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Getting Strategic...
"It's what you learn after you
know it all that
counts."
- John Wooden
Upcoming Events
October 18:
La Crosse Preview
November 16:
La Crosse Workshop
November 29:
Madison Preview
December 8:
La Crosse Preview
December 9:
Rochester Preview
Call or email today to register for a future
Strategic Mindset Quarterly Retreat or Preview!
Everyone needs some time in their schedule to work on your business, organization or area of
responsibility versus in it. You can either
take ownership of your destiny today or
continue onwards in your glorified job.
Have Magic Dust, Will Travel...
Just ask Dorothy Gale from Kansas:
Ms. Gale woke up one day in a very troubling
situation. She was lost, separated from her family
and friends and didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t
even sure where to begin. Just when she thought
there was no hope, she was advised by a stranger to
find a Growth Coach. Perplexed and dazed, she still
wasn’t sure how to proceed. Through some
encouragement, Ms. Gale embraced the sound advice
and began her journey down the yellow brick road to
find a Growth Coach.
It sure was an interesting journey, filled with both
exciting times and frightening moments. On the
positive side, she befriended a few companions along
the way. Although they did not know it, they were
also on their own journeys. By helping Ms. Gale
along the rest of her journey, they discovered that
they were also helping themselves simultaneously.
Along the way, they worked together – as a team –
to battle the FUDS (fears, uncertainties, doubts and
suspicions) that they encountered.
Together, Ms. Gale and her new friends eventually
located a Growth Coach. His name was Oscar
Zoroaster. Like with any Growth Coach, Mr. Oz (for
short) helped Dorothy and her friends to realize that
the magic was already within each one of them. As
you encounter challenging moments in your day, it
is critical to look within. Your Growth Coach can help
you cook up a special batch of magic dust that we
call a Strategic Mindset. It’s a process that helps
you focus on what is important to you, capitalize on
your strengths and determine the results that you
want from your personal and professional lives. It’s a
proven process that can help you drive success (as
defined by you) and achieve balance. Best of all, it's
guaranteed to work!
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A Special Thank-you to Our Sponsor
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Greetings from JFK Associates and The Growth Coach!
As promised, this is the first edition of our monthly
newsletter. Our goal is to provide you with valuable
information that we hope you will find worth your
time. We appreciate your continued support and
commitment to advancing the principals of work-life
balance.
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Are You a Prisoner to Your Business?
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Let me start by asking you several questions that
might initially make you a bit uncomfortable but at
the same time provide you new insights about how
you work and operate your business or organization.
Here we go:
- As a business leader/owner, are you able to think
about walking away from your business today for one
or two months and come back to find it operating
smoothly and profitably?
- Can you even escape for two weeks?
- How about a long weekend?
- Have you ever taken a work-free vacation?
If your answers are no, "are you kidding me?" or
simply something less than positive, you don't have a
successful business, you have a glorified job in which
you are trapped.
You don't have an effective business system; you
are the business system. In a large sense, you are a
prisoner of your own success.
I did not intend to offend you with these very direct
and frank statements. You must realize I get paid to
help my clients "face reality" and then hold them
accountable for the changes and goals they desire.
These are questions I ask when I work with clients to
help them drive success and find better balance in
their lives. Facing reality is a critical step owners
must take to begin to build a better business and a
better life.
Go ahead, ask yourself the following questions, and
be brutally honest with yourself:
- Do I often question, "Why do I have to do every
darn thing myself?"
- Am I still working too hard and making too little?
- Am I trapped working "in" my business instead
of "on" my business?
- Do I ever wonder if business ownership is truly
worth the time, effort, headaches, hassles and
sacrifices?
- Do I feel trapped on a treadmill, moving faster
and faster, but going nowhere?
- Do I constantly face frequent interruptions and
repetitive questions from my staff?
- Do I go home many nights feeling mentally and
physically drained?
- Do I dread the drudgery of facing and solving the
same issues and problems each and every day — the
burden of re-creating the wheel time and time again?
- Do I daydream about regaining my sense of
freedom, joy, passion and peace-of-mind?
- Do I have anxiety about drowning in projects,
problems, deadlines, crises, meetings, employee
issues, unanswered voicemails or e-mails, customer
complaints, administrative trivia and on and on?
- Do I feel like a master juggler with too many balls
up in the air and dreading they will soon begin hitting
the floor?
- Am I forever chained to a phone, computer,
e-mail or pager?
- Am I tired of having customers rely on me
personally for services, solutions and satisfaction?
- Am I fed up with missing family time, family
events and making other personal sacrifices on a
semi-regular basis?
- Do I crave more free time to do the things that
matter most to me?
If you answered yes to a majority of these
questions, your approach to business management
probably is broken.
No matter what industry you are in, you should not
be a slave to your business. If you are, you have it
backward.
Your business should serve you and your dreams. It
should give you greater freedom, not less. In fact,
your business, properly designed, should function
practically without you, not because of you. It
should run predictably and automatically whether you
are in the office or not, in the store or not, out in
the field or not, on vacation or not.
Your business should not depend upon your
presence, personality, problem solving and
perspiration for its daily survival. If so, your business
does not work; you do.
Bottom line: You should run your business; it should
not run you, your family or your life.
Your business should work harder so you don't have
to. It should be systems-dependent and not
owner-dependent or expert-dependent for its
success.
It should have its own heart, mind, and soul — it
should not steal your vital organs and spirit.
Stop for a moment and think of the consequences.
If everything in your business flows through you and
is dependent upon you, then you are restricting
dramatically the growth and profits of your company.
As a single human being, there are natural limits to
the amount of work, transactions, problems and
decisions that can flow effectively through you in a
given day.
Stop being a bottleneck or clog. Otherwise, you will
continue to restrict the potential of your employees
and business and ensure your persistent exhaustion.
Stop missing out on greater personal freedom, money
and happiness.
You need to face reality, admit to certain problems,
and then resolve to change your thinking and
approaches. Don't be a slave to your business.
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