Wow, what an insane 18 months. In October of 2008, I recall coaching many through the insanity of the free fall. I had a really clear view then:
“We are just going to have to wait this out. If you can survive to the summer of 2009, we can start to plan again. By that time we will have hit bottom and, although the recovery will be really bumpy, (you won’t be able to get consistent deliveries from suppliers, they will have cut back too much) we will be on the up tick. Besides, (I said with the bravado of a person that has never really experienced a significant market crash) you can’t keep the American consumer from spending all that long.”
That’s pretty much a direct quote from the many “Time to Think” calls I hosted in through the spring of 2009.
I was incredibly spot on until 2009 came to a close. But then reality really sunk in… we have all been floored by how much of a struggle the bumpy road to recovery has been. For many, surviving last year took everything out of them and their bank accounts. Now, with the spring on the verge, we do see signs of a recovery, but can you respond? Do you recall how to close that deal (at a profitable margin) and deliver on what you’ve promised?
You have retained the best of your team and they have proven their loyalty in taking that salary adjustment and furloughs, but now that its time to mix it up and get things moving again they are incredibly sluggish and those balls… they are all over the floor! URGH!
And your customers, (what the heck?) why are they so demanding?
Yep, we are in a totally different world. It is sort of opposite land … you know like flushing the toilet in Australia when you’ve lived your whole life in America (or vice versa).
It’s time to step back, reengage that amazingly bright team in a productive and optimistic conversation about today’s reality. Yep, the world is different, the balance of power has shifted, but you can still win. You just need to get your bearings in this new world.
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Many years ago I was in France for a wedding and ended up on the south of France sharing a house with four other friends for a week after the wedding festivities concluded. It was summer, but the weather was horrible; it was much more like a California winter … cold and rainy everyday.
Needless to say we spent more time indoors together than any of us planned and if it was not for our friend Jen, we would have been bored to tears. Jen was a great dinner party hostess and fabulous artist from LA so each night she would engage (and refocus our disappointment) with a question that each of us must answer. Our dinner conversations were in themselves wonderful adventures. One such conversation I think of often.
Jen asked each of us to tell where we saw ourselves in 10 years. I had just left the corporate world to develop my skills as a business consultant working for a boutique consulting firm located smack in the middle of in the hot bed of the nascent technology boom (South Park in San Francisco). I had no real sense of what my next month was going to hold, let alone the next year, so thinking out 10 years was ridiculous. When it came to my turn I had not given my response much reflection. I had been way too engaged in how my friends were responding (typical of me). So when Jen turned to me, I just let my heart speak: “I’m going to be consulting to my friends on their businesses so that they are more successful.” It just rolled out. I heard myself say it. I saw my friend’s faces smiling nodding in agreement. Yep, that was it they were saying. Yep, that is it I responded back.
As the years have passed, I have now been in practice in my own consulting business over ten years, I often think about how right that vision was for me. Friends that have businesses and need advice or support in it from time to time call and I consult to them. But what has been so amazing is how individuals that once called me as total strangers and contracted with me to assist them, are now such dear friends. My business has grown completely from those wonderful relationships and the trust and commitment that only come from true friends.
Thanks to all of you that I have been so fortunate to befriend in the pursuit of my vision.
Here’s to making new relationships and building on those that have already developed.
Tags: life focus, Planning, Purpose
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