Business Growth Requires A Bold Heart – Do you Have It?
A powerful and fast way to grow your business is to jump into the uncharted waters of people’s perceptions of you. You have to be courageous enough to ask bold questions regarding how people experience you. There is gold in what you are told if you are willing to accept AND process what you receive from two questions.
The first question is What it’s like to be on the other side of me?
In Modern Family, Cam who is one of the TV sitcom’s main characters, discovered that everyone walked on eggshells around him in fear of his reactions to both bad and good news. For example, he became bitter when Claire, the “helicopter soccer mom,” excitedly shared that she had seen and talked with Beyonce for 10 minutes in a restaurant. As each character shared what it was like to be on the other side of him, he painfully realized that he was viewed as “one who is easily upset.”
The second question is, What do you consider to be my uniqueness or gift? A former client sent this question to 30+ people in our networking group. She added: If you can’t think of anything don’t feel bad…Please be honest and don’t tell me something just to have an answer. I really want the truth. This kind of request requires tremendous courage and vulnerability as you take the chance that only a few people or perhaps, no one will respond.
There are riches to be found in the responses you receive. Use what you discover to positively re-shape your identity. When you hear something you don’t like resist the knee-jerk reaction to react defensively by ignoring or downplaying it. Instead, look for any nuggets of truth that lie in someone else’s perception of you.
As a school administrator, I asked for feedback regarding my leadership skills. When a highly negative person commented that I was playing favorites by spending more time with a select few in the hour before school started, I got defensive. My immediate justification to myself was “If you weren’t so negative, I’d want to spend more time with you.” After I moved from defense to offense, I realized that I’d been given the perfect information needed for my personal and professional growth.
You ARE your business and as you grow, so does your business. Commit to growing your business by defining your ideal self. How do YOU want to be experienced and seen by others? How do you want people to feel while on the other side of you? What are your gifts that your clients know, with 100% certainty, that you will deliver to them and others?
After you have outlined your ideal self, seek input from others and take that information to fill in the gaps. Your growth requires boldness to see what seeds need to be planted in your character and what behaviors or attitudes require watering, pruning or uprooting.
Challenge yourself to take these courageous acts sooner than later. May you have the heart to ask bold questions; the desire to earnestly reflect upon what you receive and the wisdom to wisely design a plan to grow professionally.
