Fresh pair of eyes?
Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 23-05-2010
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Read an article in the New York Times this morning which I found interesting and got me thinking.
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/a-treatment-for-declining-sales/
How many times or how often (if at all) do you get someone to come in and look at your business with a fresh pair of eyes?
It’s so easy to be complacent and think:
- You know everything that’s going on in your business.
- You know how your staff feel.
- You know what your Clients think.
- You’ve got all the bases covered!
It’s been a long time (circa 3 years) since I went through this process. I can remember getting good results from this, both from a staff buy-in point of view and also what else we could be doing to improve our service to Clients and generating more profit.
Time moves so quickly and any business that’s not moving as fast internally as the external market moves is going to go through a very difficult time and potentially fail.
The investment in a “fresh pair of eyes” could pay you back many fold and seems like a huge amount of common sense to me.
So, my questions are:
- Do you see value in this
- Are you going to do it?
- If not why not?
- Have you already done it?
- If so, how often and what were the results?
Kevin
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Great topic Kevin.
Inevitably we end up spending too much time working in our business rather than on it. Having had both a coach and a non-exec director in the past, as well as being a member of an organisation (The Entrepreneurial Exchange http://www.entex.co.uk) where I get to meet and talk to other entrepreneurs I can say for certain that outside perspective is essential for support, encouragement and objectivity.
One of the toughest things about being an entrepreneur is having the guts to step back from your business and look at it from the outside in.
What’s even tougher is asking someone independent to do it for you; criticism of your baby is painful at best, but sometimes it’s the only way to get the clarity necessary to see the opportunities hidden amongst the everyday detritus of business life.
It takes a brave man – or woman – to seek independent advice. But it takes a wise man – or woman – to pick the best person to give that advice and an even wiser one to take it on the chin and make the necessary changes without making it personal.
Thanks Scott, it certainly struck a chord with me.
A couple of question for you if you don’t mind, who do you think you got the best advice from, non exec, coach or Exchange members?
Do you find you get better advice on specific things from specific people, for example when they are talking about their real strengths?
How do you know when they are talking about their real strengths – have you noticed a pattern in people when they are in that zone?
Be good to hear your thoughts…
Spot on Michelle.
I believe the faster you get the advice from your peers – people who have been there and done it, the quicker you get to where you want to be and don’t need to make the same number of mistakes along the way.
What do you suppose stops people asking – fear, not knowing who to ask, knowing they will have to make some sort of change which will take them out their comfort zone?
Good article. I have always believed that in order to achieve the really big goals you need a great team and an excellent peer network to run things past and get feedback from.
People don’t want to ask for all the reasons you mentioned, and more; criticism, blame, vulnerability, fear of outside influences, I could go on.
But ultimately it’s the brave few, those who have the balls to say I know I can make this better, but I can’t do it on my own, I need to find the right people who will help me take this forward and grow a business of scale and of reputation.
They’re a rare breed. But a successful one.