What is your relationship with growth?

As a business owner one way or another you’re in a relationship with growth. You may wish it was a quieter one, that things would settle down. You’d get things straight and then kick on again. Maybe you’re desperately looking for some kind of relationship, but growth just doesn’t seem interested. Dare I suggest that your current entanglement isn’t the right one for you at all, and it’s time to change it?

  • Whatever your reality at the moment the one certainty is that you and your business need to be growing healthily.

When you’re a start-up growth is clear process, do marketing, get clients, do work, get paid, pay bills. Repeat and take in more money than you pay out is the goal. At the other end of the spectrum, exiting the business you still need to be growing. Why? Because who wants to get involved with something that’s in decline or has little potential for growth?

  • Whether your exit is partial (reduce days, do the fun bits) a full sale exit or pass it on as a legacy the message is the same.

In a partial exit, you need a senior management team that deals with all the stuff you are no longer interested in and they’ll want their rewards. If you bring people in that’s a costly experience in time and money, as well as the anxiety of transition. Again, how many people do you think are going to be enthusiastic about leading or joining a stagnating or declining business?

  • Looking to sell the business?

Are you going to get a greater multiple and keener investors if they can see there is still good growth potential. What if they can see you’re selling at the top of the curve and you’ve “dressed” the business to sell by reducing investment to boost the figures?

All of this applies to succession and legacy. Do you want the prospect of having to step back into the firm because you didn’t grow the team, the resources or set a strategy that the next generation could buy into?

  • Growth of any sort guarantees one thing, one thing only, and no it’s not success.
  • Growth only guarantees you change.
  • Growth means things are different today from yesterday, and tomorrow will be different from today. That’s change, constant change and how much do you love change?

We all have different experiences of, and tolerances for change. Whatever your capacity for change there will always be an element of discomfort associated with change. If you’re an exception and truly love change then accept that most of the people around you probably don’t.

As a business owner you’re accustomed to some change and you’ve formed a working relationship with growth.

Like any relationship it has phases. Remember when it was new and exciting? Then it became comfortable and settled, then a bit routine, maybe you got complacent. What happened then, did you have to run around putting things right, did it fall apart completely? Or perhaps it’s been the love of your life?

Well you may be asking, that’s all very well and a lovely philosophical approach but how does that help me grow my business, generate more cash and improve my profits?

Relationships are emotional rollercoasters, affected by your behaviours, energy levels, financial situation, (mis)communication, external events and 101 other things.

To be constantly embracing change and consistently working on the best version of you, you need something that helps you deal with those ups and downs.

That thing is your growth framework and it needs to serve two functions.

  • Act as your growth safety net .
  • Be your scaffolding for the next phases of growth.

Your safety net

A safety net is there to look after you when you are developing a new skill.

Acquiring a new skill is growth, attached to a reason. There’s something else you need, a desire to do something better, different, a stretch and you know what you’ve got isn’t enough. You have a vision, a desired outcome, beyond where you are now.

To get there you go through your daily, weekly, monthly routines to practice and acquire those new skills. You may slip, get stuck on a particular aspect, feel you’re never going to make it, have great highs and breakthrough moments. Remember that feeling when you hit your first great golf shot, scored the goal, went solo in an aircraft, nailed the perfect lap or killed that important presentation?

They came about because of consistent routine aligned to an outcome that was connected and personal to you. There were times when you were tired, bored, fed up, questioned yourself, were let down by others but you just kept going. Because you knew what was needed and were prepared to pay the price. Your vision, your safety net of process, discipline and execution saved you.

Scaffolding for growth

Vision and disciplined execution are also part of the momentum of growth.

When life is good and everything you touch in business seems to turn to gold the natural temptation is to take your foot off the gas. You’ve arrived, you have a level of success, you skip a couple of the uncomfortable activities. You let your team “get on with it”, you may not be leading and communicating with them as you should. Maybe, just maybe, you haven’t reset the Vision and goals beyond that initial success.

Perhaps it’s that you’re fired by energy and enthusiasm and want to tackle every new exciting opportunity that comes your way.

Here’s the real beauty of your growth scaffolding…it defines the area within which you are building.

  • That’s a critical element of channelling your energies and making sure they’re highly effective.

How many times have you leapt at those new opportunities, lusted after a new shiny thing, distracted yourself, others and diverted funds into a project which wasn’t aligned to your vision?

Scaffolding helps you build to a result, then you remove all the pieces, and then reassemble then in a way appropriate to the next build.

You don’t take it down halfway through a project and half build a couple of other things!

What to look for when choosing your growth framework.

If you were buying a physical safety net and scaffolding, you’d have some key criteria such as:

  • Robustness,
  • Clarity on how to build the framework
  • The right tools for your circumstances
  • Quality,
  • Track record
  • Support
  • Scalability

What to do…now

  • Work out what your current relationship is with growth. Do you need a fresh perspective?
  • Are you happy with that relationship?
  • What do you need to do to change it?
  • How and when are you doing that?
  • What growth framework do you have in your business now?
  • Is it serving you and the vision and goals you’ve set?
  • Do you need to clarify or reset your vision and goals?

If you’d like to know how ActionCOACH has addressed these questions since 1993, around the globe, and would like a 40-minute conversation with me to explore what’s important to you, just drop me a line and book a time.