What if Whitney Houston was on to something? What if the answers about how to run your business exist within your walls?
The music industry is very different from other businesses, but I believe success in that realm is based on talent, evidence and relevance. Katy Perry has talent – easily proven with evidence – so she has something to offer. But if she wasn’t relevant then the stadiums would be empty. Do her fans care if she can read music? What instruments her band is playing? If she is the best singer or dancer? It doesn’t matter. Think about your business. Are you focusing on things that don’t matter or are you focusing on talent, evidence and relevance?
So where do you start? Back to Whitney Houston. In her song Greatest Love of All she talks about self-worth, about empowering children and instilling them with a sense of pride in themselves and their abilities. She talks about looking inside yourself and finding your greatest asset.
Here is the thing. In business, we’re taught to follow our passion. But wait a second – and this is big – what if your passion isn’t relevant? What if you aren’t good at it? Sure, you can improve your skills but let’s be realistic. Will you learn to sing like Whitney Houston by taking some lessons? Maybe, but probably not. Passion is defined as a strong and barely controllable emotion, whereas talent is defined as natural aptitude or skill. Which one do you want to bet your company on?
Will reading Richard Branson’s books give you the ability to run hundreds of companies from an island? He can provide insight, but that is it. Stop. Follow your path. Do not walk in someone else’s footprints. Branson has a talent for running multiple companies, and the evidence strongly supports that it’s something deep within his personality and character. He’s also very good at creating relevant companies. He has the trifecta; do you?
Think about these three concepts individually and understand their interdependence:
•Talent: what are you good at?
•Evidence: do the facts support your claim?
•Relevance: do people want or need it?
After you’ve established those, there are three things you can do to improve your business.
•Think in terms of tacit knowledge. Does your team have key attributes that are not documented? Document them as best you can.
•Examine your past openly and honestly. Talk about it with your team. Expect some pushback, because many of us have been taught to focus on the future with reckless abandon.
•Create 15 questions about your company that should be easy to answer. Send them to your core team and insist they send all the answers back to you. Then bring everyone together to talk through the answers, paying particular attention to where people have differing points of view.
You will be amazed at what comes out and what kind of insight it will provide into your business.
David Anthony Childs is the lead strategist at Living Blueprint.
