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Thanks again for your time on Friday. It was a very insightful conversation.

Particularly, it made me think about how important it is for an organisation to recognise its own character and how this influences everything it does.

For example, consider the range of responses business owners might give when asked so;  “How’s your business doing?”

You talked about how the quality of any answer will be based on the timeframe that it is given in. That is, if the response is about meeting payroll and processing orders on time, well that’s great, but it leaves only the short term goals met.

Do those clients who are able to carve out time to reflect on their long term goals, really get better, more consistent results?

You said that there are a few, specific questions which every business owner should be in the habit of asking themselves.

The first one is, are you achieving what you set out to achieve?

Clearly, the main goal of every business owner is about having the business work for them. You provide jobs and products or services and in return for your contribution you get a role in your community and the lifestyle you choose for yourself.

The second question must be about the quality of your goals. You said that those people who have ‘goals that they feel great about’, are inspired and animated by them. This gives them the energy to be flexible and motivated, and enables them to act, step-by-step, to fulfil their goals.

Some people say that how strongly you feel about what you want, how clearly you can see it, and the stories you tell yourself about it, will directly influence getting what you want.

One thing is for sure, when you have goals that are so meaningful and so important to you, then you will do everything in your power to bring these goals to fruition. That’s when everything starts to come into focus and you begin to work smarter, instead of just working harder all the time.

Most people don’t realise that it’s much easier to work with big goals, huge goals, than it is to settle for smaller ones.

For example, when given just 30 seconds to write the top 5 things people want for themselves and families in the next 10 years, most people come up with many more!

What you described next, really struck me as something so overlooked!

The most important thing you do for your clients is to get them thinking differently for themselves.

People believe that if they spend more time and effort doing the same things, that they’ll somehow get different results. It doesn’t take longer than a deep breath to realise that it’s only different actions that will get different results.

Those clients of yours that experience the most success are the ones that are able to shift their perspective on how they work, and give themselves a much bigger picture to work with. Now your clients are able to identify for themselves the critical areas to be working on right now.

I’m going to be taking away from this conversation 3 crucial things:

– The ability to shift perspective enables greater vision. Develop the skill of seeing your own business from the perspective each of your stakeholders; your clients, investors, employees, competitors and partners.

– You must make some regular time to immerse yourself in your ‘reason why’. The clearer and more focused you are, the more energy you will act with.

– Put yourself first. You are the business owner and your business is there to work for you. Start with what you want first, then work out backwards, step-by-step what you need to do to achieve this.

Thanks Martin for your expertise,

Khalil

P.S. My good friend runs a very successful courier firm, with a fleet of over 50 vehicles that run on time and everything goes smoothly. But the business is totally reliant on him and his constant presence. He is stuck in a situation that requires him to be the centre around which the business moves. Does this sound like a lot of people you come across?