Washing Machines, Dryers and Relationships

Washing machines help us clean dirty clothes.  Some of the clothes come out perfectly clean.  Others may still have the remnants of a stain that is now barely visible.  And then there are some clothes where the machine, no matter how you well it cleans, cannot remove the stain.  The stain remains visible to where you will decide to discard that piece of clothing.

Washing machines are also a great metaphor for relationships.  All of us are imperfect.  We have dirt and stains that need to be cleaned up.  As with washing clothes, our relationships need repeated washings to keep them looking good to where they can perform as we need them to.  In my personal business coaching practice in The Woodlands business and personal relationships are very often dominate over the topics of sales, operations and profitability.

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Slow Down to Speed Up

There is a song by musical group Alabama.  Its title is “I’m in a Hurry to Get Things Done”.  The song begins with the following:

I’m in a hurry to get things done
Oh, I rush and rush until life’s no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
Even I’m in a hurry and don’t know why.

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The Relational Elevator

Self-improvement is your own personal elevator. As you rise to the top you will have to let some people off. When you focus on self-improvement you are always in transition. As you rise, you must let go of those relationships that no longer serve you and the new person you are becoming.

If you don’t, you will end up feeling stuck which eventually robs you of energy and happiness.  Look at your relationships.  Ask yourself, “Who do they have me becoming?”  And then ask yourself, “Is this acceptable?”

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Ability, Motivation and Attitude

Ability is your capability in certain areas.  Motivation determines what you do with your ability.  Attitude determines the quality of your outcomes when you use your ability and are motivated.

In my personal business coaching practice in The Woodlands and in Houston I have observed time and again the connection between these three areas and how they impact individual and team performance.

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Faucets and Drains

Faucets and drains are two things designed to work together.  Water comes out of a faucet and goes into a sink.  Once in the sink, it flows toward the drain and goes away.  Or you can stop up the drain and let the sink collect water.  As a personal business coach in The Woodlands and in Houston, I look for the faucets in a business such as cash flow, marketing, advertising, operational and financial processes, administrative and management style, and most importantly, the people. And I also look for the drains.

Interestingly, there are several ways to look at faucets and drains in business.  A company invests a great deal of money in an advertising program.  The money is the faucet.  It pours out into the advertising program.  The advertising program is wildly successful at bringing in new and profitable sales.  The sink, the company’s cash reserves, start to fill up.  The drain, which is the money going out for advertising, is slower than the faucet that is bringing in new sales causing more money to back up in the sink.

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Grief

Grief is everywhere!  Our experience with COVID 19 has and continues to bring us grief.  In my business coaching practice and in my own life grief is at the forefront.

Grief is the loss of normal.  Grief is the death of something.  In the businesses I collaborate as well as many others I know all of us are dealing with grief.  What was normal, the way we did things is gone.

And when there is a loss of normal it is replaced by fear.  We are grieving because we are fearful about the future.  In the United States we are grieving as a society because we miss each other.  With COVID 19 we are hearing grief in almost all aspects of our society. Why?  We are collectively dealing with the loss of the world we knew.

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Unsettled

As of today, November 17, 2020 the political climate is very unsettled in the United States.  The business owners I collaborate with in my business coaching practice in The Woodlands and Houston are moving forward.  But for each it is different.  Some are striding forward with confidence and a “we shall overcome” attitude.  Others are moving forward with less certainty.  In Texas, where I live and work, the economic situation because of the pandemic has been hurtful but overall, we are doing well.

The question is, depending on who wins the election, what are the policies regarding COVID 19 and the economy moving forward.   In Texas, with a great emphasis on oil and gas there is a great deal of uncertainty.  Millions of lives and livelihoods could be affected over the next few years.  Employers and employees feel unsettled.

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To Keep Your Networking Working: What Do You Say When You Talk to Yourself: Part 4

In previous posts, we have looked at gratitude, happiness and serving others and how your self-talk can guide you in these areas.  Also, we have looked at an essential element of your mindset for successful networking.  You must focus on what you can control, which is you and your thoughts.  Do not focus on what you cannot control, which is others.

Part of the control issue is that when we first network with someone there can be a tendency to have a “fixer upper attitude” or “I am here to help.”  While both of these may sound good, they actually can work against you and your goal of building deeper relationships through networking.

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To Keep Your Networking Working: What Do You Say When You Talk to Yourself: Part 3

In the last post, we looked at gratitude, happiness and serving others and how your self-talk can guide you in these areas.  The result of your networking will be to increase the odds of building deeper relationships.

In this post we will go under the hood of self-talk, so to speak and explore the mindset that is necessary to good self-talk which will manifest itself in a positive way to others allowing your networking to accomplish its primary goal, to build deeper relationships.

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Networking Is One Letter Away From Not Working Part 2 What Is Your Goal in “Networking”

As we saw in the previous post, the word “network” was first used in England in the 1550’s to describe a finished product, a fish net.  A fish net was a piece of network.

When you think about it, a nice piece of network is about catching more fish, and as time went on, bigger fish.  In personal business coaching in The Woodlands and in personal business coaching in Houston, I collaborate with many different business owners and types of businesses.  They are all casting their nets to market their business, and in many cases, to expand it. Read more