Doing the Necessary

It's amazing, but since I got really clear on the current status of my project, all the angst and suffering has gone. It's really clear - I'm in 'concentration' with early signs of 'low momentum' (see below if you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about!). So what there is to do is throw more (value-added) activity at it, and trust that the results will come. Some early 'signs of land' coming in already.

Half the overwhelm and anxiety in pursuing a new direction come from expecting results too quickly, and taking action which is not appropriate to the current status of the project. Early days, lots of activity - later on there may be time to coast a bit!

Back To Work!

They say that the more vacations you take, the more successful you'll be. I've been on holiday for the last week, so I've had a chance to think about where I'm going with the next phase of my business.

In my last post, I thought I needed to do more work on the 'formulation' of my new message, but everyone I've checked with seems to feel it's already pretty clear. So now the thing to do is get in action finding smallish businesses whose owners want to understand how their business, and the people in it, really work most effectively.

I have to find more places where these business owners gather, and work on creating simple talks and 'flyers' to explain what I do. In the model I'm working through, I'm into 'momentum' (though quite low momentum!), and need to put a lot of effort in to get relatively small returns.

Still, even low momentum is better than none - and it's the only route to high momentum! Wish me luck...

Formulating Your Project

'Formulation' begins with creating and declaring an intention, then taking a stand about it. You then formulate your project, including outcomes, results, who's accountable and how you will communicate it. Then announce yourself - make yourself known. Thinking about my current project, to relaunch my business in a new market, how much have I done of this? Looking at the steps, I think I've done them backwards: I'm out there communicating about my intention, without being clear on the outcomes I want to produce! Duh! That's today's task, then...

Wading Through Treacle!

This idea of marketing the business energetically enough to push it through to the next level: I see others who've done this, and they don't seem to have to have to 'push' all the time. I'd forgotten a useful model that has always seemed to me to ring true in these situations.

Here are the phases or 'states' a new (or newly relaunched) venture goes through:

Formulation - creating the project and its intended outcomes
Concentration - putting a lot of effort in, with initially little return (put 10 in, get 1 out).
Momentum - Results start to come in commensurate with your effort (put 1 in, get 10 out).
Stability - the time for being completely consistent and reliable. Everything is present and it works.

I'd forgotten - in my newly relaunched business, I'm in concentration. That's why it sometimes feels like wading through treacle! More on this next time...

Moving to the Next Level

Here's the thing - leadership is not about never having setbacks. It's about who you are and what you do when you have them. I've been facing two challenges in the last few months. Firstly the realisation that my son's serious back condition hasn't gone away and will at some stage in the future need more surgery. Secondly, reinventing my business now that it's essentially down to me, without the active participation of my partner, Gil, who is fully involved in another (very exciting) voluntary project (more on this later).

Both came to a head on Friday, when we had an appointment at Great Ormond Street Hospital (the news was not as bad as we thought), and I realised that the slowly gathering momentum in my 'new' business needs to become rapidly gathering momentum - ie move to the next level. Very tired and confronted on Friday night, I couldn't see the way forward.

But today, what there is to do is get on with it - market the business energetically enough to push it through to the next level. I see others who've done this, and they don't have to 'push' all the time.

And support my son to have the best time (and the best alternative treatment) possible now that we've had a reprieve on the surgery for the time being.

And neither of these is about 'pushing' - just about 'being' a leader in life and in my business. Not hard really, is it?

Mind You...

Talking of decluttering - I'm wrestling with the whole area of online marketing. Trying to guess what small and medium-sized business owners would search for if looking for the likes of me on Google - anybody out there got any ideas? Everyone seems to look up stuff like 'management development' and 'team building' (yawn!) and I'm vastly outnumbered by the big guys with big marketing budgets! What would you look up if you wanted to develop your own small business and sensed that something might be missing in the area of managing your people? Any ideas gratefully received...

Decluttering my Mind

I came back from holiday recently to the realisation that my time management systems were lagging behind the reality of my newly busy business and life. So I rang a contact I had made through networking who runs an IT training business, and she sorted me out in minutes! Now I have a system where everything is 'captured' and I can sort it either by date or by project. So I always know where I am and I can sleep at night - magic! Thanks to Mary of Concise Training for her time and generosity...

Rabbits Should Practise What They Preach

It's been months since I last wrote - about change causing people to freeze, like 'rabbits in the headlights'. Well, there's been a load of change in my life and guess what? Frozen, like a rabbit. But I'm unfrozen now, and I'm back! Watch this space...