Work Life Balance can often feel like an elusive goal that we strive toward but never actually reach, but as the great John Lennon once said, “life is what happens when you are busy making plans.”

Wellbeing and balance in life are not a destination, but a journey…. it is the actions you take along your journey that make you feel the way you feel. Wellbeing does not come about by being happy all the time, it is about understanding what makes you happy and making sure you incorporate that into your life.

The struggle to achieve work/life balance is prevalent not just with business owners, but with almost anyone trying to navigate work and life in this modern age. So, we’ve compiled some of our best tips and advice into this guide to get you on the path to a more balanced, healthier you.

Here Brett Burden talks about the basics of work life balance:

First things First….

There are some basics that you need to make sure are in place as a solid foundation to start with:

• Are you eating well?
• Are you sleeping ok?
• Are you getting some regular exercise?

These might be stating the obvious, but you can’t build a solid house without a solid foundation.

The other important factor that you are going to need here is self-discipline, as it will be very difficult to achieve balance and control in your life without mastering your own actions, knowing what makes you tick, and what makes you happy.

So with that in mind, here is our top 10 list of actions to improve your work / life balance:

1. Take some time for yourself in the morning

It’s great to spend some mindful time each day doing something you enjoy and just being in the moment. Whether it’s a walk with the dog, a cup of tea in the sunshine, or 10 minutes of mindful meditation, doing something just for yourself is a great way to centre yourself for the day ahead.

2. Be a good delegator

It’s important to recognize that whilst there are some tasks that must be done by you, there are others that can be delegated. Many hands make light work, and for the sake of your sanity it’s important to share the load. This includes getting the kids to help around the house and do their chores so it doesn’t all end up on mum and dad’s plate at the end of the day!

It’s also important at work to communicate if your workload is excessive, and get the support to make sure you have the resources to delegate effectively. More on Delegation here.

3. Put problems into perspective

When a problem arises it can be helpful to ask yourself - is this really an big issue? How will this problem affect me in a months time… or in 6 months time? Sometimes issues can seem overwhelming until we take a step back and get some perspective.

4. Take a break

It’s a known fact that taking regular breaks during your work day improves productivity and wellbeing, but few of us manage to do it consistently. Find a nice spot somewhere near your office and go for a 10 minute walk at the same time each day. Set an alarm if you need to! Your body will thank you for it.

5. Foster connection

According to Beyond Blue[1], strong ties with family, friends and the community provide people with happiness, security, support and a sense of purpose. Research shows that being connected to others is important for mental wellbeing and can be a protective factor against anxiety and depression. So it’s a great idea to talk to your family during the day and make a habit of connecting to those people close to you.

6. Have transitional rituals

Being able to transition out of stress or out of work into your home environment can make a big difference to your wellbeing. Fatigue and stress can fuel the tendency to ruminate on a problem or on the stresses of the day; a mental break helps us leave the bad mood behind. Your ritual can be anything that makes you happy and gives you a mental break – from playing your favourite music on the drive home, going for a walk, reading a book on the train or even playing candy crush.

7. Cultivate caring self talk

8. Engage in fun and energizing activities

There is nothing better than having a laugh and doing something fun at the end of a long day at work. Even though there are always things to do around the house, probably dinner to make, and kids to help with homework, it’s important to schedule in some fun time. So whether that’s shooting some hoops in the backyard with the kids, or perhaps all taking the dog for a walk, some energizing fun time is good for the soul.

9. Relax and Recharge

To balance out all your energetic work and fun time, don’t forget to take some time at the end of the day to relax and recharge. This may be a cup of tea before bed, a cuddle on the couch with the cat, or your favourite human. You may also like to keep a gratitude journal, to help cultivate your own awareness by being mindful of the moment.

10. Make meaning out of what you do – identify what purpose you are serving.

It’s part of human nature to need a purpose in life, and to have purpose in what we are doing day to day. Always look for the positive in situations and if you aren’t happy with your job, your career, your life, then you can take steps to change it. It’s important to be true to yourself and behave authentically in both work and life, to maintain true wellbeing.

