How does someone work 20% less and make 40% more?
This quick story might resonate for many of you. I just met with a client recently who completely amazed me. Karen (not her real name) owns a big practice with a lot of staff, a great reputation and a very high turnover.
When I first took her on as a client about four or five months ago, she told me she was working over 100 hours per week, completely stressed out, extremely worried about her health, sick of micromanaging everything, and her relationship was under a lot of stress to go with it all.
Bottom line, she felt she was “spinning plates” and it was clear to me that either something had to change for her, or else… You see, Karen knew herself as a high achiever – she demanded huge things of herself and others, and she showed up clearly in her personality profile as a perfectionist and controller.
This had resulted in her being extremely successful, but not in a way that was realisticaly sustainable or particularly joyful. On Wednesday when I met with Karen again for a coaching session I got a number of shocks:
- Number one, she had lost weight, was looking good, smiling and glowing. She was laughing and relaxed – something I had yet to see in her. She told me her relationship was back on track and she was enjoying being a couple again! Encouraged by this, I asked what else was new.
- Shock number two: She had increased her turnover in February and March this year by over 40%! Don’t forget, this is on top of a very hefty turnover to start with… wow!
- Shock number three: Karen and was back to working “normal hours” and has given herself every Friday off!
As you can imagine, I had to quiz her about what she had done differently. How does someone work 20% less and make 40% more? Turns out she gave me a list of strategies she had implemented from our coaching group, but the real essence of it was much less obvious and much more profound.
You see, Karen had created her successful business by playing to her strengths all her life. Being strong, determined, forceful and perfectionist had given her a very good result on one level, but it had also created a prison of constant vigilance and relentless effort from which it felt there was no escape.
Her breakthrough came when she decided to let go of this and work to a new paradigm of beliefs about what it means to be strong, successful and happy. Letting go of control and simply trusting, not being attached to perfectionism or a particular outcome, letting things and people work towards a common goal naturally… these are some of the attitudes I can see she has begun to adopt, with incredible results.
Put simply, she realised that old patterns would give her predictable results, and by simply letting go of her old ways of doing things she allowed new results to manifest. Sound complicated? Too airy for you? I understand that.
However, in my experience the concept that your strengths in your personality can also be your greatest barrier to progress is without doubt the most powerful understanding a client can ever have.
All the marketing genius or money in the world won’t make a blind bit of difference to your life unless you “allow” on this level.
So my thought for today involves you thinking: “in what ways are my strengths holding me back?” If you can answer this and you would like to share your thoughts or insights with me, Id love to hear from you.
And my thanks to “Karen” for being inspirational and for teaching the coach something this week.
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