What does it look like when we’re afraid to make changes, take risks, or push our comfort zone? How do we recognize that The Resistance has a hold on our perspective, and is holding us back? Let me tell you a story. I knew I had to fire him. He’s a great guy; he’s got all the right background to be successful at this work. On the outside, he looked just like the person I needed to do this job. Still, it was undeniable that every project I gave him went south. In one project, the client had some medical challenges that were hard to deal with, so maybe that one isn’t on him. With another assignment, I hadn’t fully trained him… I had excuses for why the projects were all getting screwed … [Read more...]
Only you can make that change happen
If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ~Gandhi In our last conversation, we talked about The Resistance; that invisible force that rises to oppose any action we try to make to improve ourselves or the universe. We know that The Resistance makes it hard to create change. When it feels like we have an enemy pushing back against us, it’s true, The Resistance is there pushing! One of The Resistance’s most subtle tactics is to distract us from the project of making change for ourselves so that we’ll start to blame others. That crappy Art Director screwed up again; … [Read more...]
Do it, or don’t do it.
One of my favorite books of all time is a short little gem by Steven Pressfield called The War of Art. In it, Pressfield outlines what he calls “The Resistance.” The Resistance is a cosmic force that rises to oppose any form of change or any work you do to make yourself, or the world, better. Resolve to work out every morning — The Resistance is there to tell you how you need more rest, to make your bed warm and cozy and to give you visions of the gym that are cold, hard, and uninviting. Sit down to work on your “dream project,” that thing that you’ve been waiting your whole career to do — The Resistance calls to you from your Twitter feed. If it can’t distract you, it tells you that … [Read more...]
How high do you think you can jump?
“I could never get a keynote speaking slot, it would freak me out!” “Whenever our monthly sales exceed $80,000 I start to sweat. I’m waiting for something bad to happen — sure enough it always does.” “I thought it was too good to be true, I had my dream team until one of them quit, now I’m just convinced that I’m going to lose them all…” Growing is hard work. It’s hard to “take new ground,” to live in new territory, to try, and do things you’ve never done before. It involves risk, uncertainty, and take a lot of effort. Living within your comfort zone is — well, comfortable — you know the lay of the land. You know what’s expected of you. Life is good. But when where we want to go is … [Read more...]
What got you here might not be what you need to get to your NEXT step.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson 10 years ago, as my business was growing, I came to realize that I needed to move out of my home office. Though I had worked with a Virtual Assistant for a number of years there was paper piling up all around my desk. There were more administrative tasks that I wanted to pass off that … [Read more...]
How to revisit a decision you’ve already made
Making significant decisions is one of the most challenging aspects of leadership. When you are making decisions outside of your experience base, or when the landscape has changed, and the data isn’t pointing in a definite direction, this gets even more challenging! Maybe there are strong opinions in your team that are leading in different directions as well; now you're in the deep weeds. So you made a decision, you aligned your team in that direction and got everyone going, but you’re not sure! You don’t want to be indecisive, but something is nagging in the back of your head… Just because you clearly communicate your commitment to a specific direction doesn’t mean that you are wed … [Read more...]
Making Decisions: Eliminating Risk and Uncertainty
As business leaders, it’s our #1 job to make decisions. We want to make decisions quickly, but also in a way that eliminates risk and gets our team on board with the final decision. In our last message, we talked about how using “gut instinct” worked fine for decisions we have made a million times, but when we’re entering into new territory, or when the landscape has changed, we might need to slow down, look at facts, and get feedback from our team. Once we’ve gathered the facts and opinions, it’s time to think about how we can eliminate risk! Purposefully Eliminate Risk and Uncertainty As I’m framing a decision, there are usually one or two places where there is no useful data or … [Read more...]
Making Decisions: Follow your gut, or dig into data?
As business leaders we have one job, and that’s to make decisions. But how do we make decisions? What process do we use? Do we “go with our gut”? Or look at all the angles and reason it out? The best business decisions are those that are made purposefully, without wasting a lot of time — but that also minimize risk and get our team moving together toward a new outcome. About “gut” decisions I know very successful business owners who swear to me that they “always go with their gut” when making decisions. When I slow them down and ask them what “going with their gut” means they talk about not deliberating too long. They look at the facts, and if the answer isn’t obvious they trust … [Read more...]
The one way to have “ready” talent
In our last conversation, we talked about how there’s no shortcut to good hiring. If you want to find rare talent, you have to develop a robust pool of candidates and screen for the best people. But there is one way to do some of that work before you have a need so that you aren’t so panicked when you are short-handed. I call it continuous recruiting. When you are short-handed you are in your worst mental state for evaluating talent. You are doing 3 jobs: your job, the job that the open position is supposed to do, and the job of recruiting — so you are desperate for help. It’s all hands on deck and any port in a storm! But if you have a position that you are always short-handed in, or … [Read more...]
How lucky do you feel? 🍀
When you need to add a critical member to your team, whether because you've grown, or because you had a team member quit, the situation can feel desperate. Everyone feels overworked, especially you, the business owner. You are not just doing your job, but at least part of the job you need to hire for, and you have to do the job of hiring! It’s overwhelming. So it’s no wonder that I see business owners reach for hiring shortcuts. But the reason that people like me recommend following a more involved hiring process is that it regularly produces high quality hires -- anything less might produce a high-quality hire -- but we don't know. As anyone who has hired too quickly and … [Read more...]
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