The Fundamental Choices and Right Questions for Entrepreneurs
After over a year of working with a variety of clients – individuals and companies – I have realized there are two crucial factors that determine long-term success: the choices we make now and the questions we ask about our future.
You may think that’s awfully obvious. But my experience shows otherwise. My consulting practice is geared to showing clients how to prioritize what they have to change, so that they can make real progress – in business, or in life. Too often companies are focused on their direction and execution, without truly understanding the intention and sense of purpose that drives them. This impacts their ability to make fundamental choices or ask the right questions to move them forward.
“I have a manufacturing crisis”, “I need to hire someone now”, “I have to decide whether this partnership will work” … these are typical client dilemmas. Here’s where it becomes interesting. Because for most clients their obvious course is to try figure out what choices they have to make to immediately improve their situation, and to answer questions that solve current problems.
Instead, I encourage clients to value a strategic perspective. I push them to think about fundamental choices, not short-term trade-offs. A fundamental choice is a conscious decision to act in a way that will ultimately lead to you and your business being focused on your purpose. It often depends on the kind of transformational questions you ask. Not “what can we change?” But “why are we making this change?”
Purpose is a journey. My first step is to measure how purpose-centered each client is: do they know who they are and what is important to them, and why they do what they do? My next step is to show them how their brains are hard-wired for certain behaviors, and how, unless they truly understand the pattern that makes them successful, they will have trouble making decisions, solving problems and communicating ideas.
When you have your purpose blueprint in hand, it’s easy to start creating better strategies. So it’s at this point that I help clients prioritize what’s really important to them. I show them what they have to change if they want a better or different outcome.
Right now many CEOs and companies have been sucked into the turbulent economic vortex and it’s affected their ability to think strategically. I understand its Business Survival 101. But I’m willing to bet that the people who choose to continue to focus on what they stand for and where they want to get to, will weather this storm much better than those whose mindset is only how to survive.
Even in times of pressure, remember that your choices should lead you towards creating more meaning in everything you do. And when you ask questions, focus on the end you want to achieve, and not the situation in hand.
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About the Blogger: Janine de Nysschen uses change and purpose dynamics to come up with unique strategies that address complex problems for businesses and executives seeking to increase impact and performance. Her clients range from Fortune 100 companies like Microsoft to entrepreneurial start ups and non-profit organizations in the US, Africa and Australia.
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