“In the busyness of business don’t forget to connect to the heart of it all.”
In this very complex world we live in it is easy to lose the heartbeat of what business is all about. If your day is peppered with strategic initiatives, organic growth meetings, calibrating expectations, disruptive innovations, exit strategies, multi-scenario building, multi-tasking, globalization, holistic approaches, impact analysis, buy outs, mergers, thinking outside the box, paradigm shifts, organizational transformation, streamlining, sustainability management, outsourcing, crystallization, derivatives, event horizon discussions, millennial management, valuations, performance management, integrated marketing solutions, knowldge process outsourcing, logistics, low hanging fruit definition, off-shoring, on-shoring, roi’s, quick wins, right-shoring, start-up, agile, brisks and clicks, clickthroughs, cloud, content management, convergence, data mining, enterprise management, mashups, netiquette, nextgen, sensorization, life cycle management, SaaS,Vortal, webservice, workflow, leading-lagging indicators, etc. It is easy to forget what it at the heart of it all…
“When you connect to the silence within you, that is when you can make sense of the disturbance going on around you.”
Stephen Richards
The leaders who are able to navigate the stream of noise, technologies, distractions, multiple agendas, and bring about meaningful results have the ability to get quiet and connect to the truth:
- The market = the customer (people)
- Technology trends = emerging applications (people)
- Operational strength = team effectiveness (people)
- Opportunities = potential new markets/partnerships (people)
- Sales = growth and focus (people)
- Marketing = consistent communication of your intent (people)
- Profitability = management of operational expense and sales (people)
Today’s leader must love and enjoy the constant dance of working with and through others (people) to accomplish a powerful and meaningful vision and dream. The steps to the dance are always changing and to learn them the answer is always in “the people” and it is hard work to maintain the focus on “the heart (people)” of business when there are so many complexities that support and take good leaders away from the simple truth. If the concept resonates for you, try the following practices to get back to center:
- Walk in nature
- In conversations -Focus on understanding. Studies indicate that most people can recall only 50% of what they hear immediately after hearing it. As time passes, their ability to remember continues to drop. By the next day, their retention is usually down to about 25%. One way to combat this tendency is to make your goal understanding rather than just remembering facts. Listen with the intent of understanding.
- Take 10 deep breaths and then ask yourself what is the next most important area you need to focus on to support the dream/ the vision.
Stay Centered,
Bobbie Goheen
