Why are you in this business?

Challenge Your Thinking

If someone I'm working with compliments me for asking the question "Why are you in this business?" it's the kind of response that makes me feel like I had just walked two city blocks with a pebble in my shoe. We were at the point where my client was struggling to complete his business objectives, despite the amount of time we had put into them. After failing to follow through on a number of commitments he had agreed to complete over the past several meetings, it was time to revisit the pebble in my shoe. I asked him two questions, "why did you choose this business and what about it makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning?" He once again avoided answering the question telling me he really needed more time.

Our next meeting rolled around and I began by asking him the same two questions. He began to respond, but stopped in mid sentence appearing agitated at the thought of answering. And then said he, wasn't ready to discuss it. We moved through the rest of the agenda and agreed on a time for our next scheduled meeting. It was clear that the pebble had grown into an obstacle to our being able to move forward.

Over the next week I thought a lot about what I could do to understand what was blocking us from making progress. When we began our next meeting, I started to ask the same two questions when he interrupted and said, his father and he had decided to sell the business to a key employee. He explained that his father had lost interest in the business and began spending less and less time in it. And, admitted that he never really liked the business and regretted that his father had talked him into starting it in the first place. He concluded by answering the two questions ."I have no interest in the business and never felt motivated enough to do what was necessary to make it a real success.

The take away from this experience is pretty straight forward if you are not ready to translate your belief into a commitment, then it is highly unlikely you'll achieve a satisfactory result. I'm not sure how much or whether he still blames his father for what happened but in the final analysis, it was always his choice to make. Being self aware is important to making good decisions about the challenges we are prepared to take on. But being honest with ourselves in the assessment is critical. This client moved on with his life and thanked me for pushing him through the coaching process to the point of clarity. He felt it saved him thousands of dollars and who knows how much time, pursuing something he knew he didn't want.

So! If what you're doing begins to feel like work and your decisions don't appear to be getting you what you really want .stop and ask yourself, "why did I choose this and what am I missing that would make me feel like jumping out of bed in the morning?"

We encourage your comments on this blog or if you're interested in learning about Heritage Hill Partners Inc. please visit our web site at www.heritagehillpartners.com....

Thanks! Norm Gauthier

Global Organization Consulting

As the Executive V.P. of Human Resources located in Paris, I had the functional leadership challenge of evolving an existing HR organization into an international team capable of meeting the professional challenges of a changing French global manufacturing business.

Based on the initial geographical challenges we faced, I engaged Norm Gauthier to provide organizational consulting support in the U.S. I knew he was someone I could work with and trust, especially in working remotely with me from Europe. His experience, allowed him to quickly assess what we had, the major challenges we faced, and helped identify step by step what needed to be done. He also helped define the needs in terms of skills and competencies required in building an effective international HR presence.

He used his business consulting experience and knowledge of HR practice to carefully focus on individual and collective development 'gaps' creating conditions that allowed team members to take risks, experience new roles and ...in the end take on more of a leadership position. During this change management process, he took on individual and team coaching assignments in support of several organizational initiatives. He also developed several international train-the-trainer development modules, linking each to the staged development and roll-out of critical management tools.

Results of the work… we now have a worldwide HR organization that uses the same processes and tools despite their location in the world, which is rare for a Global company. Our HR members are recognized by Business Unit management as professionals they involve early in the change process to provide advice and counsel. And, with the focus on developing leadership and accountability at the operational HR management level, the team now exercises a different level of problem solving and collaboration that requires less leadership time and involvement in decision making.

An outstanding work quality that is very effective…Norman respects the fine line between the 'decision maker' and the team - thus creating a challenging environment for the boss and a safe environment for the team to take on initiatives and risk - learning conditions that we needed.

J. Dekker,
Executive V.P., Human Resources Sperian Protection