Business Culture

Leadership – A Journey in Self-Awareness

~ Kay Robinson ~ 2 Comments

dreamstime_7847493Leadership from an intuitive perspective is a journey in personal awareness. To have this journey we have to create challenges to the things as they are. Working with a client who has a successful company showed how leadership is an evolving ability.

Karen has a successful company and she has a vision for growth that moves her away from doing the work of the company, growing leaders and doubling her revenue. Ambitious goals and very achievable.

Karen began the process of change by creating a new organizational chart needed to reach her goals. Then she plugged in her current staff not based on what they are doing but in positions aligned to their strengths, not just holes they were filling. Finally, she created a hiring plan to fill in new positions. Karen was excited by the vision and her plan to get there.

What blindsided her was staff’s reaction to change. While her organizational plan incorporated changes, they have said they wanted when the plan was in place they reacted to the changes in their roles.

The biggest changes were in leadership. Though successful her company is small ($700k), and she have been the only manager with staff acting as leads in specific areas of the business. For Karen to grow her company, she needed to step back from managing the day-to-day work of the business and hire leaders.

Chaos ensued. For the first time, Karen was having a leadership crisis. One lead and the staff that worked in this division were in resistance to having a new boss. The lead liked the way she had things and did not want a change so engaged the agreement of others in resistance to the plan.

Karen was in a leadership crisis and so her journey in self-awareness began.  She realized she wanted everyone to like her, and that got in the way. She realized that the changes were long overdue.  Her wish to stop managing the day-to-day began a while ago with her abdicating her role as manager.  The result is her staff controlled the company.  She found her leadership style was command and control using her 3rh chakra to overpower and control it which worked, in the before small agreeable group.  She did not really know how to lead in a way that would produce the results she wanted.

The staff takes cues from their leaders about what is an acceptable way of being. Since Karen used control and command, her staff reacted in the same way. It became a confrontational and uncomfortable situation.  Karen realized she had created a void in leadership making everyone feel insecure.

In this new stage of her business, Karen is at a loss on how to lead her company past this crisis. From an intuitive perspective, Karen is on a journey of self-discovery. She is beginning to realize how much she controlled her company not lead it. Leadership comes in many forms but for Karen this meant to change to leading from her upper chakras: 4th for affinity for others, 5th for clear communication, 6th for clear seeing and reading the energy then the 7th to show leadership and vision.

The first step was for everyone to get out of each other’s space, release energy and focus on themselves and their goals within the company. Leadership begins with each person taking ownership of their position and producing results.  Karen decided that she will meet with each person and agree on expected results, giving them ownership of their position.

Next Karen had to change and change begins within. She needed to see herself as a leader in a new way for herself, her company, and her staff. Staff wants leadership. Leadership makes everyone feel confident and gives him or her space to be successful.  Clients want to experience leadership at every level of the company and from every experience they have with any staff.

Karen is not comfortable now. Change is uncomfortable. Her vision is strong. She is strong and knows the journey begins within to discover how she is as a leader in this cycle of her company. One thing she knows for sure, this is just the next stage of her growth as a leader. There are surely others to come.  She is grateful for the challenge to get to know herself within and decide how to be in the world in a new way.

Frustrated? Take Ownership.

~ Kay Robinson ~ Leave a comment

dreamstime_man-meditating_5645730I need more sales. I don’t have enough time. I need better marketing. Can’t find good people. Business owners stare at these frustrations at one time or another. Most often they go for the band-aid instead of creating a strong bridge. What if the problem was not sales, time, marketing or people? What if something more foundational was at the core of each of these with the result being poor sales, lack of time, not enough leads, staff is not performing, etc.?

Business owners are the heart and soul of the business so when something is not working looking outward will not show the answer. We have to look within. Our business is a physical manifestation of what is going on with us. This is true not just for a business owner but also for anyone. Look at what is happening in your life as a reflection of what is going on within you. This is not logical, but it is very intuitive.

When we accept that what we experience is a reflection of us then consider the following and take ownership of what you want to change.

  • It is NEVER someone else’s fault. Instead, we can ask why are we engaged with someone in a way that creates what we do not want?
  • There is never anyone to blame. Instead, we can ask, “What was I not owning or doing that created space for this mishap or situation?”
  • Need more sales. Take a new look at what you are selling. You are not selling just your product or service but more. What are you showing your prospect about you and your business? That is what they are buying.  The product or service you sell, for most industries, could be purchased from someone else so why should they buy from you?
  • Not enough time? Why is that? Honestly, where do you spend your time? What is important to you and what do you value? An honest self-assessment of your personal discipline is the first step. Then a time management plan is created from that honest reflection and focused on achieving goals not being busy.
  • Need more marketing? Stop before you throw money at websites, SEO, inbound marketing, etc. Before you do all those great things, decide who you are, what you value, your vision and what you promise to your customers.  Market from that awareness.
  • Finding staff. Qualifications are not enough. When we hire people who match our values, our vision and inspired to promote the promise we make to our customers that is a good fit.
  • Staff not performing.  Take time to assess yourself as a manager. Do you bring out the best in people? Do you create a culture of excellence?

So you get the point and the list could go on and on.  The problem is never outside of us. What you see outside is the result of what is going on within us. This is true for business owners and everyone else. To have inspired success means a journey in self-awareness and the application of strategic actions to achieve your vision of success.

Best wishes on your success, Kay

Business Coaching

New Culture of Business

~ Kay Robinson ~ 2 Comments

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A new culture of business is emerging voicing a new set of values, increased self-awareness and businesses with a new definition of success. I am so relieved by the changes appearing in how businesses run, interact, view their staff, vendors and community. Some of the changes are subtle and others not so subtle. In the end, we are moving to a more moral, value based and healthy way to do business. Not everyone is on board with this, but more and more of us are. “Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)

Here are some differences I see between the old business paradigm and the new.

Old: Be on top. Beat out the competition. Be better than everyone else. Take out the competition. Get the largest share of the market.

New: Be the best you can be. Do the best we can. Build our brand so that people know how we are different. Attract loyal customers who value our brand. Collaborate with other businesses. Share resources.

Old: Get more sales – at any cost. Over promise if necessary. Get the sale. Get more than the next guy.

New: Create customers. Under promise and over deliver. Not everyone is our customer. Don’t sell. Understand our customer and serve them with unbeatable quality.

Old: Money flows to the top. Hierarchy with command and control management.

New: Collaboration. Everyone valued. Share the success. Everyone seen as contributing to the success.

Old: Environmental concerns are ok, but not if it affects the bottom line. The community is important if it is a customer.

New: Prevent impacts on the environment and be profitable. Be part of the community. Give back. Join the sharing economy.

Old: How much money can we make?

New: Create a business that serves everyone’s life, that people enjoy working in, and that has value whether it sells widgets to solar power.

 

What changes can you add to this list? This is just the beginning. In what new ways do you or your company operate? Join the conversation.