3 Questions to Help You Fall Back in Love With Your Business
When times get tough, think about why you started in the first place.
This article comes from Entrepreneur.
3 Questions to Help You Fall Back in Love With Your Business
So how do we get reorientated? How do we rekindle a love for our work and purpose? We go back to the basics and ask ourselves these three questions.
1. What do I need from my business?
When we’re building a business we’re busy growing a customer base. We’re constantly asking what our customers, employees, and partners need. We’re adjusting, iterating and creating. This is expected and normal. It’s a sign of a strong leader to consider others.
But many of us need to remember that it’s good, healthy and necessary to consider our own needs, too. These could be everything from financial to emotional. We may need a certain amount of profits for our family and our future. We may need a feeling of success or achievement. We may need more time away from our business or accountability from those around us.
Whatever you need, make a list and make it visible. When we merge our needs with the needs of those around us, we create a win-win for our entire organization.
2. What do I need from my team?
It can be hard to express what we need from those around us. Even the question itself can feel selfish — but it’s actually quite the opposite. Everyone on your leadership team has needs. But whether or not it’s OK to communicate them openly is often up to you.
Starting this conversation can be tricky and may feel awkward at first. It’s easy for us as leaders to make assumptions about how people may respond if we open up and share our needs. But part of falling back in love with your work is being honest with your team. They play a critical role in helping you not only accomplish what you need to do but feeling satisfied with how you’re doing it. Everyone inside your organization will wrestle with a sense of contentment, satisfaction, and clarity.
When you open up to your team you’re inviting them to do the same; courageous leaders instill courage in others. And people love feeling like they’re a part of a dream team.
3. What are old rules or beliefs I need to let go of this year?
Many of us hang onto old rules and beliefs without even knowing it.
- I have to keep people happy.
- I must be in the office by eight.
- I must check email on vacation.
- I can’t ask others to take on more work.
- I’m the only one who can handle this task.
- I’m not successful unless we’re making “x” amount of revenue.
Whatever these rules are, many of them go unspoken and many of them are outdated. This misalignment naturally produces a sense of guilt—feeling like we should be abiding by old rules but are living by different (often subconscious) ones instead.
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