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Whenever business owners or their team members ask me about what they can do to increase their sales and profits, there are all sorts of ways I can answer them. Whether you are an owner or an employee, the answer is always the same – Learn more!
This is particularly true for Owners, CEOs, Leaders of any type, because as John Maxwell taught us with his “Law of the Lid”, our team/business can’t be any better than we are. If you want your business/team to be a 9, then you need to be a 10! So how do you do this?
Some of the best ways to learn more are: Hire a Coach, Read, Listen to Audio Books, Take a class/seminar/workshop, and actually maybe all of the above!
The first question I usually get is, “So what should I be learning?” While the real answer is that in the end it doesn’t matter – just learn something – there is a more practical approach that might make sense. For my business owning clients, I usually start with fundamental business skills – where do they simply need to know more for where they are in their business right now. This could mean getting educated on business financials, sales, or marketing. It might be hiring practices or team building, and the list of raw skills goes on.
The second type of learning is personal development – it could be leadership, management or personal productivity or just simply reading about some of the new thought leaders in the world. Expand your mind, grow your comfort zone, build a bigger box (instead of thinking outside the box). Biographies can also be great learning opportunities.
The last thing you need to do is also the most important – for every book you read, write down your Top 3 Learnings from the book, and put a plan in place to do something with what you learned. Implement a new strategy, or stop doing something you shouldn’t be doing, or whatever it is you learned. The most important thing is to do something with your new skills/knowledge, not just simply file it away as “good to know”.
Start reading!
Author: Mark McNulty, Business Coach in Louisville, KY
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