If you would like to know more or could use help with your planning and time management within your business, contact us at Action Centre. We have a host of workshops that can help, which you can view HERE.

You’ll find having an Action Centre business coach is just like having a marketing manager, sales team leader, trainer and recruitment specialist - wrapped in one - all for one nominal investment. We are the business partner you need without sharing your profits - with over 60 years of collective coaching experience to keep you on track and accountable for your own success.

[1] http://resources.beyondblue.org.au/prism/file?token=BL/1366

Charles Dickens once said “Procrastination is the Thief of Time… Collar him!” and truer words have never been spoken. Procrastination can rob you of not only your valuable time, but also rob you of your motivation, your focus, your productivity and your success. So, it is essential in both business and in life, to ensure you recognize procrastination and have the tools and self-management to overcome and eliminate it.

Procrastination is continually reinforcing itself - every time you delay, it reinforces your negative attitude toward that task. Every time you put off something you dislike, you:

• strengthen the habit of not doing;
• practice avoidance instead of participation;
• avoid acquiring training and skills, and
• indoctrinate yourself with fears.

So let’s break down the 4 main reasons for Procrastination:

1) Fear of Failure

No-one wants to fail… but if we allow our fear of failure to get in the way of taking action, then we may end up not even trying. A fear of failing can cause complete inaction, which then reinforces our belief that we can’t achieve our goal.

Many of our fears would actually be better described as concerns, little niggles we have about how things may turn out… we may not actually think of them as major “fears”. Nevertheless, they fill our minds with thoughts and can lead to an internal dialogue that can keep us trapped in time.

Where would we be if Thomas Edison had allowed a fear of failure to prevent him from inventing the light bulb? Edison and his team tested more than 3,000 designs for bulbs between 1878 and 1880, eventually succeeding through pure grit and determination.

2) Lack of knowledge or skills

Having a lack of knowledge or skills can be a primary factor in procrastinating over a task. In the Four stages of learning matrix, the second stage of ‘Conscious Incompetence’ is where you’re conscious of what you should be learning but you still don’t have all the knowledge or skills to make it happen. This lack of knowledge or skills can be frustrating and is a very common time for procrastination.  There can be a lot of confusion in your mind at this stage and if you’re not careful, your confidence can take a hit.

3) It's too Difficult

It stands to reason that if a task seems hard to do, we naturally tend to avoid it in favor of those which seem easy to us. This is explained well by Timothy Pychyl, author of ‘Solving the Procrastination Puzzle’:

[2]“the key issue is that for chronic procrastinators, short-term mood repair takes precedence. Chronic procrastinators want to eliminate the negative mood or emotions now, so they give in to feel good. They give in to the impulse to put off the task until another time.” Then, “not faced with the task, they feel better.”

4) It's too Time-consuming

If the task is going to take large blocks of time, we will often delay starting the task until “I have more time”. Interestingly, people often overestimate the amount of time it will actually take to do a task, especially as you can build momentum once you get started. There are many steps you can take to help alleviate this avoidance tactic.

So how do we overcome procrastination in our lives?

There are two steps to changing your mindset that can help you eliminate procrastination forever:

Step 1. Eliminate Fear

Best-selling author Seth Godin argues that it isn’t the “fear of failure” that holds us back and keeps us small, rather it is the “fear of criticism.” So, how can you stop caring what other people think?

[3]The first step is to remember that if many people have felt this way and still achieved great things, that they’ve faced their fear of failure—and judgment—and won. Successful risk takers manage to keep criticism from holding them back.

If you want to eliminate procrastination, then eliminate your fear.   Just ask yourself: Are you pushing away the things you want?  And if you are, are you pushing them away because of your fear of success or a fear of failure?

Once you get clear on what’s stopping you, you can reframe those fears and empower yourself to take action

Step 2. Cultivate Desire

[4]Remember, emotions govern your behavior.  Fear pushes you away from what you want and desire pulls it towards you. Your emotions are what drive your behavior.  If you keep putting something off, then you don’t have a burning desire to do it.  No desire = no action.

So, how do you cultivate desire? If you can associate strong emotions with the end result, you can cultivate a burning desire.  Then watch how fast you jump into action.

