The feeling and emotion of prosperity does not come from what you own, but by knowing who you are. Knowing who you are means knowing where you want to go. Knowing where you want to go gives you focus and direction … the money will come!
The PURPOSE of any business is to get, and keep, customers! The OBJECT of any business is to make money! Which of these is more important?
To get and keep customers you must make money. To make money you must get and keep customers. So, we have a chicken and egg situation. To solve the riddle, you must look for the common denominator, and that common denominator is PEOPLE. Businesses revolve around people, whether they come in the form of employees or in the form of customers. By implication then, the better we are at leading people (customers and employees), the better our business will perform.
All too often business ‘leaders’ focus purely upon the money. Many of the ghosts of businesses past will tell you that the business died because bottom line returns drove the business. Is this surprising? Absolutely not – this mindset is directly attributable to GREED, which is one of the 7 deadly sins. Let one of the 7 deadly sins take root in the business culture and the other 6 automatically start looking for their place in the sun … they will not only grow but will spread like an airborne virus! Each of the 7 deadly sins represents negative emotions, and negative emotions, especially chronic anger, powerfully disrupt work by hijacking attentions from the tasks at hand.
Again, we identify a common denominator – EMOTIONS. People are emotionally driven and the more skilled you are at harnessing, and driving, the emotions, the better your business will perform. Take a minute and reflect on some of the most powerful businesses this world has ever seen – they all focussed upon emotions (and many still do).
People follow leaders, and humankind’s original leaders earned their place because their leadership was emotionally compelling. This has not changed one bit despite the modern contention that business today is so vastly different from even 15 years ago. The leader’s task is to drive the collective emotions in a positive direction and purify the air of any toxic emotions whether these are found on the shop floor or in the boardroom.
When leaders drive emotions positively, they bring out the best in everyone they associate with. When they drive emotions negatively, they sow discontent. The seasoned businessperson will immediately say that this is obvious – only because they learned this the hard way. Furthermore, the seasoned businessperson will hasten to add that they have experienced positive emotional changes coming from deep within the rank and file. It just takes one person to set the example by not tolerating negativity through focussing on the positive and others soon catch the excitement – and organisations change.
Unless you are keenly perceptive or highly experienced, emotions are difficult to read, especially when you are so deeply immersed in the day-to-day challenges of the dynamics of the business. The answer lies in finding someone outside your business who will help you see your business in a different light. That person, through asking the right questions and guiding your thought processes will, provided you are receptive and prepared to change, assist you to identify those crucial emotional drivers:
- In Customers. Every purchase, of whatever nature, always has an emotional hook. Find the emotional hook that catches your buyers, and you will experience a feeding frenzy. If you cannot describe this emotional hook in 60 seconds you have not yet put your finger on it!
- In Yourself. You must first understand your own emotional drivers before you can even consider understanding the emotional drivers of others. Again, there are techniques to assist you in this quest. If you do not go searching for them, you will never find them!
- In Staff. Have you ever walked into a business and felt that you could cut the atmosphere with a knife? Next time this happens to you, start asking some searching questions and you will soon pick up that the whole environment of that business is smothered with negative emotions. These can be eradicated, and in fact turned into positive drivers, but again the negativity must be pinpointed, and the appropriate steps need to be taken. Acknowledging the problem is the first step! What is the emotional atmosphere in your business? Maybe you should get some assistance to help you identify the situation if you are serious about business.
If business is about people, and people are about emotions, does all this not make logical sense? Imagine the situation in your business where everyone felt a mutual comfort level. They share ideas, learn from one another, make decisions collaboratively, and get things done. Would this not translate into the business getting, and keeping, customers and thereby translate into the business making even more money?
Unfortunately, many of us who ‘made it’ in business thought that nobody could teach us anything. Life has an uncanny way of bringing us all down to earth and forcing us to face reality in one way or another. We regarded asking for help as a weakness – only to discover that it was a major strength.
Do not stop yourself dead in your tracks by trying to do it all by yourself and thinking that working hard is the secret to success. Free yourself up and get some help on discovering how you can tap into those unutilised resources latent in all businesses.
Remember that internal misjudgements are six times more likely to cause business failure than external factors. The message is clear … keep objective help close at hand at all times, and if you do not have it, get it without delay.
Success in business is all about getting the business fundamentals right … and the actions you take!
QUOTATION:
Thoughts are energy! You can make your world or break your world by your thinking. (Susan L Taylor)
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