I remember when I was running my agency, I heard the business saying: the fish stinks from the head down.
Although I understood it meant that when it comes to business failings, it’s leadership that is the root cause, it took me a while to really understand its meaning. After some time I realised a lot of my shortcomings.
Whether it was as a CEO, a team leader, a business partner, a sales person or any other role I had at a given time at my company, I wasn’t always perfect.
…even though I desperately wanted to.
Sometimes I masked insecurities with ego or arrogance, other times it would mean staying out of the spotlight.
And these actions start to create friction, whether it’s in your business partnerships, with the team, employees or clients.
When you don’t fix your inner demons, don’t overcome your ego and aren’t aligned with your inner self, you can’t expect the business to do well.
Fix yourself before the business
This isn’t spoken about enough, because business is supposed to be purely about revenue, marketing tactics and sales right?
Wrong. Unless you fix yourself first, you can’t fix your business or expect to build a good one. Business is your extended hand, your mirror and it multiplies both the best and worst of you.
Most business owners refuse to believe this, but your business is a reflection on you. If it’s in trouble, it’s not purely down to the economy downturn, an angry client, a bad currency exchange, the industry or stealing employees.
You are always the creator, the catalyst behind everything that is happening with your company. It might be hard to accept, because it’s easy to blame it on external events and focus on marketing strategies. But your mindset determines your actions, your personality attracts people like you, your self-image determines how you present yourself, and your skillset determines the level of success you are going to achieve. Simple as that.
If you are afraid and scared, you will crumble at the face of the first challenge (and there will be many).
If you always look for shortcuts then you will always take the easy route and never grow. And people will see that in you, so they won’t trust you longterm.
If you have a high ego, your team will not be motivated and it will eventually drive your employees away.
If you are too stubborn, you will not see red flags and warnings until it’s too late and you are down in the red.
You see, the saying is right, the fish stinks from the head down. You are responsible for 99% of your success.
Smart Investors Invest in Teams, not Products, How Can You Leverage This?
Investors are always looking for the right type of people. So ask yourself, who exactly do you have to become to attract the best investors in the market?
You see it’s not about having the perfect product, it’s you who they are investing in. Your personality and your ability. If they trust you and if they trust in your ability to make them their return, that’s a smart investment to them.
Smart investors put their trust into teams, not products
Why?
A smart and savvy founder, who is self-aware can motivate an entire team, a team who will roll out dozens of products. Not just one.
This is one of the reasons why we start every acceleration program with a mindset-first approach.
How we work on ourselves
Sometimes all that is needed is little bit of mindset coaching from our experts and to put the founder into a challenging situation which can lead to a lot of self-discoveries.
Sometimes we have to do an entire week of activities to get this life long journey started. It varies from solving extreme challenges in an unknown city, to brainstorming sessions with a lot of ‘aha’ moments.
Everyone’s preference is different, but the point remains the same.
Some people jump from a plane, some read psychology books. Regardless of personality type, the goal remains the same – become the best version you can. Because it’s YOU who will be building the company, no one else can do it for you. You can’t outsource the hardship towards success.
Strip yourself from fear of failure and the unknown, stop blocking yourself, become crystal clear on your ‘why’, then and only then will you be able to actually apply successful business strategies.
One of the best ways to destroy your inner blocks and negative patterns is by educating yourself. Expand your perspective and put yourself in situations that are outside of your comfort zone, on regular basis.
So do you know what you can do in 2020 to improve yourself and grow so you can build a better team and a better company? Embrace uncomfortable situations.
Let me know – what are some of the uncomfortable situations you’ve already experienced that have helped you grow? Maybe you hated them in the moment, but now you see them as an important step in your growth?