What comes next?

Once you’ve got your mindset right, there are many small steps you can take every day that will help you overcome procrastination and take action. Here are just a few to get you started:

1. Make a list – each and every day.
2. Eat the elephant one bite at a time! Break larger projects into manageable "bites" and create a timeline for yourself to accomplish these smaller tasks.
3. Set a Timer! Remember that each project expands to the time allotted to it, so set a limit for yourself: "I am going to return all my phone calls in one hour." "I will file papers for 30 minutes." "I will spend 15 minutes picking up around the house." Set a timer. You will be amazed how much you can get done when you focus your time.
4. Check your self-talk. Do you frequently say, "I gotta...," "I should...," or "I have to..."? Replace this self-talk with "I choose to..." and recognize that you are at choice about what you do. If you don't choose to do it, don't do it!
5. Eat a live frog first thing every morning! (and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day) Tackle that "frog" -- the task you have been putting off, the one that's hanging over your head -- because it will lift an immense load and you will feel much more productive. Find out more about “eating your live frog” HERE.

What if I’m still struggling with Procrastination?

If, after going through all the points above and improving the way you do things you are still procrastinating, then you need to get yourself a bigger dream – or set yourself a bigger goal.

The one you have isn’t inspiring you enough to get you off the couch.

We all need to stop using the excuse “I don’t have enough time”. There is no one in this world that has more time than you do. We all get the same 24 hours in a day – you, me, Richard Branson, Beyonce, Barack Obama…. it’s what we do with it that counts.

A lot can be achieved in 24 hours if we start the day proactively.

You can download the Thief of TIme E-Book HERE.

If you could use help with time management within your business, or overcoming procrastination to achieve your business goals, our upcoming workshop on 90 Day Planning can help.

You’ll find having an Action Centre business coach is just like having a marketing manager, sales team leader, trainer and recruitment specialist - wrapped in one - all for one nominal investment. We are the business partner you need without sharing your profits - with over 60 years of collective coaching experience to keep you on track and accountable for your own success.

References

[2] ‘Solving the Procrastination Puzzle’ - Timothy Pychyl PHD

[3] http://motto.time.com/4542707/stop-fearing-failure-criticism/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter&utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

[4] https://www.dumblittleman.com/2-tricks-that-help-overcome/

Businesses which run without its owner have two distinctive qualities. The first one is that there are proper systems and structures in place and the second is that it’s people are also provided with those same structures, with the added bonus of being the business’ greatest asset. A terrific example is from the Virgin empire, whose very foundations have always been its people.

The Virgin Pulse CEO Chris Boyce said of its greatest assets ...“Success in business is all about people, people, people. Whatever industry a company is in, its employees are its biggest competitive advantage. They’re the ones making the magic happen - so long as their needs are being met.” (1)

Richard Branson himself said “Put your staff first, customers second, shareholders third.” (2) He was a big advocate of looking after his staff first and the business will be taken care of as a result.

A business owner in any market who grows and nurtures their people will find the business itself will skyrocket. How to get to this point through the process of a review, is the topic of today’s paper. We attempt to answer the tricky question - how do we review a person?

Definition to a role is like oxygen to the lungs.
People need it.

Each role within a business is occupied by a real person. Someone with feelings, thoughts and more critically - needs. And people need to know the what, why, how, where and when’s of their specific area within a business. In previous One Week At A Time papers we talked about the need of matching specific roles to DiSC personality profiles. We take this notion further by arming the person who we now know has the correct DiSC profile for role, with the information for them to perform their role. Once a person knows what is required of them, then they have the parameters to work on how to best service the business. Without role definition, each person will fall back on their skills and become reactive to the urgent needs of the business (refer to our other papers on Time Target and Delusions for more information on reactive business management).

Fit for purpose

Many moons ago the nomenclature when it came to employing staff was “job fit”. The personality of the person had to “fit in” a culture and the swag of skills they possessed along with their congenial nature equalled success. Job fitness in business then moved on to include personality profiles on top of a good “cultural fit”. Again the skills plus profile plus culture fit equalled success. This was used widely in all role definitions across the country.

