Permission Granted by Marcia A. Coné

Author:Marcia A. Coné [Marcia A. Coné]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Published: 2018-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

Is Your Focus on the Business or in the Business?

In Sweden, I entered a lovely small shop. The owner of the shop was busy at her sewing machine, working on adding to the line of products she was selling. Her work was amazing, and I asked where else I could find her stores in Sweden and beyond, secretly hoping there was at least one store in New York City. She responded that while she’d hoped to have other shops one day, for now she was too busy doing all of the day-to-day activities regarding design, production, sales, marketing, and administration.

As I left the shop and walked on, a thought entered my mind: The shop owner was heavily focused in the business rather than on her business. Because she was unwilling to risk hiring the right folks or engaging consultants to help out, it was unlikely that she’d ever get to a place of working on the business to expand its reach. Her dream of owning multiple shops was not likely to become a reality if she continued to do everything all on her own.

Asking for help can be challenging for many of us, but if we want to be our best selves and work at the highest levels we are called to, then we must ask for and accept help. We must keep our focus on the big picture while advancing the day-to day-tasks.

This also means being willing to let go of some of our tasks and allowing them to move into the capable hands of our staff and teams. Our focus should be on the business and how to grow and improve what we do every day. Strong leaders and managers focus on the business itself. It’s where our creative juices flow and where we can showcase our innovation, strategic thinking, decision-making, and risk-taking. Doing so ensures that the needs of our clients and customers, as well as our staff and investors, remain our top priority.

Let’s revisit busyness for a moment here. Often when we are busy we forego what we really want. Being busy keeps us working in the business rather than on the business. If you are so busy doing your work to get to “almost perfect” and/or micro managing others’ work, or doing the work that others might do, you are deep in the weeds of in the business. Being in the weeds means you cannot view the whole business and see where things connect or don’t in the bigger picture. You can’t see the whole view of how the organization’s systems are working or malfunctioning, and you can’t engage your creativity and innovation to advance the business. Don’t get me wrong, all businesses need folks who are good at maintaining and keeping the day-to-day processes happening. But when we are managing and leading others, we must keep our eyes on the bigger picture.

We give others opportunities to grow when we create growth opportunities for ourselves.

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