Of course I know who I am, don’t I?
Current business conditions are causing all sorts of leaders to fundamentally reassess where they stand and what they are doing with their lives.
I work with a couple in their early fifties who have been trading in the food industry for twenty years. When I asked whether they envisaged one or two of their children joining the family business, the reply was, “Oh my God, I wouldn’t wish that on any on anyone, let alone my own children.” My next question was, “Well the Government want us all to work ‘til we are eighty five now, so do you fancy another thirty years of this?”
This led on to the value of the business and whether it could be sold and how much they would be able to walk away with. One said “At least the goodwill must be worth a fortune.” I asked why it would be worth anything since any goodwill is totally down to the proprietors themselves and once they leave, the goodwill is on the same train.
So they asked about all their unique recipes they have developed over the years Surely they have a value? Most of the good ones have been published in one form or another. This means that any tacit knowledge that was used to create them immediately become explicit knowledge on publication. Explicit knowledge, although most business leaders do not understand this point, is virtually valueless.
So then I asked whether they need to work at all. There is a lifestyle that they enjoy and that could not be sustained without the business. It’s all they know.
So we are back to the business. We are back to the three eternal truths of any business: the need to clarify direction, (the Bull’s Eye) develop trust, (getting CLOSER to people) and enhance performance (personal and professional development)
I’ve had a dozen or more sessions like this in the last few months. It’s the stuff going on subconsciously that ultimately determines the outcome, for all of us.
Labels: Reassessing both business and personal life goals
The learning and development myth
The mantra of ‘learning for life’ translates into lots of wasted time and energy for many busy executives.
At a three day convention recently I asked one CEO what sort of value she was expecting from the event. “No idea,” she smiled, “my HR director said that this would be good for me.” She followed the comment with “I try and get 15 days professional development in each year.”
Sometime before Christmas I was invited to sit in on a CEO ‘mastermind group’ in the midlands. These are half a dozen leaders from different parts of the country that meet every two months or so to discuss best practice in innovation and creativity for their sector. One couldn’t make it, two were an hour late and a fourth had to leave early for another meeting in London.
The only structure I could see was they all passed some kind of business book around which each promised to read before the next meeting. Why on earth any CEO would want to read a random book that someone else has chosen beats me.
Then there are the CEO’s that are sort of ‘guru groupies’. If the object of their admiration is speaking or running a workshop more or less anywhere in the world, then they will be there. It may be a round trip of a few days and cost several thousand pounds, but hey, its Anthony Robbins or Nido Qubein. The fact that all their material is copiously available, online, in any format you want is neither here nor there.
Now there may well be some merit in all of these activities. But let’s not fool ourselves. Call it a break from the office, call it a chance to meet up with old and new business contacts, call it a holiday if you want.
But please, please do not call it focussed personal and professional development.
Labels: Wasting time and energy on poor quality personal and professional development
All hyped up
Well it is clear that if we are not all blogging, Twittering, spend the requisite number of hours per week on Linked In, scrabbling to enter every conceivable business card on Outlook, manicuring our entry on Facebook.....then we are very much second class citizens.
Do you not feel this pressure to conform? To be like everyone else? Do you not meet these people, they pop up everywhere, that are already doing something new on yet another free download, that really you should have known about? Never mind that you are running a business, but whatever else you are, it is clear to everyone within earshot that you certainly are not up to speed on social media.
But actually there is no conformity, because as yet there are no experts. There are plenty of people out there telling you what you should be doing, plenty more that can tell you how to do bits of it. But no one can formulate a strategy that will necessarily work for you or your business.
Some nine months ago a client asked why there is no director development provision in our county. I couldn’t answer, but when several people asked the same question I picked up the phone one day in April 09 and invited 15 MD’s to join a group. Twelve agreed and a new group started meeting monthly in May, a second group formed itself in October and we now have a third group.
So how did this happen? Well, they are people I met at a breakfast club, people I meet in the Barrels, my local pub, people who advertise in local publications, people who have heard about the venture by talking to their contacts.
All a bit old fashioned really isn’t it? But it works. Make sure you do not become a slave to all the people who know how to spend your resources of time, energy and money better than you.
Labels: your business strategy for social networking
