Other People

Simon Sinek said that if you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business. Now we can analyse that statement on many levels but you cannot escape the fact that you will never understand someone else better than you understand yourself.

So the primary question then is how well do we understand ourselves? I don’t think I have ever met anyone who would claim to not know themselves pretty well, after all, we have all lived with ourselves for as long as we have been around, but the same can be said for gravity, electricity and nuclear power and in all honesty my in-depth knowledge of some of them is pretty sparse too.

Learning and growth is always a journey of self-exploration, whether that was the original intention or not. In Ancient Greece, the philosopher Socrates famously declared that the unexamined life was not worth living. Asked to sum up what all philosophical commandments could be reduced to, he replied: ‘Know yourself. ‘

The very first question on the Rockefeller Habits Checklist is “Team members understand each other‘s differences, priorities, and styles”. I don’t believe anyone can answer that question without having done some formal analysis of styles and behaviours both individually and as a team. That might be a good place to start.

There are some excellent and varied tools out there to help. Use them.

Here are a few to consider: DiSC; Strengthsfinder; Kolbe; ECR (emotional intelligence)

So the questions for this week are;

• How many personality / style assessments have you tried?
• Have you been professionally debriefed by an accredited expert?
• To what extent has your behaviour changed as a consequence of what you have learned?
• To what extent has your hiring and team selection been influenced by what you now know?

If you need any help, reach out

Many successful business owners eventually hit a wall on growth and struggle to climb it alone. When you work with me you get a fresh perspective, a solid plan, and customised coaching so you can grow and scale your business safely and at speed.

To check whether I can help you on that journey https://calendly.com/iankinnery/canweworktogether