What are some keys to performance in any economic environment?

In spite of a down economy, I have had a great year and I am really thankful for the clients we have the pleasure to work with.

However, most of the people I talk to who provide Business Consulting and Executive Coaching as well, tell me they have had a challenging year and their business is down significantly.

So what is the difference between what we are doing in my firm and what other business consultants and executive coaches are doing?

Is it that we are just great coaches and consultants and everyone chooses our firm over everyone else? While I believe we do have methods that are superior (of course I believe in our people and our methodology, that’s why I use it!) I do think there are some great coaches and consultants out there… I don’t think that is what has made the difference.

So what has made a difference in our organization’s results?
What has impacted our ability to produce great results even in a down economy when budgets for training, coaching and business consulting have been cut?

Of course we could analyze this from many different directions. However when I speak to the consultants who have called me to inquire what we have been doing that they aren’t, one thing has become really clear to me.

We have not been operating under the same “context”. So what do I mean by context? And what context have we been operating from that has made the difference?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “context” as the surrounding conditions, the circumstances in which events occur.

Said another way, context is the world you operate inside of – it frames everything you see and do. It is of monumental importance because it pulls the organization in a particular direction.

The context we have operated from has been from what I have been saying; “There is plenty of business out there! We help great leaders emerge, and people need leadership now more than ever!”

A context of there is plenty of opportunity for our work has created a completely different way of operating; it has changed how we relate to each other, our clients and our prospects.

As a result of a context, there is plenty, we didn’t listen to the conversation about how bad things are, or that there is no business out there, or budgets are going to be tight until 2010… and on and on. In fact, when I did start to buy that, I turned off the news. I know it has been challenging for some people and I don’t want to be insensitive. One of my clients had to layoff people twice and it was challenging for everyone there.

However, if I had been operating from the context of things are bad and companies are not buying… it would have resulted in a different set of actions taken by myself and my team. None of those conversations created a context that would have led to taking advantage of the available business that IS out there.

Another example of how our context impacts results was one of my former salespeople kept saying that selling consulting and coaching was hard. As long as she operated from the context of selling consulting is hard, she found it hard to sell. Although she found people who were interested in talking about what we have to offer and was having lots of meetings with prospects, even multiple meetings with the same prospect, still she was not able to close a contract.

Her conversation created a context, selling consulting is hard, and that resulted in certain actions that did not result in sales, and eventually she left the firm.

For more information on how our performance correlates to how situations occur for us-
I recommend you read my friend, Steve Zaffron’s book. The Three Laws of Performance- Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life.
www.threelawsofperformance.com

So here’s the challenge. What is the context you as a leader are operating from?
What is the context your organization is operating from?
How would you know? Is it a context that supports your goals and objectives?