I was talking to a client this week who was really struggling with her operations. As we dug into the details, I started doing my usual coach thing, asking a lot of questions.
The answers I got back were a laundry list of why things couldn’t be done and why certain strategies wouldn’t work.
I let her go for a bit, then I stopped her and asked a different question:
“So, what COULD you do? What MIGHT work?”
When we fill our mental lists with all the reasons why we can’t do something, we are sabotaging our efforts. This self-sabotage usually isn’t intentional; it just feels like we’re telling ourselves facts.
In my 22 years of coaching, I’ve seen three common ways business owners fall into this trap.
3 Ways We Self-Sabotage:
- “We tried that before.” (Or its cousin: “We’ve always done it this way.”) Most people haven’t tried that strategy they are dismissing in at least two years. Hasn’t your business changed enough since then that a new approach might actually work now?
- “That won’t work here; we’re different.” Believing your business is the only one on the planet immune to proven strategies is a dangerous form of sabotage.
- “My team will never go along with that.” If this is true, you have a culture problem. You’ve accidentally given your team permission to ignore new ideas if they don’t like them.
How do you stop the self-sabotage?
Next time you or your team head down this path, pivot the conversation with these 5 questions:
- What are 3 to 5 things we can try?
- Why, specifically, do we think it didn’t work last time?
- What has changed in our business or market since then?
- What would work for a company in our industry?
- How can we get the team on board to solve this together?
If you’re ready to eliminate the self-sabotage and move your team into true solution-thinking, I’d love to help.
The ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABOS) is designed to break these cycles. If you have 15-20 minutes in the next few weeks, schedule an intro call and we can look at how to get you started.
Author: Mark McNulty, Business Coach in Louisville, Kentucky