For the last nearly half-century I’ve been on the learning path to success, (in this instance business – but it can be success in anything) and I’m still on it.
My behavioural traits and thinking style enable me to move fast, be decisive and remain curious about everything.
Whilst all that is very useful, it has a big down side – I try to focus on too many things at once.
That cost me a $6.5 million bankruptcy when I was 42. I had to come back from having nothing.
After a struggle I became relatively successful again, though still held back by my traits.
Right now, I’m adjusting my business model away from being fully focussed on serving large corporations.
My reason for the move is simple: Unless I work with the most senior leadership (directors and C-level), then whatever I do in the levels below has little chance of being embedded.
It’s like trying to turn the Queen Mary by having most of the sailors paddle in one direction whilst the captain and executive officers keep the rudder pointed in another direction.
Also, I’m sick of hearing director and C-level personnel tell me “It’s our people that need the development, not us, we’ve already done everything.”
Yeah sure, that’s why you suffer employee disengagement, loss of talent, strategy-execution gaps, and wrong culture; it’s because of them not you!
So now my focus is serving business owners with between 15 and 150 people (Dunbar’s Number).
My purpose is to help those owners rapidly improve their leadership skills to get a measurable (between 10% and 20%) improvement in culture and performance within six months, then sustain it.
That empowers them to stay the course and seek additional improvements.
For me to make this change I know it will create challenges – my marketing will need to adapt, my cash flow will diminish for a while and I’ll have to make other adjustments as the business rebuilds.
Fortunately, my earlier training in the military and law-enforcement gave me some great tools that I need to take out, dust off and get good at again.
They are the tools for the mindset for success.
The Tools
They are simply these:
- Get absolute clarity about my values first, then my purpose, then my vision and then the specific next goal that evidences my values, purpose and vision.
- Revisit my values, purpose, vision and current goal regularly to keep them strongly in front of mind, and not get distracted by other ‘stuff’.
- Every time I make a choice or decision to do something, or not do something, I need to ask myself “How does this directly help me achieve my specific goal.” If the answer is “It doesn’t” then it’s jettisoned. If it does help, I then ask “OK, is there something I could do instead that would be even better?”. If the answer is “No”, then I do that. If the answer is “Yes”, I clarify what that is and do that instead.
I’ve been disappointed in myself for not following these simple and profound tools earlier.
However, I’m re-committed and already my client base is shifting towards the goal. Great results for the clients I’m working with at present.
There’s one other thing – I never give up. That’s the fourth tool.
Your thoughts?
