What is your excuse?
Okay, I know what you’re thinking… “that’s a bit harsh, Lisa!” And, you’re right. It is pretty direct but that is intentional. I want to help you see that whatever the external obstacle you are currently facing, it doesn’t need to be a derailer.
The four most common external obstacles I hear in my coaching practice are time, money, resources, and access. So, I am going to take a few minutes to talk about each of these and how we can continue to make progress in spite of the obstacles. I call this optimizing the obstacles.
Time: I have yet to meet the person who tells me they have more time than they need in a day. Maybe that’s because of my line of work…But, truly, we all wish we had more time. What I’ve found, though, is that it is not about the number of hours, minutes, or seconds, in a day, it is about how we choose to spend them. If I were to ask you to do a study of your time (detailed tracking of what you actually do throughout the day), I can assure you that you’d be able to identify pockets of time that weren’t spent usefully. The point though, is not to become this productivity machine. It is to use your time more wisely. Let me share what may seem like an odd example. For decades, I would get up at 4:30 in the morning and go to bed between 10:30 and 11:30 at night. I did this to try and stay ahead of the work. Here’s the thing, though, after several months of teaching my body how to get the sleep it needs, I find that I am just as productive (if not more productive) because I am able to come to my work with a clear head. I make fewer mistakes. I handle stress better. Ultimately, I get more done in less time. And, bonus, I am healthier because of it.
Money: I have worked with many professionals who are “saving up for someday.” In other words, they are clear on their vision but don’t think they can begin down that path until they’ve saved up the money to “do it right.” Here, again, I’ll use my own example. When I was first launching the business, I did not have the funds to pay a firm to craft the brand and build a professional website. Rather than put the business on hold until I could squirrel away the money to do this, I bartered. I had a friend who knew how to create a website who happened to be in need of some coaching. In this way, I was able to get a great website to have a place for people to go to learn more about the business.
Resources: I recently worked with a senior leader whose admin had left the company. The organization had put a hiring freeze in place and this leader was drowning — meetings were being double-booked; and deadlines were being missed. They had resigned themselves to the fact that, until the hiring freeze was lifted, their focus would be simply to try and stay above water. I suggested that we get clear about the help that they needed (the minimum viable product that would allow them to be successful). Armed with that business case, they went to the organization with two options: first, shared resources. Was there an admin in the organization already who could do 5 hours of work for them a week? The second option was, would the organization allow them to hire a virtual assistant for 5 hours a week? As it turned out, some of this leader’s peers had also expressed frustration with the situation, and the business case that my client brought forward offered the organization a cost-effective way to respond.
Access: This most usually sounds something like, “but I’m not in the room where the decisions are being made.” The question then becomes, who is? And, how can you build effective relationships with these key stakeholders to begin to understand how decisions are made? The more that you understand the priorities of the decision-makers as a collective and individually, the more you are able to frame your business case in a way that resonates with them. Sometimes, this access is a step or two removed. In other words, who do you know who knows someone in the room? Can they help you understand, from their perspective, what is important to that person and to the decision-making group? Even better, would they be willing to introduce you to the person they know?
As you think about the obstacles you are facing right now, is there a way that you can be creative in optimizing it rather than allowing it to serve as a roadblock?
