Who Challenges You?

One of the best things about running your own business is that you haven’t got a boss.

One of the worst things about running your own business is that you haven’t got a boss.

Because when things are going well, that independence feels brilliant.

But when something goes wrong, when you’ve got a difficult decision to make, when you’re not sure whether you’re seeing the problem clearly, or when there’s something you simply can’t talk to your team about, who do you go to?

If you work in a large organisation, there is usually someone.

You might have a manager. You might have a mentor. You might have a senior colleague who challenges you, gives you feedback, helps you think through decisions and tells you when they think you’re getting something wrong.

The more senior you become, the more structured that support often becomes.

A FTSE CEO does not operate completely alone.

They have a board.

They have non-executive directors.

They have a chair.

They have people around them whose role includes challenge, perspective, accountability and support.

And yet in a small business, the owner is often expected to do all of that alone.

There may be a team.

There may be an accountant.

There may be suppliers, customers, friends and family.

But that is not the same as having someone whose role is to challenge your thinking, give you honest feedback, help you make better decisions and be the person you can talk to when you can’t talk to anyone else.

That is a very different kind of relationship.

And, increasingly, I think that is the simplest way to explain what I do.

I work with business owners who have already built something pretty decent.

They are not incapable.

They are not failing.

They are not waiting for someone to come in and run the business for them.

What they need is someone alongside them.

Someone who can ask the question they haven’t asked themselves.

Someone who can challenge an assumption they have accepted as fact.

Someone who can help them look at a problem differently.

Someone who can tell them what they need to hear, rather than what they want to hear.

Someone who can help them shorten the cycle of trial, error, frustration and improvement.

Someone they can say absolutely anything to without worrying about where it will end up.

That is what I do.

Sometimes the conversation is about people.

Sometimes it is about money.

Sometimes it is about sales, marketing, leadership, management, stress, relationships, operations or a difficult decision that has been sitting in the back of their mind for weeks.

The subject changes.

The role does not.

My job is not to do the work for them.

My job is to help them think better, make better decisions and improve the business faster than they would on their own.

Because the truth is, even very capable people benefit from challenge.

Even experienced people have blind spots.

And even successful business owners need somewhere to think out loud.

FTSE CEOs have boards, non-execs and a chair.

Most small-business owners don’t.

That’s the gap I fill.

By Andy Walter

I help business owners build businesses that are easier to run, with less pressure and less stress.

Join us at the next Your Mastermind Group networking session.

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