Think
it Through for Success
By: Natalie R.
Manor, CEO
The idea of being surrounded
by a real live tornado shifted some thinking for me
and I want to share how and why. Let me give you some
details first.
First of all, spending
time in Kansas with our client and their management
team is one of my favorite things to do. There are four
senior managers who are moving from the “working manager”
mindset to “leading” their organization with key business
development strategies, organization wide communication
changes and learning to evaluate their positions for
effectiveness and producing successful and sustainable
results. Kudos to them
I love working with senior
managers and executives who are on track to really discovering
their talents. It is a joy to observe them using these
talents to highlight what is possible when talented
people apply their smarts to their business, people
and their lives. Confidently influential people are
a sight to behold.
Back to the potential threat
with the tornado. It was important to me to find out
what the precautions and plans were of the hotel where
I was staying. Would they evacuate the guests? Where
would we go? How much time should we take, once we were
alerted, to enter the shelter? Should we take anything
with us? What would the signal be that would let us
know that it was time to take shelter?
My team asked me if I was
frightened of the tornado? I said yes, but I was not
asking the questions because I was scared. I was asking
all the questions because I wanted a plan that I could
understand and follow. I also wanted to be part of the
solution rather than some screaming scaredy cat running
in circles because I did not understand that plans were
in place to protect me from such a potentially traumatic
situation like a real live destruction-inducing tornado.
Fortunately the tornado
did not touch down. We avoided destruction and having
to use the shelter and protection of a great plan.
However, it got me to thinking
about my own plans for my business and life. How prepared
am I to take action in case just the very worst happened
to me and the business? I came up with some questions
that I think are good preparatory questions for putting
together a plan for success “just in case”. I hope they
are helpful for you. They have provoked me to think
through my strategy for how I conduct my business processes.
-
How is my crucial business information
being backed up?
-
How often does it get backed up?
-
Where is it backed up and how do
I get access to it when there is a failure?
-
How do I handle a failure if I don’t
have the latest backup? (I make this comment because
since we got involved in this fast moving technology
it’s not “if” something will fail, but “when”.)
-
What kind of storage am I using
for the particular and important information that
I need for a difficult situation?
-
Where am I keeping it and how easily
do I have access to it?
-
Who else needs access to it?
-
Have I continued to keep my firewalls
and security tight so my client information and
business information is as protected as it can be?
-
Am I using the best technology I
need in order to operate well, effectively and efficiently?
-
How portable is my daily paper records
and how would I replicate them if they were lost?
-
What does my insurance coverage
look like and is it enough to replace/support my
being able to do business easily?
-
What are my storage habits for both
electronic and physical records?
-
Do I need to re-look at how I am
handling my information?
It takes time to be safe,
effective, efficient, and profitable. We are taking
a deep look at our entire business now because of the
nose-to-nose brush with a potentially destructive situation.
I hope these questions
are helpful to you. They have been for us. I think a
periodic safety review is a good humbling practice.
I wish you safety in all
ways.
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