Prevent your business from failing, stop using the most dangerous words in business.
Do you know what the most dangerous words in business are?
“ I know”
No, that isn’t someone jumping up and down with their hand in the air shouting “I know, I know”, that is the answer:
“I know”
‘I know’ is one of the most dangerous phrases in business because, let’s put it simply and to the point – you, I , we do not know everything.
So why is it a dangerous phrase?
Well, once you start to say “I know that I need to finish XYZ ” or “I know that I am not very good at delegating” or even “Yes! I know that changing A will make a difference to B” you are limiting yourself and closing yourself to the possibility of growth.
“I know” closes doors and brings conversations to a quick end. If a colleague is trying to assist on a project or perhaps has new ideas on a system of process, if you respond to their suggestions with an “I know” you are not taking on board what they are saying. Again if you are trying to assist an employee on a project to make improvements and they say I know, they are not really taking on board what you are saying either.
If you already know, then you aren’t prepared to learn and understand that continuous learning is part of success.
What happens if we string some dangerous words together… “ I know I need to get better to get more”
WOAH! What kind of statement is that?! Let’s break it down:
You already ‘know’ so why aren’t you doing? Are you self sabotaging before you already get started?
What is better? Better than what.. Than who..? What does better look like?
And to get more? More what? More money? More time?
Businesses fail due to lack of knowledge.
So how do we change?
Firstly, try swapping “I know” with “isn’t it interesting”. So, “Isn’t it interesting that I need to finish that task” You will find you will start to complete tasks because you aren’t discounting them before you’ve even got started.
When we look at the words better or more – we must define what this is using the SMT goals:
- Be SPECIFIC about what more is; A 20% increase on sales per month, to spend an hour an additional hour a week on your accounting tasks as opposed to “I need to do more on my finance”
- MEASURE Set a target that can be measured – whether a percentage increase or decrease, revenue targets, time spent, books read or training sessions with your team.
- TIME Allocate a time to when the tasks will be achieved and actions by.
You will soon find yourself saying “Isn’t it interesting that with an additional hour set aside for reading, I have learnt how to increase and improve my profits”
I also give my clients a hard time for saying ‘need to’. Like the builder who needs to fix up his own house, Or the accountant who knows they need to finish their accounts, or the business owner who ‘knows’ they need to work on their business rather than in it.
Again, let’s change the words to “isn’t that interesting that I need to work on my business but I’m not”.
The action point here would be: “this week I am going to put 3 hours aside to complete the marketing plan and write two blog articles for my website on x and y.”
Change your language… Change your results….
If you are looking for a business coach in the north west and would like to know how to make a change to your organisation and make more profit please feel free to drop me a line at lukekay@actioncoach.com.
