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MAKING A CHANGE TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS

by Ayda Akbelen, LMHC

If you are looking to grow your business, and you made a pledge on New Year’s Eve to do something

different this year, you may want to take a closer look at your strengths and the role you play in your

business. Are your strengths propelling you forward and supporting your success or is overreliance on

your strengths leaving you feeling stuck?

Many times we get into roles that feel comfortable because they complement our skills and values. We

learn from early years that we are good at certain tasks, whether in school or at home, from feedback

we receive and the desired results we get. You may want to think about your strengths and familiar

roles you find yourself in as I present some examples of fictitious individuals borrowed from real life.

John, a young technology professional grew up in a family with a sense of responsibility instilled in him

to clean up after family dinners and also pitch in to help younger siblings. He found himself in similar

roles at work, with the responsibility of checking and correcting the work of others. This may be a

positive quality that earned him his first couple of promotions but in the long term could hinder his

movement up the chain of command if he continually got bogged down cleaning up everyone’s work. If

he had his own business, he may apply this behavior to dealing with his staff and also clients. Spending

inordinate time handholding his staff and clients can potentially diminish his revenues.

When I first met him, he seemed to be under a lot pressure to meet his project deadlines and could not

take on more high profile projects that could get him a promotion to Vice President. As a team leader,

he felt compelled to continually attend to the work of recent hires who worked along aside him. Unlike

when he was a new hire, they seemed to be less resourceful and came to him often to ask questions and

he felt good being needed. If the new hires were sloppy in writing code, he corrected their mistakes

and considered his actions a mentoring exercise. And during crunch periods, when help was needed

over the weekend, some recent hires turned off their cell phones and claimed they were not receiving

requests to pitch in to solve breaks in the system. He found himself solving problems by himself and

getting frustrated. He was stuck in the “big brother” role of watching over the less experienced recent

hires.

The answers to this dilemma may sound simple to you and me, which is to say just don’t do it; let them

learn the hard way by researching the answer. In a “system” which we all live in, it is not so simple. In

this case, the performance of the recent hires impacted his projects since he had delegated some parts

to them. So, his success depended on others.

He needed to do something different and together we devised a strategy: ask his team to do further

research for at least 3 hours before coming to him for help. This was a less risky proposition than not

stepping in to help at all. Soon the junior staff got used to the idea that they were going to be held

accountable for coming up with answers, thus allowing him to take on other projects. A year later, I ran

into him at corporate event I was invited to and he was proud to show me his ID tag which said Vice

President.

Senior executives and business owners are not exempt from getting bogged down in details monitoring

the work of others. What compels people to engage in this behavior can be traced to their strengths and

the familiar roles they have come to assume on a regular basis.

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Think of yourself as the part of the puzzle as you have the power to influence outcomes:

You are part of a system whether at home, school, work, and in the community. Ask yourself “What

forces keep me in familiar roles?” “What resources do I need to help me get unstuck from roles I play?”

One of my clients, a small business owner, had grown a facilities management business with 5-7 million

dollars in revenue from nothing. Now expecting their second child, his wife who helped out in the

business on a part-time basis, was planning to stay home for a while. With increasing responsibilities at

home and wearing too many hats at work, growing his business was becoming a challenge.

He was advised to hire someone in a senior capacity to deal with service issues so that he could attend

to business development. When I met him, he wanted my advice on hiring that right individual. I had to

make him aware that to hire the right individual I needed to get to know him better. While listening to

him about the kind of employee he wanted to hire, I learned more about him.

He was a highly resourceful individual who can think out of the box to solve problems. Having overcome

personal adversities, he had hired staff that needed a break but did not necessarily have the experience

or potential to help him the way he needed. His value “if you try hard enough you can succeed” was

based on his own personal story. His value, which made complete sense to him, was very admirable yet

was not helping him now to get to where he wanted to be. There were two issues: hiring capable help

and knowing how to delegate. Since he did not have faith in the capabilities of his current staff to

resolve delicate issues with his clients, he felt he could not delegate much without getting directly

involved, thus perpetuating the cycle that he could only depend on himself.

Self-reliant and independent minded, he was at first not open to seeing how he fits into the puzzle.

Fortunately, he had the intelligence to “think outside the box” to make one necessary change to grow

his business: delegate!

This was a two-step process: Step one was to write a detailed job description and establish guidelines

for the incumbent to follow. This also meant that frequent exceptions he made to his own rules to

deliver the kind of service that would keep his clients happy had to change. There had to be more

structure with process and procedures and communication between himself and the staff to create an

understanding of his business practices. Step two was to hire an experienced individual who had the

maturity and experience to understand the nuances of servicing clients. Once the hiring decision was

made, the challenge remained delegation. Ironically, at the same time, he and his wife decided to hire a

nanny at home to whom they could delegate some childcare responsibilities in order to free up his wife

so that she could eventually return to their business part-time. Many times our career and personal

development runs in parallel and even plays out in managing our business.

Making that change by modifying your role and picking the right situations to develop yourself:

It may take a long time to try a different role and develop the mindset and skills needed to expand our

capabilities. When do know it is the right time? How do you make that transition? What risks are

involved and how do you maximize potential for success?

Taking the first step is key to any situation. I work with my clients to devise that first doable step which

can be small but powerful.

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One individual I am currently working with feels uncomfortable conveying his opinions in meetings,

fearing stepping on others’ toes. He feels more comfortable taking a back seat and not drawing

attention to himself. With his quiet personality, he has sought roles as the supportive deputy, which

had been reinforced over time, leaving him feeling that he could not take charge and be in the lead role.

I discovered through our conversations that he has an uncanny ability to summarize and integrate

others’ opinions. I asked if he could summarize others’ opinions in meetings to have his voice heard.

Once we reached an agreement on next steps, he took the opportunity to assert himself in the next

couple of high profile meetings and soon became the voice of reason, a leader who could unite

everyone around a solution.

Sometimes our behaviors are born out of cultural and family values passed on to us. I myself discovered

over twenty years ago working for a global company which had an aggressive culture that my

unassuming style can hold me back from getting a promotion. In fact, I was told by my boss at the time

that I needed to focus on self-promotion, not just doing a good job. Nowadays we refer to this as

promoting your brand. During the same time period, I attended a workshop conducted by a well-known

organizational consultant on the topic of family influences on career development. I discovered that my

unassuming style was a family value I was carrying with me, but it was no longer working for me in my

new environment. In fact, it was in conflict with my other family value, which is achievement. I needed

to make changes ASAP.

I always say to my clients that we can all develop ourselves: even coaches have developmental needs.

For me self-promotion is one thing I have to be mindful of. I think I am not unique in that I feel my work

should speak for itself. I hear many of my clients say the same thing. Whether you are a business owner

or an executive, getting yourself known to your client base is very important. For an executive, getting

known in the company, not just to your boss but to your boss’ boss, and to your industry in general is

essential.

For me, I started this process over twenty years ago -- to regularly communicate what I had achieved to

my boss. Then I started conducting workshops on various topics to engage audiences who are looking

for professional and personal development. Now as I am expanding my consulting to small business

owners, I feel my message needs to get out to audiences that I would like to attract. Once again, I am

mindful of making time for promoting my consulting services, which could benefit both small business

owners and their employees. I appreciate every opportunity to get my message heard.