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Articles filed in: Success
What Can You Do Now?
Julie has been running her local florist business for five years. She’s built up a reputation with the people in her suburb, who regularly pop in when they’re walking past to buy flowers and plants that brighten their homes and their lives.
While new single bunch, online flower delivery services blossomed, Julie made the decision when she started to be a neighbourhood business. She wanted to serve a community of customers she knew by name. This strategy worked well for her, until now.
All the restaurants and cafés along her street have closed, and her customers have retreated indoors to self-isolate. The streets are eerily quiet. Nobody is popping in to buy flowers anymore. Julie’s strategy didn’t account for an event like this.
But she’s not ready to shut her doors. She wants to find a way to serve her customers. So she’s employed an extra driver and begun to offer free contactless delivery. Julie’s doing what she’s always done—what’s different is how she does it. Her strategy remains the same. It’s just her tactics that have to change for the moment.
What can you do now to keep doing what you’ve always done?
Image by Ellicia
On Resourcefulness
filed in Strategy, Success, Worldview
When things don’t go according to plan.
Remember this isn’t the first time you’ve had to change course.
Make a list of all the other times you pushed through.
Remind yourself of the skills and strengths you previously called on in challenging times.
Tell yourself those stories today.
They will stand you in good stead as you work to change the things you can change.
Tomorrow and the day after.
Image by Neil Thomas
Don’t Be Right, Be Early
filed in Strategy, Success, Worldview
Seven years ago, a member of the Zoom video conferencing sales team worked hard to demonstrate the value of their service to me.
She emailed, she Zoomed, she answered questions. And I didn’t sign up.
‘I will one day,’ I promised. ‘Just not now. It’s just too early for me.’
Which was true.
Few of us could have predicted the extraordinary growth trajectory of a company like Zoom seven years ago.
Nobody would have predicted that thousands of organisations, educational institutions and creatives, would now rely on Zoom to meet, teach and collaborate with colleagues and students in quarantine just seven weeks ago.
In tomorrow’s world, we will forget that Zoom built their business one call, one customer, at a time.
It’s impossible to be sure about our next move as we navigate the future.
It always has been.
Sometimes we have to take the first step without knowing whether it’s the right one.
We can’t always be right, but we can be early.
Image by Britanni Burns
Build a Reputation
My friend Anna has been going to the same hairdresser for ten years. She’s never trusted anyone else to cut her hair in all that time. Now though, she has no option because her stylist just had a baby, and she’s on maternity leave.
When Anna sat in the new stylist’s chair, she was so anxious her palms were sweating.
Objectively, she had no proof that her regular stylist was more skilled than the new one. But reputation is built on beliefs and opinions, not objective facts.
Trust earned over time is a powerful differentiator.
Who do you want to be most trusted by and what for?
Image by AW Creative
What Separates This From That?
When we’re not simply driven by price how do we choose what to buy?
We tell ourselves a story about quality, design, durability, or provenance. But often as we rationalise about the advantages of one product or service over another, the differentiator we perceive is the degree of love and care that’s gone into making or delivering it.
There is no place for love on a spreadsheet, ironically that’s what makes it invaluable. When we care it shows.
Image by Thomas Marban
Influence Vs. Impact
filed in Meaningful Work, Story Skills, Success
In a world where attention has become both currency and commodity, it’s tempting to believe there’s a direct correlation between influence and impact.
The modern definition of an influencer is someone who can persuade people with their recommendations. But it turns out, the people who have the greatest impact are not necessarily the people with the most influence.
Our impact isn’t only measured in crude metrics like attention.
Think about the people who have had the most impact on your life—a patient teacher, a caring friend or a wise mentor. These people likely made a difference, with something they continually did, not just something they once told you to do.
Change happens when more people seek to be less influential and more impactful.
We get to choose which matters most.
*We’ve opened The Story Skills Workshop again this week.
If you’re ready to increase your impact, I hope you’ll join us.
Image by Monika Kosub
What Does Being Successful Mean To You?
filed in Success
This question about success is one that members of the Right Company have been reflecting on this past week.
It seems like a question that should have a straightforward answer.
After all, if success is something we aspire to, we must know what our ambitions are.
If we don’t know where we want to go, how will we know which path to take?
What does being successful mean to you?
Image by Emma
Promises Worth Keeping
filed in Meaningful Work, Success, Worldview
While I was out walking this weekend I came across a sign on a shop door detailing the opening times. It read:
MONDAYS—probably
TUESDAYS-probably
WEDNESDAYS—probably not sure Not SURE!
THURSDAYS—OPEN
FRIDAYS—OPEN
SATURDAYS—OPEN
SUNDAYS—OPEN
MAY BE LATER FOR OPENING (SORRY! LIFELONG HABIT)
BUT TRYING FOR 3 PM-9 PM
It’s easy for a sometimes probably, to become a maybe never.
What promises are you making to yourself and others that are worth keeping?
This is a photo of the sign.
Image by Richard Balog
The Sliding Scale Of Ambition
filed in Meaningful Work, Success
There are many ways Leanne could leverage the success of her popular hair salon.
She could extend her opening hours or enter national competitions. She could hire more stylists and open more branches. She could create a line of hair products or franchise her business process and ideas.
But Leanne chooses to do none of these things—not because she isn’t ambitious, but because success for her is delivering the best experience in one exceptional salon, to earn the trust and loyalty of delighted customers.
We sometimes fall into the trap of shooting for someone else’s vision of success. We seize every opportunity because we can, and not because it’s what we really want.
Ambition is always on a sliding scale.
What does being successful mean to you? What do you want?
Image by Aw Creative
On Strengths
filed in Meaningful Work, Story Skills, Success
If a friend or colleague asked you to list their strengths, I’m guessing you’d have no trouble coming up several of their attributes.
But if they asked you to share a list of your strengths you’d likely hesitate.
Why is that?
We don’t spend a lot of time reflecting on our skills and talents, because we’ve been conditioned to be humble.
We largely focus on our ‘areas for improvement—the things we lack confidence and competence in, to the detriment of our gifts and our genius.
Of course, we can improve our weakness. But we can also amplify our strengths.
What do you already bring to the world and how can you do more of that?
Image by Annie Spratt