Long term relationships are inclined to follow timeworn patterns. As a business leader you’ll readily see how the relationship with your business and your significant other are similar. In both, the long term union produces disappointments that can become animosities, clouding perceptions, negatively biasing future work, and creating ongoing tension. Business leaders often mistake weaknesses or functional missteps as handicaps. Leaders allow these misperceptions to become a set of limiting beliefs that prevent their businesses from moving in new directions.
While recalibrating a personal relationship can be difficult, the process of resetting the passion for your business is much easier. Dare we say …simple?
Start From the Beginning
With a blank sheet, write answers to these questions:
- What is the purpose of your business? Who do you serve? What are the types and extremes of value that you can provide with your services? What would make customers loyal for life?
- If you were the best at providing those benefits, if your customers were raving fans who thought you provided unbelievable value, what would your offerings look like? What would be the ultimate user experience?
- If you were completely organized around that value, and were famous for it, what would your company look like? How would you be organized? What would that business model be?
If you assemble the answers, the result is a portrayal of your ideal business. This envisioned picture is one of a business so effective and so loved it would need little marketing. In this ideal, customers seek out the business, refer friends, and dismiss competitors. And, the best part is that you can take this vision from your mind’s eye to reality by creating a roadmap of incremental change to navigate away from your business today.
The Vision 2 Execution team helps organizations to develop these roadmaps every day. And in doing so, we have the distinct pleasure of watching leaders and their staff as they rediscover their passion for their business. We see their eyes get brighter. We watch the twinkle restore in their eyes. We are reminded of what Steve Jobs revealed about his interview process. He said when the candidate saw the company’s products, he knew he they could join the team if there was a twinkle in their eyes.
It is true, the larger your business is, the more complex the task. In a larger structure the reset must include the entire leadership team (LT), the board, and the layers of management. As with long term personal relationships, your business partners must share your desire for the journey and be willing to set aside their limiting beliefs. If this is your world, rest assured that it is possible to restore a weary LT using a carefully orchestrated road-mapping process. When your business is smaller, breathe a sigh of relief. Your task is easier.
While we always recommend that leaders keep failures from becoming animosity, the passion can be restored with a new roadmap or the effort of updating a previous vision. Operate from passion! Challenge limiting beliefs!