Time to Grow Up some more …
Or, Still waiting to be Rescued?
I described the problem in life (Time to Grow Up!), but what about business? My example from my own working life showed how working and growing up don’t necessarily go together. Most of us started work pretty young and when we did the emphasis was on being productive, working hard, achieving and delivering.
Starting work is a rite of passage, but rarely recognised as such. Mentoring and coaching (for managers) have become more common in some sectors, recognising that people’s development is relevant. I’ve already described the situation from the perspective of both young and middle-aged workers, with age comes the realisation that one isn’t as grown up as one thought.
with age comes the realisation that one isn’t as grown up as one thought …
It seems that it’s acceptable to say at work that one doesn’t ‘do numbers’, it then gets tricky when one is called upon to do so. I would say that excessive and unsustainable debt is an example of this, and manifests in a way that is not grown up (denial). We are rescued by overdrafts, credit cards and mortgages. The first of these, along with student loan financing, becomes available to us when we are just out of childhood, and with little income (or even none at all) to pay anything back. Add in a typical outlook on numbers and finance and managing money in a business start-up becomes the province of accountants, bean-counters and nerds, even with modern accessible finance apps like Xero. Are we running businesses yet still hoping to be rescued?
Are we running businesses yet still hoping to be rescued?
Of course it might not be finance, it could be that your decision-making is chaotic, or just reactive. You struggle with a series of problems but not in a joined up way. You fix one thing but it makes something else worse. So does your business have an adult in it? Are you taking charge? Do you need any help? Asking for help is not the same as hoping to be rescued.
If you’re interested in working on this and in fixing your business then add a comment below (I always read them), connect with me on Twitter, or send me an email.
