Initially we are looking at the status quo. We’re looking to see if there are any obvious problems. We want to help you identify the limiting factors that have restricted your growth and brought you to this plateau. We’re then looking to help you identify anything that you can do to free up resources and create positive energy and, more importantly than that, undertake any obvious fixes to what you are already doing so that you can retool for the next growth spurt.
Take a deep breath and hold it. Before releasing, ask yourself honestly: “Is it my people that are holding the business back?” As soon as you have an answer, release your breath and continue to breathe normally.
If you don’t have an answer, you should by now have stopped needing to ever breathe again, and whatever your problem was, it is now someone else’s—after they’ve arranged your funeral.
Hooray! You are still alive. If you have answered: yes, it’s my people, then read on. We have a number of mindful thoughts that will help you with yours. But if it’s not people, it is going to be the product, the customers, or the money. By all means, skip over the next section on people, unless there’s a chance you’re wrong, or that possibly the issue is some combination of factors which might surprisingly include the people dimension. Ask yourself, are people ever not part of the problem?