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You Are Here: Home - Newsletters - "Organized For A Living" - Article
This is an interview with professional and executive coach Deb Weiler -- with some lessons for successfully handling UNCERTAINTY in your business.
Q: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS COACHING SERVICES.
A: As a coach, I work with executives, small business owners, senior executives and elite athletes to achieve their best performance. Many of my clients come to me because they have a nagging feeling that they are not accessing their full capabilities. I enable them to access their full POTENTIAL by helping them to get out of their own way. Masterful performance in any arena can be boiled down to a simple equation (mastery equals your potential minus "the things that hold you back"). I work with my clients to eliminate the EMOTIONAL static (e.g., fears, self-limiting beliefs, perceptions) that gets in the way of their best performance.
Q: HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH SLUMPS IN THE ECONOMY?
A: The reactions to the downturn in the economy vary, but they share one thing in common -- FEAR. Our reactions to an economic threat are no different to the reactions we have to a threat to our physical safety. I've observed the three basic (but not entirely productive) reactions to economic challenges among my clients:
Q: HOW DO FEAR AND SELF-CONFIDENCE PLAY INTO IT?
A: Fear and confidence are opposite sides of the same coin. They are both about TRUST. Fear is about not trusting yourself to handle whatever life throws your way. Confidence is about trusting that you will know what to do and say in the face of challenge and uncertainty. When an entrepreneur trusts herself, she see options and is free to make good choices. She RESPONDS much more creatively to threats. In my experience, entrepreneurs who operate out of fear sabotage their ability to survive an economic downturn. They succumb to fear and their businesses fail miserably.
Q: HOW DO YOU RE-CRAFT SOMEONE'S BUSINESS?
A: I concentrate on turning up the volume on their STRENGTHS. I've seen a lot of this since September 11th -- people whose traditional businesses have essentially dried up. I ask a simple question -- how can you use your TALENTS to create what you want for yourself in this economic environment? Maybe you can start serving a new populations of customers, providing a new product, or tweaking your marketing efforts. By using fear as an ally and teacher, anticipating customer needs, and leveraging their strengths, any business owner can reframe his or her entire business proposition and respond creatively to a financial threat.
Q: HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT A BUSINESS IS IN TROUBLE?
A: I think most people would say when earnings start to taper off or when the number of prospects in the sales funnel starts to dwindle. These are valid external indicators. The best sign, in my opinion, is how you FEEL about your business. Trust your inklings. Listen to your feelings. Your feelings are very wise teachers. Most entrepreneurs INTUITIVELY know when their business is in trouble. The problem is that they deny and suppress these feelings because they don't want them to be true. They ignore their uncomfortable emotions and keep pressing forward. These feelings always precede a downturn in prospects and earnings. Pay attention to them and choose to respond to them before you are forced to react to a downturn in sales.
Q: WHAT IS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE DURING HARD TIMES?
A: They try harder! Then put in more hours, make more phone calls and push harder on the very STRATEGY that isn't working. When you do this, you just get more of the same bad RESULTS. It's actually possible to try too hard.
Q: ANY GOLDEN RULES ABOUT WEATHERING THE STORM?
A: Yes, don't weather it. Get out there and ride the waves! Weathering the storm is like freezing in the face of a threat. It connotes not taking action, WAITING it out, sitting still and being bobbed around by mother nature. Storms churn up big waves. Figure out a PROACTIVE strategy for your business to get out there and get on top of them.
Q: ANY ADVICE FOR A BUSINESS FACING A DOWNTURN?
A: Don't go it ALONE. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. If you tend to operate in a silo, now's the perfect time to seek the input of others to broaden your perspective. If you have trouble thinking outside of the box, get others to help you. Create an ADVISORY board of bright people whose opinions you trust. Get a mentor. Hire a professional coach. Hook-up with a buddy and meet regularly to brainstorm and test your thinking.
Executive coach, Deb Weiler, MA, SPHR may be contacted at 770-936-0012 or . She offers complimentary consultations so you may experience the power of coaching. Want to receive these kind of articles via e-mail each month? Sign up for a free subscription. Click here to return to "Organized For A Living" -- October 2002... Add this page to your Bookmarks!
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