Embrace Your Fears

There are many motivating factors that have been thrown your way last year.  The economy is one of the big ones.  Whether or not your customers can keep buying from you made a huge impact on your business.  The fear of the unknown is what held you back or moved you forward with the hope of getting ahead of your competition.  Fear is a process, not just an emotion.  When you learn to use it to your advantage, you will find more success in business and in your personal life.

Readers of this blog know that we have a specific philosophy that we follow to grow businesses.  Having the right mindset to make changes happen is the key to all growth.  Knowing that fearful situations is one thing that most people run from, we are going to make using fear an advantage and create small wins.

Let’s start with what scares you.  Speaking in front of a crowd is still one of the top three fears in the world.  When you are forced to speak to a large group of people, do you seize up or do you use the anxiety to give more energy to your speech?  My bet is that most of you are using that energy to drive your words to connect with your audience.  That anxiety, that fear of failure in front of a group of peers is a driving force.  When you finish speaking and sit down you have a small win.  The event happened, you did well, and now you can reap the rewards of having lead the conversation.

Now, let’s move from one fear to another.  When you have to open your business for the day, do you have any idea how many customers you will have spend money with you?  Of course not.  There is a fear inside that no one will show up and you will be stuck with rent to pay, payroll to cover, and have stock sitting on shelves getting dusty.  Do you open for business anyway?  Yes you do.  Small Win!  Too simple?  Not for all the people who give up on their business and walk away.  It happens every day.

I mentioned earlier that embracing fear is a process.  Let’s start on that now that you know you handle fear every day and survive.

Step One:  Know what scares you

I have spent time with some of the most powerful people in business.  They know everything about themselves and use their strengths to keep their power in business.  They also know what they are not good at or just dislike.  They would never call it fear, but that is what it is.  Donald Trump is a prime example of a guy who is terrified of not having millions and millions of dollars.  Take the money away and he is a pushy guy with bad hair.  The fear of being without money is what gives him the drive to make money.  What scares you?  Have you thought about it or do you just walk through your day without knowing what motivates you?

Step Two:  Surround yourself with successful people

You have to look at the fact that you are not the big man on campus when you are surrounded with great people.  Especially if you hire them to help you be successful.   I recommend you hire as many successful people as you can.  There is power source that comes from pushing past the fear of coming in second place to someone who works for you.  Remember, they work for you.  You pay these outstanding people and have seen something in you that makes them want to help you be better.  It isn’t just a compliment, it’s a reward to be around great people.  How many businesses fail because the leader won’t hire someone who could push them out of a job?  It happens at every company.  Fear holds people back.

Step Three:   Be clear on your vision

Remember, we hate mission statements here at Business Bulldog but, we love vision statements.  Visions statements tell the story of why you want to be successful.  It draws a map of how you are going to get to your goals and paints a picture of what it will look like when you are there.  How many bosses did this for you since you started working?  Would it have taken a lot fear out of the job you were doing if you have a clear picture of how you fit in?  Of course it would have and you would be the biggest fan of the company and that boss if he had.  OK, so what are you going to do?  Take the time to sit and think things through.  Don’t just make a list of needed items and people for a project, goal, etc.  Maps, timelines, and stories go hand-in-hand.  It makes you have to think about how to explain why you want something rather than just dictating that it gets done.

When you start getting worried about things this year, start thinking about how you can use that fear and why you have it in the first place.  Fear isn’t a bad thing, not facing your fear is.

Is it Plugged In??

The simple answer is always the best one.  Brevity is the key to good communication.  Momma says, “Because I said so!”.  All are good statements and it seems everyone has found this to be the case for the short-attention-span world we live in.  So, why do you spend hours and days trying to communicate directions to your employees when a simple statement is the best direction?

For example, I love talking with technical people.  They are the most needed group in any organization because we all have gadgets at the heart of any of our tasks.  When things go wrong is when the IT Department is really valuable.  What is the first question that IT asks when they are helping you?  Answer: “Is it plugged in?”  Why do they start there when so many other things can be wrong with a computer?  It’s because that is the number one answer to computer problems.  A cord gets knocked loose and all you need to do is plug it back in.

The rational side of me would have a message that plays before you can talk with the Tech Team.  It would say, “Check to see that your computer is plugged in.  If you do not check and that is the problem, you owe the technician $100.”  That, of course, would handle most of the issues, but it would put half the IT Department out of work.  With everyone handling their own power problems what would a techie do?  Of course losing IT employees is risky when you may need them when the real problems hit.

I was in a store this past week talking with the owner.  He said he wanted to sell more products.  The manager walked up to us at that moment and I simply told her to sell 5% more products.  She gave me a frown and then smiled and said “OK”.  Just like that she was telling her team to sell more.  No explaining.  No motivational statements.  No incentives.  I told her what I wanted and she went back to her team and made it happen.  She was plugged in to what the owner wanted.

I was in a fast food restaurant not long ago and they were an organizational mess.  When I  finally got a chance to order, the girl behind the counter was rude to me.  Instead of being rude back to her, I asked a simple question.  What did your manager tell you your job was in this restaurant?  She was full of wonderful sentiment, so I asked to talk with her manager.  I asked him what he told his staff was their main job.  He wasted no time in telling me that it was to help customers.  I don’t think that is the message he told his crew, but I left with my money and more to talk about here on Business Bulldog.  He apparently wasted his breath on some half-baked meeting where he kind of gave the idea that the customers were the reason they had a job.  I had the idea that the place should be shut down before they hurt someone.

Why do we get frustrated with not getting the results we want when the message is the problem?  I think you know that answer.  You want to make sure everyone sees things your way.  They should understand your reasons behind doing everything you do and follow along because your way is the best way.  What you miss is that they just aren’t plugged in.  When you tell an employee what you want they will either do it or not.  The outcome is where you need to spend your time, not in the directions.  If they don’t follow your orders find out why and then direct again.

Keep things simple in your business.  We are amazing at complicating anything.  Plug yourself in and make the simple, effective leadership your way of doing business.

Bob Griffin – CEO
BGriffin@BusinessBulldog.com