Who Needs “The Couch” More For Success, You or Your Business?

Who Needs “The Couch” More For Success, You or Your Business?
Is the best thing for your business to work on you or the best thing for you to work on your business? Only your Business Therapist knows for sure!!

Is the best thing for your business to work on you or the best thing for you to work on your business? Only your Business Therapist knows for sure!!

Why isn’t my business getting the results I deserve? Why aren’t I making what I should be making? Why is hard work so frustrating? What’s wrong with my team? What’s wrong with me? All good questions we hear a lot when success is elusive. Sometimes we’re sure we know the answer about what needs fixing. Sometimes we even admit we need personal help but diagnosing a lack of personal and/or professional success is not as easy, or as complicated, as you might think.

I’ve recently had a change of description for my role in my company (Master of the Universe didn’t score well in focus groups). Where for many years my three-word answer has been Strategist, Trainer, Teacher. Today, I feel like Business Therapist is more apt to describe what is most needed for executives, business owners and sellers. Not that there’s been a seismic shift in business psychosis or that fundamental analysis of process and improvement implementations aren’t still valid, they are. What is more apparent than ever is that complexity in success formulas is driving a better understanding of both the person and the process, so I put myself on the couch to realize that to create lasting, effective change it starts with the person not the process.

Today’s organizational problems do have a far greater range of “soft” issues than ever before. By accident or design diversity is upon us and culture is no longer a nice thing to have, it is who you are. If there are any toxins it can bring down the best of processes, poison the environment, hinder productivity, delay or deprive success.

Most organizations and most leaders benefit by constant analysis, incremental changes and upgrades and confirming measurements. That said there is often much effort and resources put into process only to find that a leader or worker’s traits usurp the intention. Everyone can quote the truism that doing the same thing over and over and expecting difference is insanity. Unfortunately, that also applies to constantly making changes when there are underlying issues with the person responsible for leading, implementing, or executing those changes.

Once upon a time psychotherapy was seen as everything from quackery to taboo. You never see a cowboy on a therapist couch, and such (pre-Brokeback Mountain). By the 1980s pop psychology had turned therapy into a status symbol. Big corporations invest in both human and process development but rarely have they been integrated. It makes sense today for companies big or small, salespeople or business owners to recognize personal introspection begets opportunities for outward improvements.

In today’s culture it makes sense to examine success more broadly. This means an honest inspection of not just what and how you are doing but understand the why and why not connected to required success behaviors. Every piece of success is ultimately tied to behaviors. Our attitudes, fears, concerns and joys related to behaviors are far more likely to drive their successful execution than the best process flow chart.

When you want to have more success for you or your company ask a couple of simple questions: Have I tried to implement change before? Did I change myself first or try to change actions? How do I really feel about change? How about when then change is about discovering if I am my best self? Am I willing to do the work on myself before I demand it of my processes or my team?

Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who would simply benefit by confirmation that you’ve got the right thinking about yourself, a willingness to be honest and an earnest intent to drive positive, measurable change. Business Therapy in that case lets you focus on the how, what and when of self or team behaviors from a solid foundation. Sometimes you need to recognize while you are good, the process is good, someone else subverts the efforts, likely not even intentionally. So, if you find yourself with hopes of doing better, doing more, achieving, influencing or attaching the term success to your life’s journey without disclaimers then you might look outside for a new perspective on who you are and who you can become. Let someone help you see you, become the change, do the work and you may just find process improvement falls far more easily in place and you’ll appreciate success and yourself a little more.

© 2018 MyEureka Solutions LLC. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomFoxTrainer or online at www.myeurekasolutions.com/thoughts. Comments and feedback always welcome.

 

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