Emerging from the Bunker
Dear Entrepreneur, it’s time to get moving!
The only sure thing about life is that everything must come to an end. This rule applies to both good and, thankfully, bad things in life. The year 2020 was difficult and uncertain, and traumatic in every sense. Yet, one needs only to observe Nairobi roads’ traffic levels to understand the collective resolve to move on.
We’re all coming out of the warzone that was the Covid-19 period. I say warzone because, at some point, the battles were on all ends. Not only were we trying to keep our businesses up and running, but we were trying to keep our sanity in check, be there for loved ones and everything in between. Now, there are cars on the road, schools are open, restaurants are open, and everywhere you look, there are signs of returning normalcy.
For any entrepreneur, the Covid-19 year either brought great success for the business in terms of growth, new models, new customers etc. or hurt the business in terms of low supply, shrinking customer base and so on. For many entrepreneurs, the latter was true. Many did not survive those harsh conditions.
Over the past few months, we’ve been walking a journey of embracing the pause. We’ve been challenged to look for the lessons within this period and learn to trust ourselves as entrepreneurs through the little reflections. So if you did pause and reflect and realign, then now is the time to emerge from hibernation- emerge from the bunker.
There is a place for reflection and clarity and a larger space for doing the work — the space to be courageous and go out and do. Often the question is, where do I start?
Your People — Your Army
You win the war with the army you have!
In business, as in war, the first thing that needs to be aligned is your army — the people on your team. It is your top priority as a leader to check in with your team, understand their headspace, gauge how committed they are to the vision and then prepare them for the war.
The first step is to take stock of what has changed and what is new from your perspective as the leader. You’ve also walked a journey of dissecting the business, understanding your why and taking a pause to recalibrate. That process undoubtedly provides insights that shape how you run the business and what you’re choosing to prioritize. The war here is to win the hearts and minds of your team. This requires you clarify and communicate your vision to your team. Sell it to them.
You win the war when everyone is on the same page.
Communicating where you’re at also allows your team to do the same.
Your people likely were casualties in the war. The past year probably forced them to make huge sacrifices, grieve and chart their way through a range of complex emotions. It is possible that all this was traumatic and changed them fundamentally as people. Now your team is looking to be fired up, inspired and led.
Understanding your team goes hand-in-hand with your team understanding you.
Alignment comes from answering a few key questions:
- Where is your mind at?
- What is your vision and mission?
- Does this align with those of the business?
- Has your focus or energy shifted?
This is the crucial work, and if there is any misalignment, do not be afraid to part ways.
The idea here is that the recovery of the business requires you to operate as a boat. Everyone onboard needs to paddle and do so in the right direction. This is the point in the life of your business where all functions must seamlessly run because you need to move far, fast. You need to wake up with your batteries on 100% charge.
Light and Alignment
This level of efficiency is anchored in your alignment as a business and as a team. This alignment, in turn, is a function of prioritization. At any one point, what is the one thing you must do to move the needle? Not two or three, just one. KnK was recently coaching an entrepreneur who identified that one of the critical points she’d focused on in the last few months was debt and how to clear it. This was a priority that she’d set out without even knowing it, but she woke up every day and gave this her energy. This is a genuine concern, and no one can fault her for having this top of mind. The problem was that this was not in her light. The word ‘light’ here refers to the value-adding things that come naturally to the entrepreneur. Focusing on debt was not energizing in any way, and it does not drive growth. Clearing it is only stressful when you’re trying to figure out where to get the money. Therefore if you’re not focusing on making more money, then you’re letting that thing drown you. This was only a problem because the debt discussion was so depressing and confusing that it drained all the batteries from the growth driving mission. There’s no time to be creative, to look for new clients and so on.
Business is about doing more of the things that have gone right and less of the wrong ones. The impact is derived from picking what worked the best, even during difficult times and recreating and growing that thing — spending 85% of your batteries in the morning on that one thing.
This is a journey that takes the last shreds of your courage, and you must do the thing afraid. It requires you to pick up the pieces, count on yourself, take your army, start afresh and always focus on the light!