These terms have been repositioned and job descriptions include what is called “fit for purpose”. Fit for purpose is taking a role, defining all it’s deliverables and outcomes, culturally fitting in and  personality profiling and adding the important layer of “purpose”. Why is any of this important?

Going back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs top of the pyramid “self enlightenment” - where a human being is doing something for the greater good. Better than the self. Fit for purpose was invented to work in with this primal need within all people because “having a purpose beyond increasing shareholder profits is key to the modern corporation’s ability to survive and thrive”(3).
Purpose is the most important element in role definition.

Cover the bases

Each staff member has a different classification under the Australian Government regulations. When a role is created these classifications and rules need to be adhered to under Australian Business laws. Therefore when providing a role definition, job description and general terms it is advisable to cover the bases of each type of role, not just the skills required for that role. For example a full-time employee will have different needs and entitlements to a fixed term employee). Please refer to https://www.business.gov.au/info/run/employ-people and  https://www.fairwork.gov.au/find-help-for/small-business. Many employers fall into a common trap of the review conversation getting bogged down by a lack of transparency in this area. Best to nib this in the bud and include this as part of the role definition criteria (e.g. clearly outline the role status - full-time, fixed term, apprentice, etc - along with the classification’s specific parameters).

It’s time for that conversation

Arriving at a place where the clarification of role, the skill set, fit for culture, fit for purpose and basic rights are covered will all set up the best possible conversation to have with an employee. Here is where it gets tricky.

For a Manager who has reviewed employees many times, the basic information will help them feel less tense. And if that Manager are like many thousands of other managers out there, they will think of all the good things the staff member did and the most recent not-so-good things they did and write all that down. It’s human nature after all right.

On the other side of the coin, the staffer lists all the projects they completed where they have contributed, and then dutifully crosses their fingers hoping no curveballs are thrown their way. There is a fundamental underestimation of how stressful this process actually is for those being “assessed”. Dressing the review up in an HR campaign of “fun” or a “two-way feedback process” and “healthy constructive criticism”, doesn’t take away from the fact that it is what it is. One person sitting in front of another person they are about to judge(4). How to reduce this stress comes down to

What the experts say

Harvard Business School have performed many studies in this area and solid business practices have come from their learnings. Here is what they have have to say about how to have an effective performance discussion(5):

1. Make it clear from the beginning of the year exactly how you will be evaluating employees with individual performance plans.
   Remember, changing goal posts mid-play won’t make your players win the game. They need to have practiced each pattern of play before you change tacts on the field (that’s an analogy for the American Football fans).
2. Give your employees a copy of their appraisal before the meeting (some suggest the day before some suggest an hour before). This means the manager fills out the forms first, lays their cards on the table, then gives that to the employee so that they can have a private emotional response, process the information and come back with a cool head.
3. For good performers deliver mainly positive messages, concentrating on their strengths during the conversation.

And these are the “don’t do”s of performance reviews:

1. Don’t Generalise. For example, “you need to be more proactive” that doesn’t mean anything. Instead say “you need to take more initiative in calling sales leads”. Being specific about what exactly in a person’s behaviour can improve gives them something tangible to work with. Sweeping generalisations get lost in a conversation.
2. Don’t talk about compensation. This one is not widely talked about. According to the experts here, it’s advisable to have the conversation about compensation separately. Remuneration is tied to company profits, its shareholders and other areas which are out of the person’s control.
3. Don’t sugar coat it for clear poor performers. If they are not performing then that’s the conversation that you have.

Pick a side. Controversial? Not really.

Another area the Harvard professionals believe that managers would be best to do is break the cycle of what they term the “feedback sandwich” (or Australian’s have referred to this as “the slap and the pat”). This is when a manager compliments, criticises then delivers more niceties. The recipient isn’t clear what is going on. Additionally, this techniques does 2 things - it undermines those who are doing well, and washes over those people who aren’t. It’s a tough ask for managers but it has to be done - decide which side the person is on and stick to it. Is the person a good performer (in which case almost exclusively concentrate on what that person did well) or is that person a poor performer (in which case be specific and share what activities are making that happen)?

