Denial is such a subtle process.
You ask business people how they are going and they usually say to your face things like:
Great!
Never better!
Always good!
...but get them alone in a corner and they confide about how the tough economic environment is affecting them.
A friend of mine recently answered to the question "how are things going in your business?" with a cheery "Well, I've lost a million!"
And he really has.
....but his frank admission is said with clear eyes and yes, he is engaged in putting strategies into action.
It's not a good time for gloss and floss - that may work in good times, but in tough times it just doesn't wash!
What are you doing different to deal with these times?
How are you adapting to a different marketplace with different needs?
Do you know about the cycle of adapting to change?
Generally, when a change happens to us, we react by going through four different emotional stages.
The first stage in the cycle of adapting to change is Denial.
We pretend that everything is okay, we pretend that we feel great about things, we put on a brave face and forget that it's all a sham and pretence. Remember how the Ostrich acts when they see a lion? You know what the lion thinks when he sees an Ostrich with it's head in the sand?.......Fast Food!
This is the same for business owners as it is for employees - Denial spells D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R-!
Last week the papers had a notable number of articles about retirement. One such article was about a group of people who were angrily protesting that there should be money given for retirement. They were adamant and passionate, notwithstanding that there is a global financial crisis on at the moment.
Resistance is the next stage after Denial in the cycle of adapting to change.
People get angry. People vent their emotions. Fist shaking and harsh words are often impotent expressions that fall on deaf ears and usually have no positive effect at all.
If you get stuck in Resistance, you will not move forward and you will lose friends along the way.
These days, Resistance is spelt the same for business owners as individual employees - I-M-P-O-T-E-N-T F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N-!
The next stage in the cycle of adapting to change is Considering Options - this is where you have gone through denial, broken through your resistance and are now in a place where you can entertain a range of options to deal.
Time to think outside the box, talk to people who challenge you and offer suggestions, time to list every option, even the wild cards. Time to clarify what your objective is and consider which option or combination of options will work best for you....
Creating Options is spelt T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G D-I-F-F-E-R-E-N-T-L-Y-!
The next stage of adapting to change is Action.
You choose the combination of options that make up your plan for your work - and then you work your plan.
Action is spelt F-O-C-U-S-E-D H-A-R-D W-O-R-K-!
...That's how you survive and thrive in tough marketplaces!
Email Mike...
Sunday
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