Business Keys To Success: You Are Responsible For Your Attitudes

Life is full of surprises, and the adjustment of our attitudes is a lifelong project.  Think about your destiny in business and life.  It will never be determined by our complaining spirits or high expectations.  In my business coaching practice and in my own life I had to come face to face with my attitudes.

For myself, self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals, corporate managers and all individuals our attitudes are what will determine in large part our destiny.

We Choose The Attitudes We Have Now

And it is an ongoing choice.  And it surprises me, the large number of adults who fail to take responsibility for their attitudes.  If they are unhappy they may something like, “I got up on the wrong side of the bed.”

If failure begins to repeat itself in their lives they often say, “I was born on the wrong side of the tracks.”

When their lives aren’t progressing while others and their family are still on the rise they may say, “Things would be different if only the birth order was different in my family.”

Whether you are running a small business or starting your own business it is a continual challenge to adjust your attitudes.

Attitudes 

In all of the above examples there was one common thread.  There is blame for everyone else or circumstances for their problems.

When a marriage fails they believe they married the wrong person.  When someone else gets a promotion they wanted, it’s because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Yes, in the words of Rose Ann, Rose Anna Danna, “It’s always something.”  It’s always something except for them and their attitude.

Attitudes-A Summary 

When John Maxwell talks about attitudes he has a great summary.

The pessimist complains about the wind.

The optimist expects it to change.

The leader adjusts the sails.

To be the leader in your life you must adjust your attitudes.  The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes.  That is the day we truly grow up.  When you grow up you choose to be responsible for your attitudes and how you view your circumstances.

To have small business and personal success be the leader in your life.  Adjust the sails.  With the right attitudes you will create the circumstances to have the business and life you desire.

From The Business Coaching Chronicles-A Little Extra Change

Most people are resistant to change.  They desire improvement but they resist changing their everyday routine.  That’s a problem because, as leadership expert Max DePree says, “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”  To sharpen your talent through practice, you need to do more than just be open to change.  You need to pursue change—and you need to do it a little bit more than other achievers.

Change-Understand Why You Are Changing

In my personal business coaching practice I had a client, for a very short period of time,  who was in the financial services business.  He had just purchased another very successful practice.  He brought me on to collaborate with him and to build the future he envisioned when he purchased the business.

Every person or entity that purchases a business does not purchase it for what it is doing today.  What it is doing today dictates in large part the terms of purchase.  Businesses are purchased because of the better future the buyer or buyers feel that it will bring.  And, once purchased they want to make changes to start molding the business into helping them have the future they desire.

Unfortunately, many times in their eagerness to put their immediate imprint on a business they make changes that are not good.  This is what happened to my client.

Change For The Worse–Process 

In a period of a year, he managed to take a very profitable business and turn it around to where it was very unprofitable.  How did he do it?  Running a small business is a lot of work but when you can’t get out of your own way it becomes overwhelming.

The first thing he changed were some of the core processes without consulting the client base.  Why?  He wanted to make it more convenient for him.  He started with a strong client base of 40 clients.  A year after his changes he had 10 clients.

Change for the Worse—People 

He also managed to alienate every employee.  How did he do this?  As a self-employed business owner coming from the corporate world he believed that the business was all about him.  For years he had to adhere to what’s right instead of who’s right.  But now that he was a business owner it was all about who’s right.

Employee turnover was great and attitudes fell and in the process so did customer satisfaction.

Change for the Worse—Brand

Now that the process and people were headed in a negative direction the company brand which had been extremely positive in the area now became a negative.  The leads for new clients that used to roll in completely dried up.

The business is now gone.  It was sad to watch something that was so good and vibrant die.  And it all happened because of a little bit of change in many areas.  And a little bit of change without understanding why make the change, brought one large failure.

From The Business Coaching Chronicles: The Power Of Momentum

The momentum was gone and so was the fun for one of my personal business coaching clients.  As he looked up from his desk he sighed and said, “This is no fun any more.”

I have encountered this scenario numerous times in my business coaching practice and it even happened to me in the businesses I owned.  For the self-employed business owner, entrepreneur or solo professional one of the worst feelings is a loss of momentum.  Why?

Momentum Determines Perspective 

When things are going well your steps are lighter, the day is brighter and the problems you have a challenges that can be overcome.  You have positive, forward momentum.  Obviously, there can be negative momentum but the focus in this article is on the positive.

