I have had the privilege throughout this year of working with many people starting up a new business. Even in the midst of a pandemic and all the fearful headlines, opportunities for business exist; especially new ones.
Anyone starting a company today fully understands that almost no scenario is now impossible to imagine. Very, very few would have ever predicted national lock downs happening so fast and being so extensive back in 2019. Now they have happened leaders are wiser to the risk, impact and how to cope.
One thing I stress to all new business owners is the importance of clarifying what your company stands for, and that clarity comes in the form of answering two questions:
What is the purpose of your business? Describe what you want it to achieve and why.
What are the principles of your business? List the key principles (or values / standards) your business will work to and why.
One owner shared that it was simple to answer these questions. Number 1’s answer was to make money, number 2’s answer was to make money effectively and efficiently. It was helpful that he was so clear, however if that is the core to your culture I explained they should not be surprised that if there are times when the money does not appear so easily, their people will quickly desert the business. Money is used a motivator for work but not to create the culture a staff team need to face challenges such as infusing loyalty, encouraging sharing, going the extra mile or enabling co-operation.
Another new owner recently offered the phrase ‘we want to make beautiful things’ as her answer and this quickly led, after a few coaching questions from me, to understanding what was behind this aspiration. They mapped the purpose and the values of the new business and now they use their answers as a guide for the big and the mundane decisions: to assess the quality of their products; to choose suppliers; to create the look and feel of their brand; to form a marketing plan; to style their website; and so on. A lot of thought lay behind the short statement and they now have a culture they are demonstrating that as others join will be followed. This person wants their business to make a profit too but their purpose and values will help hold a team together in good times and tough.
The start up business owner has energy and time to consider these questions. What they state at the conceptual stage becomes the reality as the busy demands of the new company appear and opportunities or challenges must be assessed.
If you are a leader of an existing business you will undoubtedly be, right now, very busy but you will still do well to pause and ponder these two key questions. If you have no space in your day you might have to think about the questions on a walk or when you exercise, maybe as you lay in bed or while you are eating your food; but you can ponder these questions*.
When you’ve started the answers you can then find out who in your business agrees with you, or maybe is even aware of the existence of such statements. It is then that we find the most value appears, as behaviours, attitudes and plans can be shaped by a group working towards a common goal and with agreed standards.
*We recommend a way to take notes for such times, perhaps keeping a small notebook to hand or app on your smart phone, ready to record the clear thoughts you have in these quieter moments.