I have a married client who came to me for straight business coaching. The first thing I asked was, "What buckets (priorities) in your personal life and in your business life do you want to fill?" He had 4 personal, and only 1 business bucket.
After digging deeper, it turned out he couldn't really focus on filling business buckets because he was in conflict with his wife at home. She had recently quit her job in sales (where she made lots of money) because they had 2 new babies, and he wanted her to be a partner in his business.
Turns out, her side of the story was, "I love my husband, and I love the business. But I don't have the same passion for it that he does. Taking care of my family takes all my energy, but I don't know what I should be doing now. I just feel like I lost my identity when I came into his business."
Knowing this dynamic allowed us to pivot away from business consulting and to relationship management, where I am able to coach them both. "What do you love to do?" I asked her.
"I love to sing," she said. So I asked her sing for me on the phone, right there. And she sang good! So I invited her to sing on stage at my The Circle CEOs retreat. She came, she sang, people cheered and cried! Which allowed her to experience the impact she can have in people's lives doing what she loves, too.
Business owners have a vision, a passion to do the thing they set out to do. And, more often than not, our loved ones get sucked in with us because sometimes we believe our sacrifice must also be their sacrifice. Well, that's a mistake.
Are you ready for your Bucket Question? Let's see where your priorities are and if there's a pivot we can make to help you better balance the life to business dynamic.
When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you have a breakthrough with your business and personal relationship buckets:
Take a free W2J Assessment. It's an eye-opening assessment that leverages the attributes of 4 animal behaviors to give individuals and business leaders personal tools to ramp up productivity, improve team culture, improve communication and substantially increase earning potential.
Join our free Coffee Q&A every Saturday morning at 8am EST. It's where our business community connects on all things personal and professional growth. (Ask the group your most terrifying business question.)
Schedule a Connection Call. Positive change happens through self-discovery, which starts with a conversation with someone who's been there. Ready to have that conversation?
When our personal life is a mess, our business will be a mess. If we don't learn how to communicate, connect, and resolve conflict at home, then there's no way we'll perform consistently at work.
Kendall
(Coach K)