Nine times out of ten

Performance reviews were never meant to be a walk in the park, and they also weren’t meant to resemble a root canal at the dentist’s office either. Most businesses and their leaders want to empower the staff that they believe in and have employed, to continue to positively contribute to the business. Reviews are a way that they can keep track of the most important areas in each role, so that, like a symphony orchestra, all the instruments are coming together to produce an amazing sound. As managers, it’s easy to lose sight of this, and as employees it’s important to remember the love of music keeps you in the orchestra. Nine times out of ten, performances are good. And in business good means on track. Put another way, if everyone from the lighting crew, the conductor, the choir and the flute section know what to do, practice it regularly and enjoy making the music together, come review time, they’ll turn up for the conversation...in a good way.

Resources
If you would like a copy of the Action Centre Performance Review Form please contact Brett Burden, Senior Business Coach on 1300 971 763.

References
(1) https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/richard-branson-why-business-is-about-people-people-and-people
(2) https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/people-come-first
(3)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-keller/fit-for-purpose-changing-_b_3697932.html
(4) https://hbr.org/product/how-to-be-good-at-performance-appraisals-simple-ef/an/10295-HBK-ENG
(5) https://hbr.org/2011/11/delivering-an-effective-perfor

Wallflowers. Party Animals. Party Organiser. Blenders. You probably know which one of these might be you and we’ve seen many variations of these themes in our lives, but can we really spot similar groupings in other environments? It’s harder to identify homogeneous behaviours in groups of people because people generally behave differently at parties as they would in other situations. Added to that, we have the many filters through which we see the world - work, family, money, spouse, possessions (Covey 1989, pp 119-121). There also are differences in tempo and behavioural norms when we enter businesses and deal with unfamiliar or formalised environments.

The science behind unlocking which party person may be seated at Boardroom Alliance table, interview or work site was introduced in last week’s One Week At A Time. The groups were identified as Conscientious (C), Influencers (I), Dominant (D) and the Steady (S). This week we are able to further explore those profiles and place them in the following quadrants:

From this table we can see that those who have a skew toward “D” or “I” have an outgoing nature, however those with “D” prefer activities with tasks with or without people, and those with “I” prefer activities mainly involving people. If the skew is toward “C” or “S” the person has a more reserved nature, and in the case of a “C”, may be very reserved or introverted. The main idea behind DiSC is that no matter which quadrant a person mainly prefers, knowing the team around them means they can quickly adjust their behaviour with the other types for a desired outcome.

There is Steady and there is S-t-e-a-d-y

Each person who undertakes a DiSC will be asked a series of questions, and as we touched on last week, different scores will be assigned to each of the 4 main quadrants. The score which is the highest is considered the “high” score placing a person into the category of a High D, High C, High I or High S. The number itself can be very high on the scale or mid range but still the highest of the 4. For example, a person with a very high S score (80) may be more pronounced as an “S” type than a person with a lower level of S (53). However as both have a main preference to S, you will still find both of them standing together by the water cooler exchanging stories about their 10 year Cricket Club Anniversary or the annual boating trip they went on with their friends from school.

Trainspotting DiSC Profiles

There are many traits which are associated with the main DiSC profiles. To spot one of the 4 “high” displaying types you’ll find the below traits shine through:

• High D’s They are unstoppable! A doer with drive and determination. Fly the flag and see it sail out to sea. On the other hand they can be arrogant but deep down they won’t care much about that, too busy blazing trails (or at least delegating to other people to blaze the trail for them).

• High I’s Super fun loving and entertaining. Great to have around because when the party is on, its ON. But they like to take that spotlight and point it over their own heads for a long time. Good news is that they won’t know they are doing it - they’ll be too busy enjoying the attention.

• High C’s Detail is the name of the game. Doing it right and to a high degree of accuracy and criticism. However, they prefer to look at the glass half empty, questioning why their glass has 50% less in it and could someone please explain if this an experimental glass, and if so, are they the “control” glass….bla bla bla bla and so it goes on.

