I have always walked into the office everyday with an expectation for the day and an execution plan. Having worked in large enterprises all my life, keeping focus on objectives and goals and making progress towards the outcomes came naturally. The support you get from various parts of the Organization like Human Resources, Finance, Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Procurement, Contracts, Legal, Finance … etc etc keep you focussed on your role and objectives and you start for taking these support functions for granted.

Now taking on reigns of small business, it feels like I walk into “Chaos” every day morning. “I have a plan for the day and the day ends without me even getting to it !” would be understatement for the day. Call me crazy, but somehow I walk back home everyday and wake up the next wanting more of it ….

Before I go further on to why …. I want to take a step back and truly thank every support function and individual that contributed to the success of initiatives and projects, I have been involved in. They rarely get mentioned in announcements related to sales wins, project completions, new product roll outs etc. A big shout out to them from the bottom of my heart.

Now let’s get back to why … It does not take long to realize that ..

  1. all the support functions that made you so successful to achieve objectives, Now you are it. Not finding the right skill for a project, you are human resources (HR); need setting up a booth and staff a marketing event, you are the SME; need to get a loan to finance a project, you are finance guy; need to close a deal, you are the sales head. As a leader, you want accountability with responsibility now you have it
  2. not a day goes by, without a surprise ( good, bad or ugly ). Each good news feels like you are moving forward and each bad news feels like you are going ten steps back. That said, each good news fills the room with hope, and gives you the energy to fight another day and bring home another good news
  3. we can make a big difference. When a customer sends a note of “how we as team made a difference”, or a team member says, “when I came here, i did not know how to …. and now Everyone says I am an expert at ….”, or being a able to share personal life event with pride, a birthday, a marriage, a tough life event and knowing the team and leadership have each other back constantly reminds us of the difference we are able make. The spirit that we will not fail .. is contagious
  4. we are empowered to giveback, in the form of internships for students willing to learn, supporting sandwich drives for homeless etc we can be nimble, agile and work for the benefit of local community in a small and meaningful way.

The day, I walked into this office, I put three plaques on in-front of me

  • NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP.
  • BELIEVE YOU CAN AND YOU’RE HALF WAY THERE.
  • YOU MISS 100% OF THE SHOTS YOU DON’T TAKE.

NOW, I have a fourth one,

  • FOCUS ON THE GOOD

It is a new beginning everyday, focus on the good, and deal with rest with firm principles/values that represent who you want to be when you grow up !

Whatever our goals/objectives are, we believe, working together we can

 

 

View from the Executive Corner … @BizCloud Experts