Influence That Traveled Without a Room

I’ll say it again for emphasis: I can get a ton of work done on any given day. That’s not me bragging; it’s one of the few things I’ve ever been any good at. People frequently ask about the team Cindy and I have supporting us, so much that it’s become a running joke for the two of us inside our business. The fact that Cindy is the other half of that team has long been a big reason anyone on the receiving end of that work has been able to actually enjoy it. Maintaining a pleasing personality, especially when the world seemed to stop and every plan we have in place evaporated, was no small task. But it was absolutely critical - and the juice was worth the squeeze!

Taking on some of the work I had intentionally stepped away from certainly helped keep the bills paid. Maintaining consistency in every aspect of our business through all that helped us keep some of the forward momentum we had worked so hard to achieve. And in complete transparency, accepting some of the work - work I wasn’t really excited about in the first place (other than getting paid to do something) - for organizations we didn’t have solid values-alignment with provided lessons I may have never learned otherwise. But that wasn’t the only kind of seed we were able to pull from that particular adversity.

Throughout this entire look at making the best of your bad situations, I’ve continued pointing back to one specific quote from Napoleon Hill: "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." In doing this, I’ve continued to stress that we’ll never receive that equal or greater benefit without first working diligently to find that seed, then putting even more effort into nurturing it.

I was in a small group with John Maxwell more than a decade ago when he shared a similar analogy. He mentioned opportunity knocking, but said we’ll never see what that opportunity is if we don’t open the door. He went on to explain that, sometimes, we’ll open that door to find yet another door, and maybe even another door behind that. Unless we keep opening those doors - and going through them - we’re bound to miss the best opportunities.

Taking on the recruiting, human resources, and safety work again (that I was so excited to step away from earlier in 2020) not only helped keep our lights on, it opened doors to other doors that we would have never had access to any other way. Our (ongoing) consistency and the effort I put into maintaining a somewhat pleasing personality was key in earning influence in each business relationship, existing and new. As we pressed forward, opening each door we came to along the way, that influence traveled without ever being in the same room as some of the clients we met, providing us with small wins at first and far bigger ones in the years since. Pivoting through global disruption builds authentic relational power; consistency and a pleasing personality in chaos earn trust no title or venue can grant.

We’ll look at how the disruptions that caused chaos initially allowed us to turn our consistency into a competitive advantage next. Right now, though, think about just one small piece of your own disruption-to-adaption story and share that with someone you trust. And be sure to look closely at the ripple effect that’s followed.