One of the things that I have learnt in business is the value of getting another perspective on a situation. All too often business owners are so stuck in their business and when you are deep in the woods, it is difficult to step back and get an aerial view of what is really going on in your business.
In my book The Alchemy Of Change I likened this situation to being on a ship. When you are stuck under the hatches, below deck you cannot see where you are going and what is coming up on the horizon. Also when you are in this place sometime everything can seem really difficult and yet just one small shift can make all the difference. Jeff Olsen refers to this as the Slight Edge. It is that tiny change that helps everything accelerate to the next level.
This morning my pony Bracken so ably demonstrated this fact that I felt compelled to write about it. You see during the winter the horses field got really wet and so every time the tractor took hay out to the field it left some serious tyre tracks. In some places the ruts were 18 inches deep. So in effect I had a field with these two channels running through the middle of it. Fast forward to last week when finally we were able to roll the field and dig up the tractor ruts and then reseed the field in this area. The result is that there is a strip in the middle of the field which is roped off so the horses can’t walk on it. The challenge is that this means that the horses have to walk around this to get to the gate in order to get out of the field.
So this morning, with a bit of help from me, Charlie, Toby and Thistle figured out they had to follow me up to the top of the field and then walk down to the gate, but bless her, Bracken is all confused. Stuck on the wrong side of the fence she can’t get out. I can see her getting frustrated and annoyed as her friends leave her and yet all she had to do was turn round, walk 100 yards in the other direction and then she could get over to the other side of the seeded grass patch and so join us and come in. But instead of doing this she just stayed there, stuck and getting really frustrated She couldn’t see what was so obvious to everyone else.
So here are the three reasons I learnt from her on why you need a different perspective:
- Stuck in the depth of what was going on Bracken continued to do what she had always done and yet this time she was not getting the results she wanted. She couldn’t get out of the field. And yet in business all too often we can get stuck doing the same thing time and time again and there comes a point where this action is no longer serving us. Bracken needed by different perspective and coaching to show her there was another option.
- Often it is only a minor change that needs to happen to catapult your business to another level. Bracken basically had all the elements in place to get out of the field. She was just approaching the situation in the wrong order. Once she realised that she had to go backwards to go forward then she flew into the new field. And this is also what happens in business. Often we need to take time out to reflect, take stock and re-group before we can move forward.
- Once Bracken had been shown the new way she accelerated with massive momentum towards her goal. And this is what i see happening in business too. Once the business owner has really clarity on where they are going, and is shown a path of how to get there, there business can take off exponentially. Its all about ensuring everything is aligned and then the business will flow effortlessly, much like Bracken when she galloped off to find her friend.
So if you’d like to get a different perspective on where you are in business and how to get to the next level, then please connect with me for a personal strategy consultation where I can help you map out what the problem is and one simple action to can take to get back on track.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