• High S’s These are the steady people, your “buddy”, and they take it slower than the rest of the pack because they aren’t afraid of letting life do its thing. Around 70% of Australians are S in profile.Their nature can be confronted sometimes by those “bossy” conversations that need to happen.

It’s now easier to see how people can display certain DiSC profiles - we come across varying levels of these kinds of people everyday. Many Business Leaders have used the information from DiSC about their staff and were able to start to devise a plan of how to manage them better, transforming the workplace and producing a well-rounded team.

Chipping away at the iceberg

DiSC also shows us with a fair amount of accuracy, what a person is likely to do or decide when we first meet them. The iceberg (the exposed section of a personality) is the first thing that we see when we first meet people and more often and not, behaviour is all we have to go on to evaluate a person. In business we can use DiSC to find the best people to work in areas such as recruitment, sales, operations, management, marketing, administration...anywhere. When teams become unstuck it is at times when they don’t understand each other’s behaviours and can’t respond effectively to each other in times of stress or when they are in a wave of never-ending orders. As a Business Leader we need to be confident that the people around us are what they say they are, and will do what we hope they will be able to do at the moments of truth. The High D drives us, the High C checks, the High S keeps it all rolling, and the High I breaks up all that seriousness and tells us all to lighten up - you’re not saving lives (unless you are, and in that case, it’s a joke in poor taste).

References
Covey S. R. (1989) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The Business Library, Melbourne Australia.

We all have all developed a very mild level of attention deficit in recent times. We can hardly help it with all these different ways of connecting with each other available to us.

Have you heard the latest news? Let me text it to you: -- OTUS AFAICT dog saves fam. troo TIME -- [on a totally unrelated subject as far as I can tell a dog saves a family, I have true tears in my eyes]. If that’s not accurate enough and you need to save time selecting letters why not try using emoji’s?        [dog warns its family of a fire in the house and they call the fire brigade to put it out]. What about when you’re feeling bored and want to say hello to your friends but don’t have anything to say? Snapchat will solve that problem. Find a funny photo, snap it, send it, job done.

Email may hit it over the net for you if it’s more involved than a snap, text or you feel (worried) your message isn’t being received the way you’d like for it to be. Nowadays we are asked to do more than one thing at a time, have our attention on multiple sources and we can feel a sense of restless making us we flip from contacting our friends, to watching the weather, watching a documentary or reading a report all at the same time (Lencioni 2003, pp 51-52). How can something so heavily used like communicating be one of the the most common sources of frustration, anxiety and tension when we do it so much, each and every day?

A web of messages

The reality of today’s day and age is that we have so many ways to connect with each other we have confused this with our inability communicate. Many of us still need to develop our communication skills. That is, sending a message that says exactly what you meant, in the way you wanted it to, and it is received that same exact way by the person(s) you’re telling it to. Sounds easy right. It’s one of the most difficult of human skills to attain. How many times after an argument have we told ourselves “why weren’t they listening?”. That’s because communication goes in two directions and we often forget one very important end of that stick - ours.

Major challenges in businesses revolve around this theme of communicating with each other in order to reach goals, grow and get a business going. Having the technical know-how within a business is just one hurdle to overcome, communicating effectively is the next hurdle, one which never fails to cause headaches and sleepless nights. In One Week At Time a quirky and effective sentence is used to illustrate how, as Leaders, we can say the exact same thing with only a slight change of emphasis, only to we wind up changing the entire meaning of the whole sentence altogether.

Coming at you from all corners

When a person has shifted into a position of leadership the levels of communication can fly out at them from all corners of the world and in super fast speed. Some days will feel like we’ve had a series of endless conversations. Learning how to handle those interactions will lessen the load and provide a stronger shield. Some of the regular things that Business Leaders are called on to communicate and participate in are (HBE 2004 p17):

• Vision of a business
• Major milestones
• Mediation of major conflicts
• Resource identification
• Key relationship nurturing
• Budget and finance
• Culture

How much or how little a Business Leader contributes to these discussions is highly personalised. Regardless of this, the intention, emphasis and selection of what message they would like to convey in those situations (and others) is critical to the business and has major flow-on effects if received well (or not).

