photo by euart

Sometimes you need to mix in a little philosophy with your business…

I’m re-reading the classic business book – The EMyth Revisited by Michael Gerber (prepping for a workshop I’m doing next week) and I was inspired by some philosophy in a chapter that I hadn’t thought about in a while.

For those that haven’t read the book (it’s one of the Top 100 Business Books of all time), it’s a story about a struggling entrepreneur who owns a pie shop and how the author helps her realize why her business is struggling (along with most small business owners at some point and time) and the shift in perception that’s needed to avoid the all too common downward spiral of business failure.

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  photo by Esparta

I was revisiting some of my older blog posts and I found one that I felt was really worth while.  The original post is called What are your Real Goals and it covers a powerful exercise that will help you look at what you want to do differently.

One of the traps that we all fall into is more of a wish fulfillment state rather than an honest and actionable set of goals that actually mean something.  “I want a lot of money” is not an actionable or even inspirational goal…however something like “I want to be free from concerns about money so that I can do the things I love” might generate more direction and be more inspirational.

Take a few minutes to go through the exercise (actually write things down) and I guarantee you’ll get something out of it.  Here’s a link to a form you can fill out for the exercise:  Real Goals Worksheet

Now – go and find out what your Real Goals are.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

I had a great opportunity to speak on a distinguished panel last week for a Business and Economic Summit put on by the New Landings Job Club here in Kansas City (and before you ask, I don’t know why I was on the distinguished panel either…). 

This wasn’t just any panel discussion, not only were there 10 9+1 sharp panelists – there were 400+ in attendance and focused for 2+ hours!

The purpose of the discussion was to talk about what’s going on in Kansas city with jobs, the economy and what job seekers should be doing and looking for as they work to get into their next opportunity.

There was a lot of great discussion (it was primarily a Q&A format) and I believe the job seekers got a lot of great ideas and good advice…what was interesting to me was how much of that great information and advice also applied to business owners.

We talked about the importance of stalking (done the right way), relationships, professionalism…lots of great points – here are the highlights that I took away:

(photo by Jesse757)

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   Photo by dpstyles

A new client of mine strongly recommended Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Temptations of a CEO”, so I moved it to the top of my list and finished it this past weekend.  If you’re not familiar with Patrick Lencioni – he’s the founder of a leadership consulting company called the Table Group in San Francisco and author of 8 books, numerous articles and a highly sought after keynote speaker – in short he’s an impressive guy with some important ideas to share.

The Five Temptations is his first book – written about 10 years ago and although it’s not as big a seller as The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, it clearly establishes him as someone to listen to when it comes to business and leadership.  He describes the book as a Leadership Fable – it’s set in a story format and shows the application of his ideas to a real world situation (and make it’s a lot more interesting to read).

So what can you learn from the Five Temptations?

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Business growth can feel really challenging – you figure a few things out, you achieve some success and now you’ve got even bigger obstacles in front of you!

In fact one of the biggest mistakes made is when people talk about a growth curve.

Smooth Growth Curve

What does your growth curve look like?  If it’s not flat, then it’s probably like you’re on the uphill slope of a rollercoaster – sure it might be kind of steep but it’s smooth and if you just keep doing what you’re doing you’re going to move right on up the hill.

But here’s the secret – growth in the real world doesn’t look like that!  And if you’re working under the assumption that you just have to rev your engine a bit to get up the hill, then you’re going to be in trouble!

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