The Pivot & Focus

  
Two of the most important lessons I’ve learned, is knowing when to pivot (change direction), and how important focus is.

The Pivot:
While developing The Cave Network (a future social enterprise that will help men improve their world by giving back with purpose), I’ve done plenty of research on start-up strategies and one thing that the experts talk about is that you need to be prepared to pivot.  I’ve taken this advice and decided to action it with my day job at Pin Consult.  I have pivoted away from being a consultant - who can help your business develop strategy, through to training your sales team in objection handling. I am focusing on one of my passions - helping individuals clarify their goals, discover their direction and purpose, and then teaching them a framework to achieve those goals.  Which brings us to Focus.

Focus:
I have been humbled by all the advice I have received since starting my business earlier this year. On more than one occasion I have been told that remaining focused is the number one challenge I will come up against as a small business owner.  I am not sure that this is exactly the case.  There are so many challenges and opportunities to navigate and leverage, however, I agree that focus is one of the most important things you need to consider, if you want to be successful*.  I thought I was pretty good at finding focus; defining a businesses’ competitive advantage, a solution’s value, what it means to the customer and how to sell it.  I still think I am, however, along my journey, I’ve learned that when you’re creating a professional services business, without a clear goal in mind, it is extremely difficult to find that focus.

Perhaps if I had that focus to start with I wouldn’t be needing to pivot?

The Point:
My point is that in this increasingly fast changing world we need to be prepared to be flexible and pivot, however, if you don’t know where you are going – your goals - then how do you know when or which way to pivot to achieve them?

My advice is to start with some self-analysis - what is it that you really enjoy? 

Think about your favourite job, what was it about that job which you really enjoyed?  Think about the functions of the role that you were good at and got the most satisfaction from. As an example, when I started this journey, I realised that one of the functions I enjoyed the most as a sales leader was mentoring and coaching my team. I also enjoyed teaching concepts so perhaps it is no great surprise I am now a coach.

*Success is defined by the individual, not society –what you think of as success, may be different to what I think of. YOU define your own success, not society.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any other person, organisation, employer or company.  The author is a performance coach for individuals and businesses with a belief that we all have untapped potential which once found can improve performance.  I draw on 25 years corporate experience, a Bachelor of Arts in Social & Cultural Anthropology and a Masters of Business Administration.


CONTACT: gareth.r@pinconsult.com.au / 0438 005598 / www.pinconsult.com.au

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why competitors are like milk... (3-min read)

Image
I was thinking about competitors earlier today and realised that with the training work I do there are quite a few of them out there. There are global companies with Australian offices, large, medium and small Australian training companies, along with dozens of sole traders like me. Then I looked at my sales funnel and realised that the top of it was looking a little bit thin, I started worrying about all those competitors. My thought process was getting negative, so I decided it was time to take a break and make breakfast. As I was pouring almond milk on my cereal I realised that my competitors and I are a bit like milk. Bear with me here... I’ve never liked cow’s milk, even as a kid I didn’t drink milk by itself - I only ever had milk on cereal, or in a glass carefully placed on top of two-inches of Milo in the bottom (damn that Milo was good). However, a lot of people like cow’s milk, some like full cream, low-fat or skim. Others like soy milk, or almond (the best), co
Read more

LEADERSHIP - PART ONE

Image
Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with some good managers and some not so good ones. I’ve seen great leaders in action, and also seen the consequences that poor leadership can have on an organisation. Since starting Pin Consult a little over a year ago, I’ve become a bit obsessed with Leadership, the definition of Success, and why some people and organisations achieve their goals faster and better than others. Leadership is such an important and broad topic that I’m going to write a few articles on it. And as with a lot of what I write about on The Thought Curator Blog, there are many global thought leaders out there with published content, so I see my job more as curating content and distilling it down to what I think are the pertinent points which will help improve performance. If you follow me on LinkedIn you will know I love my quotes. I think we can all learn a lot from them, and the ones that resonate with you, can be used as simple but powerful
Read more

The Polar Explorer

Image
What I teach, and coach is not complicated at all.  It is simple, however, just because it is simple does not mean that it is easy. I am interested in what motivates people, why some people achieve their goals and others don’t.  What success means to the individual and how some process models, persistence and GRIT* (or whatever you want to call it) can help people achieve success. Ben Saunders is one of the world’s leading polar explorers, and a record-breaking long-distance skier who has covered more than 6,000 km (3,700 miles) on foot in the Polar Regions since 2001.  I listened to part of Ben’s podcast on the TED Radio Hour ( http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/463070512/to-endure ) where he talked about his three-and-a-half-month journey (with his colleague Tarka), across Antarctica.  THE LONGEST EVER POLAR JOURNEY ON FOOT. Most of us will never attempt or experience anything like this, however, I believe there are some parallels we can draw between what endur
Read more