Back to basics

Not everyone is interested in an invitation to an Instagram page, Twitter feed or a blog. And as a Leader you may opt out of one or all of these new found ways of connecting if they aren’t serving your business any purpose. And that’s perfectly okay. Learning how to communicate as a leader means you can choose how you want to gather information as well. Leadership communication is something all Business Leaders can develop (Owen 2011, p148). Some leaders also choose how to understand their teams, some even personally get to know their staff, colleagues and peers one-on-one. Of course, the suggestion here is not spend copious amounts of time talking to each and every member of your staff, as that would be counterproductive, which is why we set up structured meetings, times and places. The suggestion here is find assistance to develop the skills of saying what you need to say, when you need to, and to the right effect.

So let’s get started by getting back to basics. In every business its Leader will need to urgently converse with others about important matters. For those moments, the team at One Week At A Time are very keen on using just one marvellous connecting device for those circumstances. We refer to it as - talking on the telephone!

References

Owen, J. (2011) Leadership Rules: 50 Timeless Lessons for Leaders. Capstone Publishing. United Kingdom.

Restak., R Dr. (2003) The New Brain: How the Modern Age is rewiring your mind. Rodale Ltd. United Kingdom.

(HBE) Harvard Business Essentials (2004) Managing Projects Large or Small: The fundamental skills for delivering on Budget and on Time. Harvard Business School Press. Boston, Massachusetts USA.

This is a story about catching one of the cleverest, cunning, and elusive creatures in the jungle. These creatures were the spider monkeys of South America. They lived high up in the trees and were virtually impossible to catch. As the fable goes, the hunters had terrible problems trying to catch them, until one day they came up with a plan. They found several heavy containers, made a hole no bigger than the arm of the monkey into each, and placed them on the jungle floor. Inside, they put a nut. The monkeys then descended from the trees, saw the nuts in the containers. Once they grabbed the nut at the bottom of the container, their fists were too large to come out of the opening. And the container too heavy for them to carry, so instead of letting go of the nut, they just sat there. The hunters would come back the following day and simply pick them up and throw them in the bag1. Freedom was just a matter letting go of the nut.

Our minds are much like spider monkeys. Clever. Decisive. Stubborn at times. Always checking, analysing and questioning. And more often than not, when our minds are made up, we can refuse to let go of a notion (or a nut) causing us to feel trapped, stuck or even disempowered.

Monkeys have choices. And we do too.

It’s pretty easy to say that all the spider monkeys had to do was to let go of the nut and run back up the tree. What if the nut was a new 3 year contract paying seven figures? Would you still hold onto the nut? Maybe. What if that seven figure contract meant your family could upgrade both cars, employ a nanny, send the kids to elite schools and buy several investment properties? It would be difficult to find a person who wouldn’t want this nut. The trap of course, is that this contract takes up 80% of your personal time including weekends. Is the sacrifice worth it?

The mind is an instrument that can justify just about any decision that fits into a world view and supports inner motivations. Motivations are powerful drivers in making up minds. They can support choices that can help us grow as people and they can also support choices that can hold us back. In the story of the spider monkeys, the monkeys were afraid of missing out on eating the nuts. And it wasn’t the nut, but the fear of losing the nut that held the monkeys captive. The mind latches onto many different devices in order to make a decision and fears can often creep in and be the basis of choices. The most common fears found in everyday life are the fears of poverty, criticism, illness, relationships breaking up, ageing, and even dying (Hill 2003, p262). Holding onto something which may or may not eventuate because of fear, can consume the mind and take the focus away from making choices (and finding choices to make). Being stuck or feeling stuck occurs when a person isn’t aware that they can change a situation by making a different choice. And the same can be said when leading a business.

Beliefs shape behaviours and outcomes

When a Business Leader finds problems in their business they often look outward for the reason why something has gone wrong. The business may be undergoing a seasonal quiet period, the staff may all be new and require training (or retraining), the holiday season may not have attracted the high volumes of customers. As the situation worsens the Business Leader tries to make sense it by perhaps asking a spiral of questions. Should I change my products? Should I change my staff? Are my products priced competitively enough?  Should I sell my business now or wait? These are valid questions. Decisions and choices are constantly being made throughout each day of running a business.

