Working in and Working on the Business

There are times when you are working toward a goal and your current productivity system is working. You may, however, begin to see that your system for getting things done is not good enough. Consider that whenever you entertain new ideas about how things could be better, you are considering some form of change. The current status is not good enough, so you are looking to change something. Regarding change, a critical distinction for your success in business is knowing when you are working in the business and when you are working on the business. You know you are working in the business when you're doing the day-to-day tasks and activities, the stuff that just keeps coming at you, such as

things you promised,
calls you need to make,
reports you have to complete,
projects you're working on, and
meetings you need to attend.

Isn't it true that these go on and on throughout the day? When we are doing these things, we claim that we are working in the business. We are carrying out day-to-day activities by doing the tasks and delivering on the commitments that make up our business and that produce our income. We could say that the day-to-day stuff is living in the foreground of our awareness; thus, we typically attend to it. If we're diligent, we get things done.

We are okay with this for some period of time, but ideas are buzzing in the background that need to be addressed. These ideas are on the back burner and might include considering increasing sales, opening a new office, working fewer hours, or having someone take over some of your responsibilities. You also might be thinking about having more customers, more income, better ways of getting new clients, or a different way of working with associates and clients. Consider that what is running around in the background is your mind churning through what we call your more, better, and different (MBD) list. These could also be called the wants and desires that live as thoughts or ideas — or even dreams for your future. The key point here is that in this moment these MBDs live only as ideas, yet they are precursors to deciding to go into action. When you go into action addressing one of these items, we say you are now working on the business, rather than in it.

From Ideas to Action

So how do you move ideas from the background into the foreground so that you can begin to see these items more clearly? In other words, how do you begin to get clear on those items you might want to take some action on, rather than have them buzzing around creating anxiety and down moods because you just never get going on any of them? As a first step, you can simply list them, so that now they are living in a documented form, rather than just as background ideas. Sounds simple, and it is. But how often do we take the time to document our ideas? Once you have documented or listed your ideas, you are on your way. However, at this point, good, hardworking people typically roll up their sleeves and get to work on the items, overlooking a key step.

We have found that the next step, prioritizing your documented items, is often overlooked. The big difference between working in the business and working on the business is that when you are working on the business it is difficult to make a priority, because it doesn't seem crucial to the business's ability to run smoothly, whereas the mundane stuff always does. When you don't prioritize according to the importance of each idea, you then live in what we call ideas land, a place in the mind where all ideas are good ideas and everything gets addressed, often leading to a shortage of resources, frustration, and breakdown.

The problem with ideas land is that not all ideas are good ideas, and as a result, this becomes the land of no action where nothing gets done.

Consider that if you don't prioritize, you are committing the sin of thinking you can do everything that's on your mind at any given moment. In our organizational therapy jargon, this is a cognitive distortion, another way of saying that your thinking is messed up. Good luck!

Steve Jobs allegedly said, "People think focus means saying yes to the things you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas."

If you have taken our advice and prioritized — congratulations, you are now ready to take action on your first item.

But wait ... something is afoot.

It turns out that there is a good reason you don't take action on these items by addressing them. Why is that? Because the very moment you address even one of your ideas and decide to go into action, you're unwittingly shifting out of working in the business to now working on the business. In other words, you're considering, without realizing it, adding extra work to your already too-busy schedule.

We know all of you have more than enough to do without adding one more action item. A perfect example of this in another area of your life is deciding to remodel your kitchen or your entire house. You may not realize at the time you decide to take on this new project that none of your other responsibilities will have magically disappeared. Shortly, however, the realization of what this new project means to your time and energy becomes painfully apparent. Talk to people who have just had their first child. Often what happens here is that all the things that seemed important — dishes, cleaning, errands — fall by the wayside, and they end up very disorganized as a result, because getting used to caring for the child takes over all of their focus.

