In this podcast Gary Monti, Jeffrey Cochran, and John Riley with Center for Managing Change discuss how your business is a reflection of you and how you view and interact with the world. They also provide tips for what to do so that you can get focused, get on track, and get profitable growth.
Points covered include:
- Jeffrey started the conversation with the need for a consultant to think about where they are with their OWN business. There's a need to walk the walk.
- John talks about needing to level-set before even doing a small piece of work. It's all about adding value.
- The challenge is success brings us to our next challenge, e.g., trying to expand or grow one's company. Strengths have been exhausted. It's time to lean into the more challenging part of oneself so in order to improve their organization right along with themselves. Personal lives are a reflection of what is going on in the business. There's an urge to go out and "buy a piece of software" to cover all the difficulties that really are being caused by personally internal issues.
- So what does the journey look like? It's about leaning into the chaos and complexity and admitting the rules are falling apart and a change in perspective is needed. The urge is to amplify what has worked in the past instead of making genuine changes.
- In a word, denial is the issue.
- Jeffrey gives a great example where unique code with no documentation was written and the owners were challenged in trying to figure out how to move forward. The move for the unique code was painful.
- A method for deconstructing denial is presented which gets into the huge challenge of dealing with fear. John talks about how dealing with fear when working software in the trenches there's a potential for fear of having one's hand shot off it it raised to state there's a problem.
- Gary shifts the conversation to the work load associated with pulling one's difficulties out of the company. People have adapted in order to survive and cry "unfair" when the company is re-structured in a healthy way.
- John brings up the denial mechanism associated with CEOs who say their door is always open…they fail to mention that employees don't trust them. Jeffrey points out it will be reflected in excessive turnover and that it will take diligence and a lot of humility to turn the organization around.
- The conversation shifted to a stable, growing organization where everyone had a clear understanding of each other's position. Sales personnel working throughout the company for up to 2 years in order to have a clear understanding of how genuine growth could be achieved. This means being honest about the reality of the situation.
- The challenges of self-organization or being proactive in dealing with problems are discussed with respect to the degree of trust present. When self-organization occurs the team can dive into The Why, The How, and The What. This gets to asking, "Why would someone want to work with me?"
- A critical form of denial that can be very destructive is purchasing the Silver Bullet product, e.g., software, or hiring/retaining the White Knight that will solve EVERYTHING! It can also show up in overestimating one's strength in a situation and having tunnel vision which can lead to destructive decision-making. Hiring "Yes" men and -woman is another form of preserving denial.
- By owning your shortcomings and bringing everything to the surface leads to the best decision-making. It is a reflection of your culture. Allow for a culture of experimentation!
- Also, allow for the direct challenges you'll experience where your shortcomings are brought to the surface. Be humble, own them, deal with them direction and take a leadership position by changing behaviors. There will be a payoff in terms of growth and abundance. Pay attention and maintain a healthy level of stress during the change process — not too lax and not to fast.
If you need help in gaining clarity when dealing with complex situations, you can download CMC's free e-book MINDSET – 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO LOOK AT COMPLEX PROBLEMS and learn how to find a simple vantage point from which you can resolve challenges.
You can contact Jeffrey, John, or Gary at support@ctrchg.com or call us at:
Jeffrey Cochran 614-565-8073
John Riley 614-778-1514
Gary Monti 614-226-1333
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