Turning around a business does require business knowledge and nouse, and it also requires a strong mental position from its leader. This type of leader is one who is aware of their personal constraints, who knows that the business is, in part, a reflection of who they are and what they personally stand for. In small to medium sized businesses the Business Leader is the highest point of major decision making so how that person thinks matters. A lot. Finding which nuts (mental beliefs and styles) we are holding onto is almost as equally as important as finding which parts of the business needs improving.

Shifting mental positions takes courage, and the ability to see that leaders can be a source of constraint is an invaluable step toward driving the business into the future. Thinking differently about a business could mean the difference between a five figure profit margin or six figure profit margin.

In the The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People the author aptly explains that “...all things are created twice. There’s the mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation...” (Covey 1989, p99). When a person mentally visualises an idea, they have already created it...once. All that needs to happen now is to create it a second time, in the physical world. So before a viable idea is conceived, ensure the platform it’s being developed on is a sound one.

Foraging for nuts

There are many techniques to use to find a Leader’s personal “blinkers” or “blind spots” of perception. It may be personal style, understanding a business’ limitations or other factors which stem from a behaviour within the business.

Below is an example of a set of the questions to use for identifying a personal style or behaviour that may be holding a business back (Flippen 2007, pp 48-49):

• Is it hard for you to admit fault?
• Do you wish you were more confident?
• Do you ever struggle with saying no?
• Do you have high expectations of yourself and others?
• Has anyone said you were hard to read?
• Do you struggle to motivate yourself?
• Is being in control important to you?
• Does change and uncertainty make you nervous?
• In disagreements, do you tend to get the last word in?
• Do you thrive on spontaneity?

For every positive behaviour or belief, like a thriving on spontaneity, there is an opposite effect as well. Being spontaneous may work against a business if the Business Leader is constantly changing direction, not completing projects in pursuit of other more interesting projects, and struggling to create a consistent clear position in the market.

Other nuts or beliefs that we hold include looking for ideal behaviours in people. For some leaders it may be hard to realise that there is no ideal behaviour in business, only degrees of behaviour (Goldsmith 2007, p191). People can only ‘better’ themselves, they will never be perfect. And there is always something or someone better out there anyway. It’s the want of improvement that develops people, rather than a long held belief that people must be perfect before they are accepted. Leadership requires letting go of judgements because “if you manage your people the way you’d want to be managed, you’re forgetting one thing: You’re not managing you.” (Goldsmith 2007, pp 205 - 209).

Taking stock of the areas that are holding back a business could also involve accepting the business’ limitations. The business may be booming with orders left, right, and centre. The tipping point however may be that if another, say, 200 orders were received, the staff, back end operations team and suppliers, would all be completely overwhelmed. The nut in this situation is receiving more orders, and when that nut has been released, the additional orders can be placed on back-order leaving the remaining orders to completed. Although big challenges are great they  can only be fulfilled when there is a loyal team and a stream of repeat customers to come back to the next day.

The moral of the story

The reason why successful Business Leaders become introspective is because they want to find out how they personally affect the business. Once they understand this, they can seek direction from experts and gain the support they need to achieve their next goal (Blanchard 2005, p 112).

Fables like the spider monkey story illustrates how choices that can free us are right in front of us, but they are hard to comprehend when we are tightly holding onto something that isn’t serving us. Letting go of unproductive beliefs, thoughts, styles, behaviours and circumstances creates a new world of possibilities to bring to our business and to our lives.

Online references

1 http://reilly.typepad.com/cameronreilly/2006/03/the_spider_monk.html

References

Blanchard, K., Fowler S., and Hawkins L. (2005) Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager. Harper Collins. Hammersmith, London. United Kingdom.

Covey S. R. (1989) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The Business Library, Melbourne Australia.

Flippen F. (2007) The Flip Side: Break Free From The Behaviours That Hold You BackSpringboard Press. New York, America

Goldsmith M. (2007) What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Hyperion. New York, America. (p 216)

Hill, N. (2003) Think And Grow Rich. Random House. London. United Kingdom.