Tea for Two

Tea for two – picture the scene you are having a fine old fashioned afternoon tea with someone who has one focus – to help you be the best you can be and achieve more. In that situation you would (in the main) pick and choose each item of your afternoon tea one at a time, savouring every mouthful and delicacy from the multi stacked cake stand. The scones would probably be left to the end after the cucumber and coronation chicken sandwiches – whether you follow the Cornish way or the Devon way (jam first or clotted cream first) is one of the hardest decisions you have to make – but you devour one thing at a time, taking your time and enjoying the experience.

Why in business do we approach everything very differently – almost to the point of being in an all you can eat buffet with no time given for appreciation let alone digestion. 1:1 Time really needs to be appreciated and respected.

How does this relate to your business approach? There are only a few of us that can do everything on our own without others – I am not talking romance here I am focussing on having others to help, bounce ideas off and formulate plans and direction. I called this blog Tea for Two because that is how it should be, many an entrepreneur or guru has suggested various different numbers make up the best support for growing a business, I regularly focus on the PowerTeam (see previous blogs for more details here)

Beer mat entrepreneur – Mike Southon always focused on five being the operative number for growing your business. I agree with this on many areas – however – I do see a challenge and it can be a serious one. You never see a team of five chefs all in charge and all trying to take control, throwing loads of ideas into the pot and hoping for a great outcome, they will share their ideas and then delegate and take ownership of their particular small part of the production.

The phrase production really does  speak reams here – whether you think of a production or a performance the simple reality is this whatever you are building it will involve many facets that when they are pulled together create a masterpiece – we hope.

Bite size chunks, SMART objectives which ever terminology works for you – many of that team of five would be the big picture thinkers – the long term planners. Seldom are they the completer finishers, BHAG ideas and audacious thinking – random creative suggestions that just add more noise to the already busy brain – they don’t take things off the table, reduce the noise and finish bits off.

Tea for Two is all about knuckling down, putting a line through multiple items on the to do list demonstrating progress is being made. These might be good bad or indifferent but action is happening and there is evidence of things being concluded.

Consider the situation where the business is getting going, a new direction or market is being targeted and the focus is on one key area of activity ‘get more or some paying clients’. What about all the other elements of this new business or direction – there is far more required than just banging on one door, chasing one target – what are all the other elements that need to be built, get ticked off or finalised? A one trick pony will only ever do that – one trick.

Tea for two is the 1:1 environment with your coach or mentor – you may  find 10-20+ activities are suggested by your mastermind team, but reality will only let you focus on a small number meaning we need to do exactly that focus, not FAFF. Pick a lane with measurable and quantifiable activities that you will act upon, with that annoying conscience holding you true to what you need to be doing

1 on 1 time removes the scope for BS – it prevents waffle because its success will only ever be measured by the completion of actions and profits in the business world going into the bank.  In a group think environment I have managed to play with the statistics to make me sound and feel better than I really should, you can’t do that in a 1:1 environment. Management by committee or wingingit.com is a recipe for no progress whatsoever. One can always quote an anomaly to this statement – but therein lies the point are you willing to gamble future pension, school fees or lifetime wealth or will you knuckle down with the right team for you to see it all through? Your choice!