I was recently asked to briefly consult and mastermind with the senior board members of a financial firm. They had enjoyed some growth over a number of years but were experiencing a plateau in that growth. The Board were bickering, causing conflict, and I was surprised to find that the values of these leaders were not aligned to each other and not aligned to the values of the company. The company was not clear about the direction they wanted to move in, the reasons why the company existed and the experience they wanted to give to clients.

With new competitors coming into the marketplace, this company had started to suffer. Their problem was that their politics had caused analysis by paralysis – giving competitors the advantage.

I’ve come across many companies that have spent years plateauing, losing money and profits because they’re stuck. The story of Blockbuster Video failing in the face of innovation to Netflix is a common one. We see the same thing happening with Toys-R-Us going into administration because they failed to identify the changing shopping habits of their customers, failed to embrace a digital platform, and failed to adapt to the new market.

Slow-moving firms have no future. The world is continuously evolving. Big players like Amazon, Apple, Whole foods and Nike are beginning to swallow up the markets. These companies are making customers’ experiences quicker, easier and more convenient. And because companies like Blockbuster Video and Toys-R-Us got complacent, they’re now struggling or out of business.

“Success is all about Speed”

To me, success is all about speed.

I actually don’t care about anything else. Speed, both in people skills and hard work, will crush anything. How quickly you implement certain ideas, adapt to the market and stay ahead of your competition will make all the difference in your business.

As a former elite athlete, speed was so important, especially when it came to making a decision on when we needed to step up a gear, when we were going to overcome the competition, when we’d win the race.

It’s the same thing in business – you have two choices: hustle hard or get crushed by the competition.

“Speed to me is the difference between winning and losing”

Speed is about who wins the gold medal, who gets to the finish line first and who wants to win more. I’m extremely competitive and I don’t like to lose.

For me, it’s about how we take every single minute and make it count. How is it that I can squeeze in more meetings, how is it that I can add more value to my clients, how can I get on to a call or respond to a certain email, how do I deliver more results for my clients? At the end of the day, I have the same 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as everybody else. I don’t have time for politics and bureaucracy.

It’s the little things that matter. On a daily basis, I’m debating on whether I should take a fifteen-minute train journey or have someone drive me for thirty minutes. Yes, it may take an extra fifteen minutes above ground and cost me more money, however I can use the extra minutes to work. 15minutes vs 30 minutes.

And believe me, I’m making decisions on a daily basis that could hurt the growth of my companies if I get it wrong and have a direct impact on the success of the business.

For me, speed really works in many different ways. Speed makes it possible for me to come up with new ideas, to implement those ideas, to be able to create new products and services for my clients so that they can get quicker results. One of my strengths as a results-orientated person is the fact that I can quickly unravel problems and challenges and come up with solutions and get people to implement those solutions as quickly as possible. It’s not about what costs money, it’s about what makes you money. I always ask myself what will it cost me if I don’t take quick and decisive action?

Speed creates momentum and builds confidence.

If you execute with hustle, then you’re going to be more confident moving forward because you don’t have time to think. Many business owners wait to make sure everything is perfect. It’s important to realise that perfectionism is BS and that you don’t have to get everything 100% right all the time. Its ok to make mistakes. I learned more from losing than I did from winning.

“It’s not about perfection, but just getting things done really quickly”

Speed crushes limitations and limiting beliefs.

It gets rid of ego, it gets rid of negativity and it really sets a standard in your culture.

As a leaders and role model, supporting a culture of speed is important because staff members seeing that you’re able to move fast, motivates them to also move fast.

Adam Strong is a former elite athlete who trained with Olympic gold-medalist Mo Farah. He has taken the principles of discipline, focus and productivity and applied them to business to help entrepreneurs and medium sized companies deliver fast and effective results. Adam is the creator of ‘Accelerated outcomes’ an 87 day online coaching course designed to increase speed, productivity and profits, take a look here! 

The post How Fast Should We Grow? Increasing Speed in Your Business appeared first on The Official Website To Adam Strong.

Over the past few weeks, I have come across more and more examples of how fear becomes the Ultimate culture killer!

I’m a big football fan, which has changed so much over the past 10 years with foreign investors taking over clubs and turning them into business enterprises. Football has become very much about the results both on and off the field leading to regular media reports of how teams and managers fear of getting the boot.

This week it was quoted in the Metro newspaper, the Chelsea team fears that their manager Antonio Conte is going to be sacked before the end of the season due to the mixed results from the start of the season.  I don’t wish anyone to be sacked however I am fascinated of where this fear has come from? What the actual cause of this fear is? And the impact of fear on teams performance.

In football, a culture of blame is created if results aren’t going your way and normally fingers are pointing straight at the manager in charge. Sports teams are always under pressure to perform at their best and investors can be ruthless if a team is underperforming. If you’re a football player and you open the newspaper to a story, that is or is not true, what does that do to the mindset of the players, what happens to the team chemistry and how does it change the behaviors of players

Does fear exist in your organisation?

Most organisations have some kind of fear that holds back the full potential of the organisation. Fear is disruptive that can slow organisations down (analysis by paralysis), causes hesitation, unnecessary stress and anxiety and holds back employees from helping their organisations grow.

We recently took on a new client that needed our help. The CEO had this massive fear of failure engrained into his DNA. When we interviewed some of the staff and clients they were becoming uncomfortable that the leader of the organisation had this perception that he thought this fear of failure would actually become a reality. He wanted to grow and scale the business but he was holding the organisation back because of his fear. Before I planned out a growth strategy for his business, I knew I had to deal with these fears and find out where those fears came from. His fears came from a mixture of life experiences that he has now bought into his business.

We worked together by creating some new habits and routines that he could start straight away.  By the end of the session he was excited about the future of his organisation and felt empowered to move forwards.

I know how you feel…

As an entrepreneur you have had times when your little voices and sub-conscious mind starts to talk negatively, It tells you, you are not smart enough, your not good enough, your not talented enough and your not worthy. You become frustrated and your vision becomes faded, you find it hard to breathe and become stressed and anxious.

As a former elite athlete, one of the things I learnt from a very young age is how to condition the mind, what does that exactly mean? The things we think, say or do turns into a habit. Athletes tirelessly train repeatedly to improve their performance and achieve success.

Is it easy to reprogram the mind, no of course not? Will it happen quickly? No, it requires you to repeatedly embed new scripts, mantras and healthy habits into your life like I have been doing for most of mine.

There are 5 affects of fear that Olympic athletes are faced with that can also ruin your business.

• It forces you to play safe
• It distorts your purpose
• It limits you to scale your business and grow as a person 
• It creates an unhealthy force that impacts all areas of your life

 You become ashamed asking for help

We will look at these in detail in part 2 of this blog.

In the meantime if you would like to know more about the Fears in your organisation contact me on   hello@s969451691.websitehome.co.uk

The post Why is Fear Paralysing Your Business Part 1 appeared first on The Official Website To Adam Strong.

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