The other thing you need to know is that the human mind, relatively speaking, only takes a nanosecond and little energy to think of something new to do but eons and loads of energy to do it. This reminds us of the guy who, in response to his CEO coming up with yet another project, said, "Anything can be done by the guy who doesn't have to do it." Later on you will see that there is a way to deal with this when you fill in the energy/resources section of your project template we'll provide. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Let's say that despite all this, you decide to address one of your ideas with the intention of shifting from ideas land into action and results. You're ready to go and full of energy, but danger lurks in the form of what we call enemies or barriers to taking effective action to achieve your intended result.

Enemies to Taking Action

Enemy Number One: More Work

As we noted above, when you desire things such as more money, more clients, better office work, and so forth, and you go into action, you've added a project for which you have no time — one that will require working outside of your demanding daily routine. In fact, you're now working on the business, and what's worse, you won't make any money by working on the business that particular day. As author Reinhardt noticed, "I'm doing all this stuff, and I'm not going to bill anybody for this. Bummer." That reality makes it very easy to get snapped back into the real work at hand. Working on the business doesn't pay immediately and just doesn't feel like real work. This can lead to a loss of energy and motivation.

Enemy Number Two: The Distraction Factor

We've found in our own experience that enemy number two, the distraction factor, lives invisibly in the background of our day-to-day work. Essentially, this is the strong possibility that we will focus on the wrong activities.

Day to day, we're working in the left quadrant of the "Working in and Working on" graphic shown — working in the business, managing projects, and driving all the common, day-to-day activities. We're serving our customers, responding to deadlines, and of course dealing with breakdowns with technology and/ or human activities. Typically that's where we're focusing our attention and energy on a daily basis.

Once you have decided you need to work on an idea, generating something new, you have moved into the right-hand box called "Working on the Business."

When you are working on the business with a new project or initiative, you can easily get pulled into what feels like the real work in the left-hand box. This typically feels urgent and can create tension, so you may stop working on the business. Another form of distraction that doesn't feel urgent but takes us out of the working on the business mode includes various escapist activities like browsing through e-mails, researching or checking a word or concept via Google, and then going off into Google land where you completely lose focus.

It turns out that the distraction factor is a real dilemma we all face. What shall we attend to in this moment? Most important, you need to be aware of the activities and things that can pull your attention away from some intended new venture. Then, armed with awareness, you can decide how and where you will spend your precious resources of time, money, and energy. You can begin to design your focus and actions.

Enemy Number Three: Drift versus Design

This enemy is our tendency to drift along in our work, ignoring the future represented in the "Working on the Business" box.

Rather than allocating some time to look ahead and design our future, we fail to realize the value of dealing with the future, especially when it's not immediately rewarding to do so.

We say this is drifting, because customers' wants and needs change rapidly. Old visions and what was critical to past success that has become habitual becomes the enemy to survival. "I don't know where I'm going, but I'm headed in this direction" perfectly describes the drift.

We've now looked at three enemies to successfully getting into action and securing results. Now let's turn to enemy number four. Enemy Number Four: The absence of a system for upgrading your business by consistently translating your ideas and wants into results.

Once you have considered addressing an idea, you need a system for moving from now, to the future, to the doing. This is what we will be sharing with you in the next chapters. Our purpose is to have you be able to routinely and consistently be competent in taking your wants from the now to the future and then into effective action, the doing.

Now you have a beginning awareness of what can stop you and lead to frustration and loss of energy without your knowing it.

In our work with countless businesses, we've observed that there are really only three types of business people:

1. Those who know what to do and do it. They are successful, energized, satisfied, and moving forward with their business.

2. Those who know what to do and don't do it. These people are typically angry, frustrated, and blame others and various situations for their lack of progress.

3. Those who don't know what to do, but do something — anything. These actions can be futile or even destructive at times. The third type of business leader typically lives in hope, ignorance, and despair.

