What's "plan A"? And why does it matter?

I’ve recently started working with a coach

(don’t know who I am of what I’ve done (why would you?!) - I’ve stuck a section on that at the bottom).?

Spending the best part of a decade alongside my co-founder, Nick, building a bootstrapped business internationally, bringing 3 children into the world and running numerous house renovations & moves (including a spell in Australia & an escape to the country) - life has been turbulent and full on. It was time to pause and reflect.

I’ve never worked with a coach before. So going into it, I didn’t know what to expect. If asked, I’d have thought they were going to give me some answers - tools, roadmaps, goals. Not so - tools etc come from training.

Coaches ask questions. Difficult ones.

Raw ones. The ones that make you look down at your shoes and squirm a bit. Or a lot in my case. The impetus is on you to find the answers from within. And they are there to help you do that. Having never done counselling, I don’t know for certain, but I suspect the ninja-voodoo-magic skills of a good coach are not dissimilar to those of a good counsellor.

Why am I writing this and why would you read it (I hear you ask)?

Good question. I guess the honest answer is that it’s proving to be a great learning experience. And I believe the things that I’m learning could be helpful to you, no matter what stage of your career you are at or what role you have.?

The businesses I’ve co-founded - payspective.com and movemeon.com - are both in the “people / careers / hiring / professional development” - tech space - finding ways to support people in their careers or building teams is a passion.

So I thought why not stick pen to paper as I go through the journey and share those insights with you. I’ll plan to write these in a regularish rhythm and simply share a question that I found helpful and why. So I’ll leave you with a first question…

What’s the dream? Plan A?

Ironically this is the first bit of advice I give to any professional seeking my advice about their career. I’d like to think that some of the value I add is forcing people to conjure up planA and get the dream on paper (normally a sofa session for them with a glass of red). And once planA is articulated, go after it all guns blazing (at least for a few months). There’s always planB if planA doesn’t come off. And if you don’t try you don’t get and all that.

I realised I hadn’t taken my own advice. I had 10 years ago (“I’d love to start and try to grow a business”) but hadn’t done an update. 10 years is a long time and a lot has changed. Squashed and squeezed by the needs of a growing family and growing businesses / teams, I hadn’t thought about my feelings. Or my needs. The present dream. The up to date plan A. A plan spanning life and work and how they come together in a way that really energises me.

Interestingly this had been picked up by our team who felt the clarity of vision for the next stages of business growth were not communicated readily enough or perhaps a little fuzzier than they used to be.

I’m not beating myself up. And nor should you (if this resonates). When you have a busy life - a demanding job, endless life admin and a young family (not forgetting another half and their career and your relationship) - it seems pretty normal that you can forget that you’re allowed to dream.

But now I’ve remembered that I need a planA. In fact it’s pretty important if I want to perform at my best and help to inspire our team. I’m looking forward to getting it down on paper again (and that nice glass of red).

About me

• Father of 3 young kids (they’re 6, 4 and 1)
• I work 4 days a week and spend Friday doing the school run & looking after the toddler (and trying to find time to mow the lawn)
• I started my career consulting and then freelance consulting
• I’ve co-founded 2 businesses - movemeon.com and payspective.com (that’s if you don’t count the little garden maintenance business from my teenage years)
• I work in a rapidly growing team of approaching 50 people
• I’m 36 (and have just realised the photo of me on LinkedIn is a highly flattering version of me about 5 years ago)
• I get energy from people - so I love thoughts and feedback. I'm always grateful of your opinions in the comments. And if you identify with my experience or feel my ramblings make some sort of sense, I'm not offended by a share or a like.