When your momentum is positive your perspective of the present and the future is good.  You believe that things will continue to get better over time.  As a self-employed business owner running a small business you feel you are on a good track.

When you feel you are on a good track you have positive momentum.  You have a healthy perspective that sees “what can be” and the means to make it happen.  When our momentum ceases to be forward and positive we start to feel stuck or overwhelmed.

When we are in this position, very often our activity diminishes.  When our activity diminishes, so do our results.  And when our results diminish our self-esteem and our can do attitude erodes.

Regaining Momentum 

As was the case with my client, his activity had diminished and so had his results.  The employee morale in his 5 person company was not good.  People did their jobs…..kind of.  There was little enthusiasm.

This loss of enthusiasm was felt by his customers.  Some of his long time customers would remark to him that he didn’t seem happy.  This bothered him greatly.

He had been in business 20 years and built a good business but the joy and enthusiasm was gone.  He saw all his business days looking the same.  Today was going to be like yesterday.  Tomorrow was going to be like today.  He knew he had to regain his momentum but how to do it?

                   Your Vision Of The Future Creates Your Momentum 

If you think about it, everything must be finished before it can be started.  Without an exciting vision of the future the present becomes a tedious slog through the mud.  When you get to the end of the day you say, “Whew, I made it through another day.”  Then your energy is zapped even further when you realize that tomorrow is going to be the same.

For my client we collaborated to create a vision of the future that was exciting to him.  Once we created the future, which included upgrading parts of the business and positioning it to be sold, then the present became meaningful.

Every day was now a step forward to attaining the future he desired.  This took several months.  But the excitement and the momentum returned.  His business became better externally and internally.

Positive momentum was carrying him forward.  If you feel your momentum is lost and the present is a slog through the mud, go to work on your vision of the future.  Go to work on yourself.  After all, your world will get no bigger than your thinking.

And, when the future is finished in your mind, then what you need to do in the present becomes absolutely clear.  When things are clear you have cleared the pathway for momentum to carry you to the business and life you desire.  Things become fun again.

Capture the future in your mind and you will build momentum.

Action : You May Talk The Talk But You Must Walk The Walk

Action is the most important key to success.  Think about it.  Whether you are a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional or an individual you are ultimately measured by your results which come from the action you take.

Action—It’s The Start

There is an old saying that states, “Learning without application is nothing.”  As a personal business coach I had a client who was a phenomenal learner.  But taking action was another story.

He would talk the talk.  But he would hesitate to walk the walk.  In a way, he was always tieing his shoes which kept him from walking.  Sometimes he would almost start something.  What was holding him back?  His fear of failure was great.

As a self-employed business owner he had experienced some good success.  The problem was that his business was growing and he wasn’t.  And, if he didn’t start taking some action things were going to go negative very quickly.

Action Cures Fear

There are many times I have been reluctant to take action because of my fear of failure.  But when you are running asmall business or starting up your own business you have to develop a mechanism to overcome that fear and to take your business and you to the next level.

The key for me is to remember the following.  I also got my client to memorize this.  “You are not judged by the number of times you fail, but by the number of times you succeed. And the number of times you succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times you can fail and keep trying.”

Take action.  It is the only way to overcome fear and it is part of the process for success.  You will find out what works and move forward.

Action Is The Bridge Between Involvement And Commitment

Very often I see people confuse involvement with commitment.  Commitment means taking a course of action and holding yourself and others accountable for the results.

Involvement is talking about action and results.  Involvement, more often than not, is the first step to commitment.  But only with action will you create the bridge between involvement and commitment.

Action Is The Bridge Between Strategy And Implementation

Smallbusiness success has many strategies.  But without action they are just that, strategies.  In a way, this is just another variation on involvement and commitment.  Action is the bridge between strategy and implementation.

My client was great at strategy and short on implementation.  As he turned his thinking around some amazing things started to happen in his business.

He started to regain positive momentum in many areas.  His employees were happier.  He was happier.  His fear was no longer a mad dog driving him into a corner.  His desire to take action and taking it became the mad dog that was driving his fears into a corner.

His self-esteem increased.  He was more likeable.  His employees started to see him as a leader instead of someone who was afraid to do anything that might bring progress.

Yes, action cures fear.  It is the bridge between involvement and commitment, between strategy and implementation.

Most important is the fact that action is the key to having a better business and a better life.  Take control of your business and life.  Talk the talk but make sure to walk the walk. Take action.