As painful as it might be, one of the best things you can do right now is to determine which of the three leaders you are at this very moment. Trust us — ignorance is not bliss. Author Reinhardt notes, "What I didn't know when I started my business was that I would, unwittingly, drift toward becoming one of these three kinds of entrepreneurs. More accurately, I was probably drifting toward some mixture of the three. Sometimes I was doing the right stuff, sometimes I was not, and sometimes I didn't know what to do — so I just did something. One problem with not knowing what to do with the consulting business was getting very busy with current clients and failing to pay attention to developing new business. Not having developed an effective system to encourage paying attention to marketing along with delivering to current clients led to slow periods with a reduced revenue stream."

Typically, no one tells us what path we're on or where we're going on that path. There is no flag, warning buzzer, or backup beeper like those installed on many trucks and cars. We're just moving along, going somewhere. The following quote woke us up one day: "If we don't change our direction, we're likely to end up where we're headed."

Whether business owners or managers, most of us are definitely on a path driven by one of the three types, but will that path get us where we want to go? We've worked in the two unproductive modes, and as we mentioned, there was nothing that let us know we were in trouble. We just kept working, hoping things would work out. This discussion reminds us of Jack Kornfield's statement: "This life is a test, only a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received further instructions on where to go and what to do."

But we didn't get the instructions, so we just started doing stuff as business owners and leaders of organizations, right?

So let's get you on the right path, starting with one of your key ideas or wants and taking it into the future.

Summary

We offered the critical distinction between working in the business (doing the daily stuff) and working on the business. You know you are working in the business when you're doing the day-to-day tasks and activities, the stuff that just keeps coming at you. On the other hand, when you want more, better, or different for your company, you will be considering some form of change. You are working on the business addressing some desire and going into action doing something new. This is an important distinction for you and your people, as new projects tend to go to the back burner with day-to-day pressures insisting on your working in the business.

Then we discussed going from ideas to action, sharing the following enemies to action and success:

more work
the distraction factor
drift versus design
failing to have a system for upgrading your business
by consistently translating your MBDs into results

Next we'll jump into the key elements of your success foundation.

Your Now Situation

We've all seen or read Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, where the ghosts of Christmas Present, Christmas Past, and Christmas Yet to Come visit Ebenezer Scrooge. The future is so shocking that Scrooge changes the present. In our story, we are going to help you select the future you want by analyzing and really knowing your present — the now situation.

Any GPS system can help you get to a destination, and in that way GPS has changed the mapping industry. Yet no GPS can direct you to where you want to go without first knowing where you are now.

Whether you are the owner of a business or a leader or manager working inside an organization, change is inevitable. Consider that in order to make any change, you will need to take an inventory pinpointing your current situation. With this is mind, we want to help you get what you want by again showing you the three key elements of our Foundation for Success, including

1. now — where you are now,

2. future — where you intend to go, and

3. doing — how will you get there.

We found these three steps to be innate parts of a winning leader's repertoire.

You will soon be diving into the development of your success foundation, which will take you from your now to the future and to doing, as noted in the figure above. To start, we need to get absolutely clear as to where your business or leadership career is right now, so we will focus on circle 1. We all know our auto GPS system will get us where we want to go, but first it has to know where we are. Then and only then can it guide us to some future destination. In a similar fashion, we're creating a GPS system for you and your business by starting with your current situation.

Your Now Exercise

Let's take a look at your business or career in the simplest of all terms, using the following questions:

* What do I make and what do I spend?

* What am I earning, what is my worth on the market, or what is my business worth?

* What service or products do I sell?

* Who are my current customers, and where are the prospects for the future?

* What marketing systems are working and what systems or methods are not? Am I the only rainmaker?

* What is the current organizational chart, and is it appropriate for our future?

* Who are my affiliates or partners with whom I have business relationships?

* How often do I take time for planning, accounting, or reflecting?

* What's going well and where could there be improvements?

* What am I worth?

To focus your thinking about your now, review the items both above and below the line in the listing that follows. Then, with both feet on the ground and a clear mind, take a hard look. List everything; load your GPS. In our experience most leaders do not take sufficient time for this, the most important step you can take before your journey begins.