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The 3 Dire needs
of every Business Leader

Dream with me for a moment, back to when you were a kid. You're completely free on sunny fall afternoon swinging on a swing. Imagine your feet extending in front of you and your hands pulling hard on the chains as you stretch your toes to the clouds. Do you remember the exhilaration of the wind blowing over your face as you rushed higher and higher? As kids we were invincible. We could do anything. There were no dreams too big. And our fears certainly hinged around mom tapping on the kitchen window telling us NO to our next hairbrained idea. We hadn't been tainted by the cold hard realities of the real world. Life was simple.

I have a story for you that shows how the motion of a swing directly relates to your success in business. By the end of our conversation today I will share with you a true life principle that applies to you right now and then I will share with you the three dire needs of every business leader.

Hi, I’m Karl Diffenderfer and I’m a Business & Life Coach teaching Business Leaders and Serial Entrepreneurs. I love to start, build, run and sell companies. I remember swinging on a swing very much like this as a 8 year old boy. Of course, I was always trying new things and one of those things was standing on a swing when it was barreling at breakneck speeds. I would swing as hard as I could and then quickly stand on the swing as it was moving. Well what's next for an 8 year old boy standing on a swing traveling at high speeds. Jumping off, of course. It was like a catapult. I would soar through the air, higher than I had ever gone. Time stood still in that moment. I’ll never forget the day when this idea broke my arm.

As a business leader, you might feel stuck. Does your business run you? Do you feel like you are living out the definition of insanity: doing the same thing but expecting different results. Do you feel like you can’t stay focused on the important things? Does your business drag you every which way like a ship tossed in a storm? You can’t talk to your staff about your hard decisions, and they wouldn’t understand. So you have nowhere to turn.

So my story goes like this. I had successfully jumped off the swing so many times and had soared so high in the air. But what I didn’t realize was that if I tried to jump after the swing started it’s backward motion, my leap was going to cause the swing to push backwards faster and force my whole body twice as fast into the hard ground below at a roaring speed. You can imagine how the story ends... with a broken arm. It was a hard lesson to learn and painful. But I remember Mom and Dad let me have yogurt for dinner at 11pm that night when we arrived home from the hospital. They said I was very brave and I remember beaming with pride.

As a business leader you can be very much like this story on the swing. Sometimes you attempt to leap into a big decision at the right time, sometimes your leap is not timed perfectly and you fall hard. No matter where you are in the swinging motion of your decision, knowing when to leap is critical.

So I told you that every business leader has three dire needs. They are:

  1. Loyal Camaraderie
  2. Self Accomplishment
  3. Wisdom from Trusted Advisors

So let me ask you, if you were to rate yourself on a scale of zero to ten how would you say you are doing at moving towards self mastery in these needs? Do you have the right peers with consistent commitment and accountability that can pour the right questions and insights into your life? Do you need an outside perspective to help you make the best decisions?

If you think there is wisdom in the council of trusted advisors, then click the link below to try out one of our Impact Roundtables. It is 2 hours of your month that will guide you towards:

Mastery of learning and behavioral accountability with insights of deep wisdom and the benefit of loyal camaraderie from peer leaders you can trust.

 

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