Do your feeling have a place in your business? Is intuition a must or should all the touchy feely be left for our personal lives? At one time I would have said leave your feelings at home and get to work, but over the years of running my own business I have realized if you don’t take your emotions into account then your business grows slower than it could. While at the same time you must manage your emotions to truly thrive.
Many times my clients appeared to be doing everything completely right and their business still was not growing. Why? One reason is that they had an emotional block that was not letting them realize their true potential. So how do you release your emotional blocks and listen to your inner wisdom? I recommend three steps – not to be followed in any specific order, or used only once.
First, be very aware of your mood. I am talking about noticing very small (or sometimes not so small) shifts in how you feel. When I was trying to decide whether or not to close my event planning business I really focused on my logical decision making process. I continually reviewed aspects such as “I am established, I have a good client load, and my marketing is in place”. What I was ignoring was that after the birth of my son the passion for fabulous over the top weddings was gone. I still love them, but my desire to be immersed in the dissipated. How did I finally feel this? I walked into my office day after day and my mood changed. I could be walking on clouds and take one step in my office and immediately feel like the world was riding on my shoulders. I was heavy. Finally one day it dawned on me; this is not right and I just stopped taking clients. Pay attention to how your mood changes when you are working on different projects? Notice it and try and focus on what your emotions are telling you.
Second, take time for quiet reflection that focuses on your business. When we think about taking time for reflection many of us jump immediately to reviewing our personal lives. This is wonderful but we also need dedicated quiet time to think about our business. If you don’t slow down and review what is going on you will keep spinning your wheels. I am not talking about quiet time to review your books and marketing plan but time to just sit and think. For one week try spending 15 minutes a day, preferably before you start work, just listening to what your business is saying to you. You will be amazed at the level of calm and direction you receive. Don’t let your to do list run through your head, instead focus on creating a calm. Try staring at a fountain, nature or even a wall. Listen to your business and your intuition.
The final step is to remove your feelings from the business. But I thought this was about adding feelings? It is but sometimes we need to pull our feelings out and put other people’s emotions in, to see how our emotions are affecting business. One of my clients was having an issue with a business partner; she received an email from the partner that immediately made her feel like someone had shattered her window. You may be thinking this was a mean nasty email, which is what I thought, until I had her read it to me. The business partner had been on vacation and had emailed that she missed my client. That was all, nothing more to the email. I told my client to imagine someone was reading the email who had no familiarity with the issue or either person. What would they think? How would they feel? By looking at how another would react emotionally to the same situation she was able see clearly how her emotions were controlling the way she ran the business.
Your emotions and feeling are one of your most powerful tools to run your business. Let them be heard while affectively managing them and you and your business will thrive.
