Your Business Matters
2020 - Issue #10
Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter.
About once a week I will pick various topics and add valuable advice to help you and your business achieve excellence.
Can I ask that you do these 3 things for me:
- Reply to this email and tell me what issues you are facing right now?
- Pass this onto a friend, work colleague, client, supplier etc
- Let me know what specific topics you would like me to focus on for the next issue?
Thank you and enjoy
Karl
karl@krlconsulting.com or call me - 07766 053306
What do you mean?
Chatting to a colleague last week, we were discussing the job we do and how it has moved to an online platform – 100%
Our role changed from physically sitting in front of a client, meeting them at an event, networking etc to sitting behind a laptop – stretching out to adjust the camera, or frantically trying to push the cat away, out of sight.
We had the classic discussion of is it working and overall we agreed the answer is ‘yes’ and not only ‘yes’, but actually, ‘yes, very well indeed’.
In fact, not just a ‘yes, very well indeed’ but to be fair ‘better than expected’ heading towards, ‘in some ways better overall’!
How has that happened?
Well, initially, we were all thrust into a virtual world with no real warning, or training.
For many, March 2020 saw the start of virtual meetings, conversations, training, in fact all communications.
There was no alternative. Everyone was locked down.
I wrote a few months ago about the fad of not making telephone calls – but making virtual calls – even though people were doing this with the video off?
We all went online – ‘yee ha’ said the stakeholders and investors at Zoom, Teams, etc
But think about it.
All we did was swap conversations with people we mostly knew, from physical face to face or telephone, to virtual via online.
We knew the people, we could imagine or see their faces, we had invested time into these people, so in reality, not seeing them physically for while, was and is ok.
We knew what their reactions and body language meant, we had experience of their finger pointing or smirking.
We had experience of this and had ‘banked’ it into our communication protocols.
But what comes next?
What about the new staff members starting, new clients, new suppliers, change of personal and so on – we might never have met these people.
- We will not know their body language cues and clues.
- We will not know what the shaking head might mean, or what the frown or tilt of the head, like we did pre lockdown with our old colleagues, customers, suppliers and friends.
This is such an important time going forward to reach out and restart communication protocols and learn about people.
We might even need to consider this as a restart?
A restart of how we speak with each other, how we react, how we talk, how we negotiate and so on.
I will be talking about anxiety next week, but remember that every poll, report, survey run at the moment outlines and supports the rise of anxiety amongst the global population.
The next time you encounter a shaking head, it might just not mean what you thought.
What are you finding the most challenging at the momentm with regard to your business partnerships?
Zooooooom!!!
Users grow from 10m to 300m since the pandemic hit
Sales have risen by over 170% in the same period
What is your programe of choice, when making a virtual call/webinar etc?
Are you in the winning Team?
Closely following the SpaceX/Nasa launch and then Intl Space Station docking over the weekend - having always been a bit of a space nerd - it gave me great pleasure to see the collaboration result in success.
The first time in 9 years that US astronauts launched into orbit from US soil.
The first time a privately owned, commercially developed space craft has carried US astronauts into space.
Nasa, an 60 year old established US Government agency, partnering and teaming up with a fairly ‘new to market’ business within the space industry – an industry which Nasa pretty much used to dominate and be the baseline by which others followed.
Yet now we see that through investing countless hours, week, months, years (18 apparently) of planning, countless hours of meetings, thousands of reports and so on, that these two partners come together to generate such a fantastic result.
It got me thinking about you, your business and your team?
Are you currently leveraging your team and are you protecting and forging new partnerships and collaborations.
As part of your strategy and planning, have you looked at the next 30-60-90 days and factored in the partnerships and collaborations needed to achieve your goals?
With such current business disruption so prevalent – there has never been a better time to consider this, from supply chains through to route to market.
It could mean the difference between survival and collapse, or survival and growth.
We are seeing some amazing new delivery channels being created, new partnerships in technology and certainly at the height of lockdown we saw new collaborations within the manufacture and distribution of PPE and medical equipment.
Firstly, do you know who your teams are?
- Who is included within your team – you, your staff, your customers?
- Have you mapped this out?
- How are you currently communicating with your teams?
- What state of mind are your teams currently in?
- What processes do you have in place to identify this?
BW Tuckman offers the classic 4 + 1 stage model
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
- Adjourning
Once you can identify where you are as a team, or where your team currently sits – then you can start the process of working to build and develop?
Until we know where we are and identify what our goals are – it is difficult as a team to reach them.
After everything we have and are going through – this might be the ideal time to start to understand who your team members are and which team you are a part of.
Where are you with regards to your current team?
What work is needed to ensure success for you and your Team?
KRL Consulting
Email: info@krlconsulting.com
Website: www.krlconsulting.com
Location: UK
Phone: 0161 928 6333
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Business-Consultant/KRL-Consulting-444290078986098/
Twitter: @KRLConsulting
My background
I achieved a BSc in Psychology and has over 17 years of designing, delivering and evaluating coaching programmes for a wide range of businesses, across a variety of industries and markets - in total, I have worked with over 15,000 people from across 1,200 businesses.
Whether helping a business owner, or assisting a team member to perform better, you and your business will benefit from the coaching programmes - all of which are tailored to your unique business and personal needs.
I have extensive experience of working in a variety of roles and companies, this includes senior management positions with RBS Corporate Banking, Bank of Scotland and VW.
I have company director experiences within the UK and US, is an experienced guest speaker both in the UK and overseas.
I am a business coach and has successfully managed and run results focussed teams.
I have good experience within the SME market, having run numerous Start up to Scale Up programmes.
I am also a DiSC psychometric practitioner - personality profiling for you and your teams.
Be great to hear from you - 07766 053306
Alternatively, you can email me at karl@krlconsulting.com