We can often be fabulous in one area and rubbish in another. That was the truth for me.
You may wonder (with all the screw ups you’ve been privy to in my blogs) how I possibly managed to be successful and create and maintain a great business. A good question to ask.
We can often be fabulous in one area and rubbish in another. That was the truth for me. I excelled in supporting my customers, providing a great service and delivering. I completely bombed in doing the same for the people who worked for me.
Due to poor self esteem I ended up exerting power and control over those who I probably felt at the time couldn’t do much about it. This wasn’t conscious, I didn’t get up in the morning and think, ‘who am I going to terrorise today?’.
My behaviours however were not consistent with a caring, supportive leader. But then, when your sole focus is yourself and how you are performing, there is little room for others.
When members of the team had enough and voiced it I became hurt and confused and full of regret. It was only after I stopped allowing my BS to win that I managed to move forward and address what needed to be addressed.
What if you didn’t have to get to a crisis to do that? Today ask yourself, what’s my BS? What’s the cost of running that program having on my life and business? Staff retention continues to be a pressing issue for employers – there’s one immediate cost.
So how did I do it? Maintain and grow a successful business.
I was always connected to my purpose, I was 100% clear about why I did what I did – I loved my job. I had a real passion for finding people work.
The memories that are strongest for me are the ones where I really helped people and made a difference in their lives. The young man who couldn’t afford to go to university and desperately wanted to get into IT. No agencies would touch him due to him not having a degree. He turned up in his dad’s suit that was way too big – he just wanted a chance.
I did everything in my power to help him. I got him a break, we created a strategy together and all these years later he is a very senior IT professional. There are many more happy memories like this one.
I was passionate about what I did.
You can’t fake passion, it drives you. It was the time I was 100% congruent, and people got that.
Take some time today to reconnect with your passion for what you do. Think about who you are being as you do what you do, and align these.
If you are struggling to find the passion for what you do, then it may be time to assess.
Pollyanna Lenkic is the founder of Perspectives Coaching, an Australian based coaching and training company. She is an experienced facilitator, certified coach and a certified practitioner of NLP. In 1990 she co-founded a specialist IT recruitment consultancy in London, which grew to employ 18 people and turnover £11 million ($27 million). This blog is about the mistakes she made and the lessons she learned building a business the first time round and how to do it better second time round. For more information go to www.perspectivescoaching.com.au
For more Second Time Around, click here.
Smart Company is the leading online publication in Australia for free news, information and resources catering to Australia’s entrepreneurs, small and medium business owners and business managers.
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