“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
― William Faulkner
This on a poster in the stairwell at our offices and I see it everyday and it was only after a conversation with someone yesterday that I started to notice it again.
I was having a conversation with a business owner about the current challenges she was facing and in a very open and honest way she talked about how she had taken the business from nothing to where it was through her skill and knowledge in the industry and to a large extent sheer force of will. Her main challenge was that sheer determination was no longer seemed to be enough in order to drive the business forward she needed to find the courage to ask for help.
This is one of the very few times I have heard someone describe asking for help as courage, yet for most successful people this is true, to admit you need help is to admit that maybe you don’t know it all and maybe there is still more to learn is a massive admission and possibly the real reason so many businesses Plateau.
After all, if you were perfect at everything surely there would be no challenges and God knows that would be boring.
So what is it you need to learn to grow as a leader to grow your business, if its to get better staff then what was the last book you read on recruitment or the last workshop you attended on team development, if its more predictable cashflow when was the last time you read a book on forecasting or spoke to expert about it, if your challenge is having the time to get everything done when was the last time you read a book on time management or even paid any attention to what you are doing specifically every day to be able to better manage your use of time?
That brings me right back to the core challenge that most small businesses face and that’s having the courage to admit that things need to change and then we must have the courage to admit we as leaders need to change, then have the courage to seek help to learn how to change and finally we must have the commitment to take action and actually do it.
If you would like help even if it’s just the title of a good book on the subject of your greatest challenge get in touch.
01225 944 404
