Yesterday I spent the morning with a business owner and their senior team, helping them develop a strategy for a part of the business that isn’t living up to its full potential. The interesting thing was how many times they said…
“that makes so much sense”
“thats so obvious”
“I don’t know why we aren’t doing that”
“why didn’t we think of that”
We often either know what to do and aren’t doing it or the answers are staring us in the face but we are so close to the project we can’t see them. Sometimes we need the second set of eyes to uncover whats already lurking within the business.
The power of the second set of eyes is they can ask the right questions, to help others see the answer for themselves.
We all get too close to our business at times to see the wood from the trees, sometimes we know exactly what to do, but sometimes we either lack the confidence, feel too much fear or don’t trust our intuition to get on and do it.
The other key element thats came from yesterdays session was the power of breaking a big goal down into more manageable chunks. Now this team know their stuff and they know how big the opportunity is that they have uncovered but they also aren’t sat around twiddling their thumbs, they are already busy, so adding a new revenue stream is daunting. When you are already busy, getting busier isn’t that appealing!
There needs to be 2 things in place to remove the fear and resistance to embarking on any new project.
- Make it personally motivating, what will it look like when you have achieved it, what it mean to the individuals delivering the project, what will make them want it to be successful?
- Make the steps of the project small enough that they can see a route to the end. If you are asked to add £100k to a businesses turnover its a lot when you are busy, first break it down by 12 months, then 22 working days each month and all of a sudden £100k becomes £378.78p a day. Much more realistic and achievable.
At the end of a 3 hour session they felt they had accomplished more than in the previous 6 months of meetings and deliberation, they had greater clarity, a plan and most importantly they had a common goal.
When the London marathon was run at the weekend there were plenty of amateur runners who were running for the first time. They had broken the 26 miles down into months of training, starting with small distances each week and building slowly until they completed the unthinkable. Each business goals is no different!
Having someones second set of eyes in the business to help you identify the steps to growing, overcoming your challenges and developing the strategies for a simpler business to run is not a luxury, in todays competitive marketplace its a necessity.
To book a complementary session with me to look at your business just book a slot directly in my diary here. I look forward to seeing you soon.
