Are You In Your Own Way?

Are you or your team or workgroup stuck, going in circles, or not making the expected or desired progress? You may be surprised to find out what might be holding you back.

I consulted for a number of years with an organization that was a franchisor in the Quick Service Food Retail sector. They had franchise agreements with thousands of retail locations across North America.

Some franchise locations struggled with staffing issues, an economically challenging market, low sales, or a lack of profits. Struggling franchisees would want out and either search for a buyer or ask to be bought out by the parent company.

These franchisees often had very legitimate reasons to explain why the operation wasn't working – lack of traffic at their location, new competitors in close proximity, a poor market for hiring, no qualified staff available, depressed local economy, etc.

These are all legitimate realities
They exist and they are real

Yet when the struggling franchisee sold to another franchisee or walked away and corporate sent in a manager, the situation almost always improved – quickly and dramatically.

The challenges faced by the original franchisee still existed. However, low-traffic locations became profitable with significantly increased revenues despite no change in the amount of traffic. What did change was the relationship between the operator and the available traffic.

In almost all cases the new operator did something different – they adapted to meet the realities of the business. They saw beyond, through, around, and over any barriers. They didn’t deny that the barriers existed but also didn’t let those barriers stop them.

I use this example to illustrate the point that every external barrier can be used to fortify an internal barrier. In some cases the barrier only exists in our minds.

As Henry Ford once said:

“If you think you can or you think you can’t –
either way, you are right.”

Why is this important?

There will always be situations that can look like barriers and new potential barriers will pop up throughout the life of your business. Whether they become actual barriers that have a negative impact on your success will depend on your response to them.

Can you see the differences in these two statements?

“I am not able to do ‘x’ because of the economy.”

“I have not yet figured out how to do ‘x’ within the context of the economy.”

The leader making the second statement will be actively seeking creative solutions to the challenges they face and will be more likely to find a solution to overcome these barriers than the leader thinking the first statement. Potential solutions and the outcomes that result will be directly correlated with the internal dialogue of the leader.

Taking Action
Make a list of all the situations that seem to be a struggle. Detail all of the external barriers presented in these situations.

Now for the challenging part – take a very critical look at the list and ask yourself how you are allowing that barrier to be limiting for you. What is it within your own way of thinking that is stopping you from seeing a solution?

If you get stuck and can only see the barriers as external to yourself, discuss your list with a colleague who knows you well and who you feel comfortable will be forthright with you about how you might be participating in making something more of a barrier.

In every situation, there is someone, somewhere,
who sees it differently and in a less restrictive way than you.

Commit to identifying and finding an actionable solution to the internal component of one barrier each month. One year from now, you will be amazed at the seemingly insurmountable barriers you have overcome and how your thinking has changed with respect to what’s stopping you or your team.

What barriers are you dealing with?

How have you overcome an external situation that appeared to be a barrier, but you were able to reframe it?

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This post was originally posted at TransformationalTrainingGroup.com

If you would like to talk about organizational culture, change, leadership, or anything related to organizational development feel free to contact me.

If a few minutes of my time can assist you in getting positive results for your organization, I am happy to help.

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R. Michael Healey is recognized as an expert in helping organizations link culture to performance. He is the author of the forthcoming book ‘Unlocking the Culture Code’