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How To Get Out Of The Habit Of Concealing Flaws

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By Lindsey Tolino

I’ve had acne since 7th grade. It’s been 15 years now. By the second year of my struggle with acne, I learned to conceal it. I have bought countless bottles of concealer in 14 years. I have learned how to conceal my flaws well.

Makeup

We’re taught to conceal. Not to admit our flaws, but to bury them under a mask. This is true of our businesses too. I’ve seen businesses try to conceal their flaws with social media campaigns, investing in more marketing and pouring energy into public relations, all trying to change public perception without resolving the underlying problems.

When you live with something for 15 years, you hardly even notice it. It becomes a part of life. But, every once and a while, the acne is painful.

Then I notice it.

I think about addressing it, maybe trying to resolve it. But once the pain subsides, I mostly go back to living with it.

Is it like this in your business?

If I stopped wearing makeup to conceal my acne, then I’d have to face the reality that I have it and should do something to resolve it. This is what so many businesses need to do. We need to stop concealing our flaws. We need to stop blinding ourselves to the fact that employees are unhappy, that sales are lower than expected and that our businesses aren’t as healthy as we’d hoped.

But I can’t just stop wearing concealer and say “I love this face of mine, pimples and all.” Because I don’t love it. I don’t want to have broken, unhealthy skin.

We can’t just stop concealing our business flaws and say “I love this business, high turnover and all.” Because if we’re honest, we don’t love it.

We don’t want to have broken, unhealthy businesses.

Our businesses aren’t perfect, but we can’t simply cover it with concealer and expect it to get better. We can’t be content to blindly love them in all their imperfection. We need to care that things aren’t healthy. We need to resolve core issues to make them healthier.

We need to do this if we want to have sustainable, profitable businesses.

So how do we resolve issues in our businesses instead of trying to conceal them?

1. Acknowledge that our businesses have flaws that are making them unhealthy.

This is often presented in a variety of symptoms such as high turnover, high customer complaints or a low number of repeat customers.

2. Investigate the flaws.

At this point, you have to resist the desire to simply treat the symptoms, because ultimately you want to cure the disease. You have to resist the urge to hurriedly pour money into marketing, to hire better salesman or to increase employee salaries. You have to investigate to make sure you understand the underlying cause of the symptoms. This may mean inviting honest conversations with your employees, scrutinizing finances and digging into your own thought process.

3. Decide how much you want to invest in resolving flaws in order to create a sustainable business.

This is an important step, not only to plan out what you’re able to invest, but also to intentionally move forward in resolving issues. When you’ve decided to set money and time aside to resolve an issue, it makes it easier to execute the plan.

4. Work to resolve the issue with what you decided to invest.

Don’t get discouraged in the process. Be persistent and do what you can with what you have.

5. Evaluate and repeat as needed.

Your consistent hard work to resolve issues at their core will benefit your business. When you stop trying to conceal flaws and invest in resolving core issues, you put your business on a healthier, more sustainable path.

Image info: Royalty-free image from http://www.freeimages.com/photo/909988.

Author’s Bio: Lindsey Tolino is a young creative who helps make businesses better. She serves business owners with her words at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Five ways to attack the hard things in your business

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Running a business is an exhilarating, adrenaline-pumping, wild ride. It’s also grinding, lonely, and terrifying.

And then there are days when you just have to do something hard.

Hard like firing or laying off an employee, telling a client that you can’t meet their deadline, or (worst case scenario) shuttering a business.

It comes with the entrepreneurial territory.

There will be days when you would rather have a meteor land on your head than go to your office.

I’ve had to do all of the hard things I mentioned above, over the last 25 years. If you find yourself facing a hard thing, it’s time to prove your mettle, (wo)man up, and get to the other side.

With every “hard thing” you handle, you are putting on another piece of armor, like a medieval knight. Over time, you’ll find yourself in full battle gear, fearless in the face of any challenge.

knight on a rearing horse

Five ways to attack business challenges

1. Look Inward and Reframe

Staring down a challenge that seems insurmountable, one simple tactic is to change your attitude toward it. After all, you may not be able to change the nature of the task itself. Sit down and consider why it’s important to embrace the challenge. How will you feel once it’s done? What benefits will accrue after it’s over? Use visualization techniques to put yourself in the mindset of someone who has already accomplished it.

If you feel negative thoughts start to creep in, write down your battle plan and be very specific about why you need to overcome the difficulty at hand.

2. Outsource It

I know, I said you had to buckle down and do it yourself, but sometimes a task feels harder than it should because you’re not the right person for the job. If you’re consistently dreading doing something, perhaps it’s a task you can outsource to someone who specializes in it.

If talking to the media is a job that makes you break into a cold sweat, think about hiring a consultant who will do it with pleasure.

3. Get Backup

Strength in numbers, baby. As an entrepreneur, you need to be the driving force, but you don’t always have to go it alone. Find a colleague or friend to help you get over the hump. Shutting down a business is somewhat like grieving for the loss of a loved one; it’s OK to bring in help as you deal with the fallout.

4. Rip off the Band-Aid

Stop worrying about how difficult something will be, and just do it. The task will loom larger and larger the longer you procrastinate it. So take a deep breath, trust yourself, and get it done quickly. In the case of laying off an employee, your business can suffer if you drag out the process unnecessarily.

5. Find Inspiration

There’s no such thing as a new challenge in business. No matter what it is, someone out there has already dealt with it. Many of the most enduring business books have stories and inspiration to get you through the tough times.

Look at some of the large business communities, like American Express OpenForum, where you can talk to other business owners. You are not alone.

And certainly, this Successful Blog community is here to support you!

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: matthijs rouw via Compfight cc

Cool Practice Review: Gratitude Challenge

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools, products, and practices that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks in a business environment.

Cool Practice Review: Dialogue Exercise
A Review by Todd Hoskins

Earlier this year, Liz wrote on how gratitude is more than saying “thank you.” “Breathing” gratitude contributes to thrivability, both in oneself and extending to one’s friends, co-workers, and community.

But gratitude is very difficult in the face of pain.

Can I be grateful for my divorce? For my genetic condition? For a decline in income or revenue? For a dissatisfied client?

By finding gratitude within a challenge or hardship, it takes away my victim status, and allows me to see how suffering can contribute to my growth. My wound can become my strength, and I can grin (and weep) in the face of loss because I know a stronger foundation is being built.

Businesses have had their share of pain, not just now, for it is a part of working within a living system where systemic needs are sometimes contrary to the people working within the system. At an organizational or group level, there is enormous power in sharing the individual and collective difficulties along with the growth that may emerge from the hardship. Try this exercise as a reflection on the past year, or use it in your annual reviews:

1. Each person writes down 2-3 difficulties and why they are grateful for them. Encourage your people to speak on behalf of themselves, and/or the team.

I am grateful for _____, because it has ______.

(i.e. I am grateful for John’s resignation, because it has shown me how I do not allow people who work for me to creatively experiment and try out their own ideas).

((i.e. I am grateful for losing our largest client, because it has demonstrated how much we compromised on our vision in order to keep them happy).

2. Each person shares their gratitude sentences, with no judgment or commentary from the group.

3. Offer thanks for the participation, but don’t try to solve anything. Give the exercise some breathing room. A discussion may ensue, but a debate, planning session, or analysis would be best saved for later.

Try it, and let us know how it went!

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 5/5 – Groups should be kept below 25

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – Want commitment and teamwork? This helps you get there.

Personal Value: 5/5 – For family, for friends, even your network of ambient intimacy

Happy Thanksgiving!