlights' look.  Or, if I ask what the forecast is for the rest of the year, you would think I asked them to fly to the moon

Business needs leaders.  Business teams need leaders.
Innovation and new revenues streams come from leaders and their teams who are not afraid to challenge the status quo; from leaders who are not afraid to invest in themselves and their team to develop new ways of thinking, find new opportunities to leverage the strengths of others - inside their industry or from outside their industry.

Why are you not investing time and money in your own development?  When you develop a new product or service it costs money.  You are the extension (and sometimes, the face and the feet) of your business - why are you stuck IN it and not working ON it and ON yourself?  What is stopping you?  Are you afraid to admit you don't know everything?  Are you worried what people will think of you? Are you too busy (doing what I am  not sure) to take a few minutes to evaluate how you could be a better leader for your business and your team?  Are you afraid to find out that you could do things differently, be challenged, given new perspectives and actually have to change your old ways for new, more productive and exciting possibilities that can make you even more successful?  Now that is a scary thought!  You could actually be more successful if you decided to take action.  When will you decide to tack action for yourself.....and work on you - the best part of your business, the reason why your business exists?!

Sure, it's a rant....and sometimes I just need to get things out.  I see it often, what I have described above, and while I would go to great lengths to ask the same questions of my clients (not in a rant of course), I felt the need to share this here.

Leadership is not easy.  Leadership is action.  Leadership is developing other leaders.  When are you going to take action to develop yourself....and along the way, your business and your team?

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Find Purpose


Here is a quick story. The leader of a team of 5 people has not communicated with one member of the team in 28 days. The team member has sent the usual weekly reports, emails etc. All not acknowledged, not responded to and absolutely no oral communication, not even a meeting scheduled. The leader used to have weekly meetings and at one point in the beginning of the year, completely wiped out all meetings from his calendar and so it also wiped out the meetings on his team’s calendars.


This tells a story of purpose. What purpose did this leader serve if business could operate as usual without any communication from them? What purpose was there for the leader to not communicate for such a long period of time? What purpose is there for submitting reports that are not acknowledged? All is time wasted. And left behind is also a bad taste in the mouths of the team, lack of recognition and the potential for sub-par performance.

How did the story end? The team performed well without the leader because they felt more empowered and less micro-managed, although they were guessing the fate of their leader. The meetings were cancelled because the leader was moved into a new area – though the team was not told until later in the month. Then all the actions made sense.

In the end, it left the team wondering what purpose they served....if they were not important enough to be included in the conversation earlier so they could redirect their inquiries.