Kevin Lawrence is a business coach, speaker and agent of change,
who is driven by a relentless passion for helping entrepreneurs and business leaders
get what they really want, in business and life.
With more than a decade of hands on experience as a business coach
to hundreds of entrepreneurs and business leaders across Canada and the United States,
Kevin is an expert at helping clients overcome major obstacles, deal with tough decisions
and capitalize on new opportunities to achieve breakthrough results.
For more information, visit www.CoachKevin.com
—
email Janice@CoachKevin.com
—
or call his office toll-free at
1-877-564-6224
 |
|
 |
NEW ARTICLE FROM KEVIN LAWRENCE: Facing the Brutal Facts
In any business, the best answer to the biggest problem is usually right in front of us… but until the leader commits to conquering (instead of patching) the core issues, the company can’t advance to the next level.
No matter how well organized or successful a business is, there is always at least one major situation that ties up a huge amount of the leader’s energy and attention. More often than not, the biggest knots in a business result from one of two personnel issues: 1. A key person, usually a loyal, long-term employee, needs to undergo a significant change (in their role, work style, or skill set) or leave the company entirely; or
2. The entrepreneur or leader needs to change or evolve their role in the company. Until this core knot is resolved, both the company and the people involved are handicapped in their performance. They can limp along for a while, but if the situation remains unresolved, momentum is lost and morale goes through the floor. One of my recent clients, “Peter,” was a perfect example of this. He had built a successful retail business with multiple locations and tremendous growth potential, and he was a natural at developing the business… but he was bumping up against his self-imposed ceiling. Although Peter was poised to take the next step in business development, he was tremendously frustrated that the business wasn’t operating on par with his standards. Terrified that additional expansion would lead to collapse, he was holding himself and the company back – and growing more frustrated by the day. The harder he pushed to resolve the operational issues, the more frustrated and angry he became. To make matters worse, because the top tier of the company was not performing as it should, the managers were ineffective as well. The worse they performed, the heavier Peter’s job became. The cycle was brutal for everyone. By the time we started working together, he had been struggling for a couple of years and was feeling like a failure – and ready to walk away from his business. It’s not that Peter was a weak or ineffective leader. In fact, he was a natural leader – a driven, competitive person with tremendous talent to build and develop a business. But he was playing the wrong role within his own company. Trapped in an operations quagmire, his time and attention were wasted on day-to-day problems – overseeing the hiring, training, and marketing materials – a role did not suit his nature at all. As we worked together one afternoon, Peter’s frustration finally reached the breaking point; he was at the end of his rope. It suddenly became clear to him that he had to get out of the day-to-day operations and hand those responsibilities to someone who was better suited for that role. Interestingly, as soon as he faced this fact, he realized that the perfect person was right under his nose. One of his managers was ripe for this promotion and eager to take it on, so he promoted this manager to Chief Operations Officer that evening. In the months that followed, the situation improved dramatically. The company reached a new level of operational efficiency and Peter grew progressively happier. Many of the issues that bothered him for years have either been completely resolved or are on the road to resolution, and Peter is thrilled to be focused on the next stage of expansion. Although the details vary from company to company, this situation is not at all uncommon. There is usually one critical decision or action that would free up the leader(s) and the company to progress at an exponential rate, but people often go for years without facing it. How do people get into this position? We can usually trace it back to a “story” the leader is telling him- or herself, a story that leads to tolerating the situation instead of changing it. Often it sounds something like: “My business is making a lot of money; I’ve got a great life… why should I be upset that I don’t like my work?”
“I’m good at this so I should just push through it, even though I hate this kind of work.”
“I don’t know how to fix this situation, so I’ll leave it for a bit and see what happens while I focus on something else.”
