The psychology of failure. Awareness of the leader as a key factor in business growth

The longer I work with managers in the framework of business coaching and consulting, the more clearly I understand: the lion's share of success or failure of a business depends on the awareness of its leader. From the availability of certain knowledge, from the degree of development of business intuition, from the ability to think strategically, from ambition and desire to achieve the intended goal.

High-quality and effective work to increase the profitability of the company is impossible without the active participation of the head in it.

If the owner of the company understands that he lacks information, certain skills and qualities for success, this is a real gift: after all, the identified problem immediately becomes the task.

A plan for its solution is being written, the implementation of which is only a matter of time. Information can be obtained independently (through training, reading specialized literature) or through working with an expert consultant. The necessary skills can be developed. To grab the necessary qualities for yourself is already more difficult, substantial work on yourself is required. But it is also quite possible, for example, as part of business coaching.

The situation is much worse when the leader shows low awareness and explains all the troubles, problems and failures by the influence of external factors. In psychology, this phenomenon is called the "external locus of control" or "externality." This concept was introduced in 1954 by social psychologist Julian Rotter.

The reasons for focusing on external factors and making them responsible for their lives have clear psychological justifications, which are not the purpose of this article. I only note that external people have a whole set of limiting beliefs that they "successfully" apply in life. Locus of control is easy to diagnose during a conversation with the leader, if you ask the right questions and be able to hear his answers.

Here are the most common beliefs of business leaders:

1. "Good staff impossible to find!"

Of course, it is impossible if you do not know the principles and methods of successful hiring, do not make your company, vacancy and announcement of it attractive and attractive for candidates.

2. "Employees do not want to work!"

Naturally, they do not want to if you do not have knowledge and do not have the skills of motivation and personnel management.

3. "All employees steal!"

This is quite possible if you selected such people at the hiring stage and let them do it. Where a quality control and accounting system is in place, theft is impossible in principle.

4. "Why invest in advertising if it still doesn't work!"

If you or your marketer does not have knowledge about the production of high-quality, effective advertising, it will not work. But in order to truly appreciate the effectiveness of advertising, you need to consider the conversion. And most managers do not.

5. "I have no money for advertising!"

For small companies with low turnover, a large-scale advertising company is a utopia. But no one encourages you to look up for famous brands. Partisan marketing tools are suitable for micro-business. They practically do not require costs, but at the same time they are highly efficient.

6. "Why strain, invest in business development, because competitors can not get around!"

Maybe competitors are really hard to get around. But is it necessary to do this? Isn’t it easier to rebuild from them and become unique in the eyes of consumers?

7. "Taxes strangled me!"

And what have you done to optimize your tax costs? There are a number of experts who specialize in this kind of business assistance. They offer legal and operational schemes to reduce such costs.

8. "My business cannot make more profit!"

Of course it can't! After all, you are so convinced that you will not even try to change the situation. But the business of competitors who will learn, work on themselves, test and introduce new tools for hiring, management and marketing will develop.

As we see, the distortion of reality through the limiting beliefs of the leader is the main reason for failures in business.

What to do?

There is only one recipe: to develop your awareness! Work on yourself, learn, develop as a person and a professional. Stop referring to external factors, and more often ask yourself the question: "What exactly can I do to change this situation?" And if it is difficult for you to move forward independently, the knowledge of specialists in the field of business coaching and consulting is at your service. Nowadays, many tools have been developed for business development, and whether or not to contact them is your decision!

Elena Trigub