Trust is a word I come across a lot when I am working with my coaching clients, and is of course essential in any working relationship. My clients need to trust me initially, when they take me on at my word, and equally well I need to trust them, that they will carry out the tasks and actions necessary to move their business forward.
Trusting people isn’t something which just happens. You have to earn the right to be trusted by backing up your words with actions. It is in this repect where I find the “trust” word most used when business owners are talking about their teams.
I am a firm believer that a true business is one where the owner directs and manages his or her staff, and the staff are the ones who actually make things happen. Obviously this can only happen over time, while the business builds in size, turnover and employee numbers. However, I often find that although the business owner or owners have built a good structure, the owner(s) are still doing far too much of the day to day tasks. When we start to find out why this is the case, the owners often make excuses, such as “only I can do that”, or “no-one does it better than me”, or “he or she needs help with that”. But is this really the reason? If you find yourself doing things that you have employed someone else to do, ask yourself the real reason. And if in your heart of hearts it comes down to trust, i.e. you don’t really trust them to carry out the responsibilities you are employing them to do, then you need to do something to remedy that situation.
Don’t stick your head in the sand. Deal with it and everyone will be happier.

While conducting one of my recent coaching sessions, I came across something which perhaps surprisingly is quite common in business owners – the feeling of guilt if they are not doing something! Now the reason I say this is surprising is that the majority of business owners actually dream of this scenario when they first set out on their venture i.e. making lots of money while others do the work for them. However, when it actually comes down to it they have an overwhelming feeling of guilt, and consequently don’t let go of many of the day to day tasks, which as M.D, are not for them to get involved with.
For those of you reading this who are not business owners, you may come across this in your everyday life. Some people simply can’t let go, and would far rather be seen as the martyr trying desperately to keep up with everything, rather than ask for help. These people find it really hard to sit in the sun doing nothing, or read a book(or simply enjoy themselves) for any length of time without feeling that they should or must be doing something that involves work of some sort.
Part of my role as a coach can be simply to give people permission to step back from the day to day tasks, and concentrate on the bigger picture, which can often involve sitting and thinking. The owner or managing director has a responsibility to his or her team to manage and direct the business, not to interfere in the machinations. Your staff won’t thank you for sweeping the floor, or doing the invoices, but they will if you create a strong profitable business, with a clear sense of direction, and one which is therefore a pleasure to work for.

As the summer holidays draw to an end, and we all return to the day to day humdrum of business, I am hearing the same thing from lots of people. The casual enquiry of “How are things going?” seems to often elicit the reply “Well August has been very quiet, but of course everyone is away at the moment, so it is very difficult to get new business.” I’ve even heard myself saying, and I know that in that one sentence I am making excuses, and allowing myself to fall into the comfort zone where we all agree that things are quiet so it must be O.K.
Now you may consider it reasonable to make this excuse for not having a good month, (and indeed there is some truth in it) however, it is an extremely risky path to take, and before you know it you can quickly find reasons why September was bad, and October etc. etc.
I once met a printer who told me once that it was a particularly bad time for printers, and that he had been speaking to other people in the industry who had all agreed that the industry was in dire straits. However, I challenged him, and said that “I bet you only called the people who you knew would say things were bad!” to which he grudgingly agreed.
The thing is, when things are not going so well, our natural inclination is to look for excuses and reasons (other than our shortcomings) as to why this may be so. If we can find others who will support our theories, then it is “not our fault” and “beyond our control”, so that it becomes all right to be doing badly.
So next time you find yourself making excuses about things, look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself “Could I be doing more to change things and improve things? Rather than just accept defeat due to outside circumstances.”

One of the first things I ask my new or prospective clients is whether they know their break-even figure, or if they produce a cash flow. The majority of business owners will waffle a bit about how they do “sort of”, but ultimately accept that they do not have control of their numbers. Often people will make wild claims that they don’t need to do this in “their business”, or that they don’t have time for it, but in reality it is far more likely that they simply don’t have the skills, and numbers are largely alien to them.
I suppose if I’m completely honest I was like that when I started my own business nearly 8 years ago, but it soon became pretty obvious that sticking my head in the sand, and hoping things would work out OK was not the answer. Learning the basics of break-even and cash flow is genuinely not particularly complicated. I find that because I had to work it out for myself and have subsequently explained it to numerous clients in layman’s rather than accountancy language, that people can grasp the principles quite quickly, or at least to a level at which they can understand what is going on in their business, and perhaps just as importantly, be able to ask the right questions of their accountant and their staff.
I still find it amazing to see the change in the stature and confidence of my clients, as their new found knowledge allows them to take control of their numbers, and therefore of their entire business. No longer are decisions based on guesswork and hope, which means that the results of these decisions are generally far more successful.