“I’m not the problem… it’s the idiots I work with!” If any of these sound familiar, you’re painting yourself in a corner with a limiting thought process. It doesn’t matter which story you’re telling yourself; they all lead to the same stunted place. The problem with these internal dialogues is they trap us in a circular thought pattern. All the attention gets focused on tolerating or patching the problems, and the more we tolerate problems without coming up with permanent solutions, the bigger the problems tend to get. Why? Because tolerating leads to more tolerating. And mitigating. And sidestepping. Eventually we end up hating the business, driving it into the ground, or selling it. Tolerating is like wearing mental blinders; there’s no free attention to see or create solutions. We’re so busy saying, “The sky is falling!” and searching for the quick-fix kit that we don’t think to design a hard hat or move indoors. The only way to remove the blinders is to commit to finding permanent solutions. Instead of saying: “My business is making a lot of money; I’ve got a great life… why should I be upset that I don’t like my work?”
Start saying, “This is MY business; how can it be designed in a way that really works for me?”
Instead of: “These people are idiots!”
Start asking, “How can I build an ‘A’ quality team that keeps me motivated and engaged, and my business moving forward?” One mindset leads to tolerating; the other leads to upgrading the company. The only difference is what you’re committing to. In the end, the only reason companies get stuck is because they choose to tolerate or ignore problems instead of committing to finding a way to resolve or eliminate them. When you use the pain of a situation to motivate you toward a permanent solution, you’re stepping into true leadership. Strong leaders know their job is to spot the roadblocks and commit to resolving them – even when they don’t know the answer. Without that mindset, nothing really changes. But when you do step up to be a true leader, it forces you to be creative, and the answers do come. There’s only one story worth telling yourself, and it starts like this: “How I want it to be is….” When you get clear on what you really want, that closed loop of limitation beaks open and creative solutions appear – often out of left field. Possibilities are born. Movement begins and progress can be made. Soon the solution or decision you need to make, the path forward, becomes crystal clear. In my role as a coach to entrepreneurs and leaders, I spend a good portion of my time helping leaders and leadership teams clarify the situation they’re tolerating or stuck on, and then helping them make commitments to resolve it. This pivotal process starts with articulating what they really want for the business and themselves.
Coach Kevin’s Challenge: Leverage the Gift of Frustration
As a coach, I look at things that frustrate you and your company as perfect gifts because problems give you ideal feedback on how to optimize your business. There’s no need to hire a research firm to tell you where the problems are – the frustration is already telling you, for free. I call it the gift of frustration. Here’s how to harness it: 1. Think about your single biggest frustration in your business. What is it and why is it still a frustration?
2. Now, how would you like it to be instead?
3. What decision or action would unlock this situation and allow you to make dramatic progress?
4. What actions are you going to take this week? When we admit to ourselves and articulate to others what we really want, then we can shift from dwelling on problems to implementing solutions that give us the ideal situation. _______________________________________________
This article can also be found on Kevin's website at www.coachkevin.com/f/08Apr09_Facing_the_Brutal_Facts_Article.pdf
To read more articles by Kevin Lawrence, visit http://www.coachkevin.com/articleshome.html
About Coach Kevin
Kevin Lawrence is a business coach, speaker and agent of change, who is driven by a relentless passion for helping entrepreneurs and business leaders get what they really want, in business and life. He deeply believes that entrepreneurs can have tremendous business success along with an enriching, adventurous and fulfilling lifestyle, taking a ‘have your cake and eat it too’ mentality to an entirely new level.
With more than a decade of hands on experience as a business coach to hundreds of entrepreneurs and business leaders across Canada and the United States, Kevin is an expert at helping clients overcome major obstacles, deal with tough decisions and capitalize on new opportunities to achieve breakthrough results. His strategies, style and savvy approach have helped his clients increase revenue, profitability and productivity; build higher caliber teams; attract ideal (and eliminate headache) clients; and, reduce stress levels and hours worked so that they are freed up to live their personal version of outrageous quality of life.
For more information, visit www.CoachKevin.com or call 1-877-564-6224.
|
|
|
