How many of us start off our businesses with a higher positive intent believing how we will be satisfying a need for individuals and organisations, something to make their lives enriched through our involvement.
How many of us have emotionally felt so many hits of rejection along the path of business development that sales has become focussed on nailing that ‘account’ or ‘influencing’ that CEO, whatever it takes. Economic crises should only delay a well-progressed business plan.
The reality is that hit with this economic crisis, we really do need to stop doing the same things we did before in the same way. What was seen as vital to organisations pre-crisis no longer exists. Priorities have changed in organisations!! Those who delude themselves into believing that this is a temporary wedge-in-the-road need to wake up.
If you were selling risk management, its too late; if you were selling process improvements, manufacturing has ceased; if you were selling communication effectiveness training, survival is more a priority; if you were selling auditing skills, time has frozen into silence.
We need to go back to the beginning, influence our ability to mindfully reflect about ourselves, know what we can make happen and what influences our set way of thinking, our mindset. We need to be generous, even complimentary and look at how we can innovate ourselves, free ourselves from the identity and fixed beliefs that stifle our manoeuvrability.
Since the last time you examined yourself this deeply, circumstances and experiences have changed you as a person even if it is not obvious, you are in a new world, with new insight and most of all the wisdom of life. Question the higher intent, if we believed it to be that high, it would have been untouched by this storm.
In Jodi Glickman’s HBR blog (10th Dec) ‘Confessions of a Networking Pro’ the spirit of generosity underlies the message of helping without the intention of receiving help. At her networking event, she overcame her nervousness by believing that the event was not about her and she was there to listen and help others by using her contacts.
The economic crisis has been all about greed arising from excessive expectations of making money, about receiving. If the money moghuls have even thought for a moment that they had the responsibility of stewardship, of giving as much as receiving, this crisis would not have eroded trust and reliability. If we have to come out of this crisis, then generosity of spirit and mind has to be the plausible way out. We need to think of opportunities where we can give back and encourage others to do so.
This is not about charity. Charity is for a day. This is about giving and sharing information, contacts, knowledge and time without the expectation of excessive gain. We need to think collaboratively about united communities joined together by a single belief of being generous to others.
Not to forget, that this also includes giving yourself some of the appreciation you don’t even think you entirely deserve.
With a gentle nod to ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens, Seasons Greetings to you all and Best Wishes for a generous 2013!
Cognitions . The Power of Partnership.
© Cognitions 2012