Here at the Family Business Practice, we have lots of sessions where we ask challenging questions of ourselves and our members. One of the key Check-ins we had in January looked at what we all learned from the previous year and I have been asked on several occasions to publish the discussion.
This would take ages to do so and , if I'm frank, my experience is that most people would not stay the course! So for the next few weeks I will list one of the nine keys that came from the discussions and my take on them.
This week: Don’t blame others for your failings!
It would have been very easy to blame the world and his wife for the challenges we faced in 2020...
The government, the council, agencies, health service, other countries you name it for our business being in trouble. Yes, it’s true that it was a year like no other however, we need to look closer to home before blaming others don’t you think?
Could we have foreseen such a thing happening?
Could we have created more financial reserves for our busines to see us over?
Could we have diversified our business earlier to spread the risk?
The list could go on and on and in some ways is probably unfair however…
The key for me is there is no point blaming others for our situation. It is our attitude to challenges when they rise, to recognise a situation, to understand our own and other failings that enables us to move forward.
The blame game is for others and not for family business as frankly we don’t have the luxury of time to waste on such an attitude. Whilst blaming others might seem an answer, in practice it never is because a negative attitude can never really build a successful business.
Being blunt… who wants to be around someone who sees the bad in everything?? I for one don’t and I am sure you don’t either.
So, if you’re tempted to the blame game take a whinging tablet and get positive - you know it makes sense!
If you want to discuss how the antidote of whinging tablets work and want a shot of sensible positivity, then the practice is the place for you!
Until the next time…
