Asking For Help

When to Ask

Mostly, you don’t need help. You’ve been running your business for awhile, and you’ve learned a lot. But…there are two situations where it might be wise to bring in help from outside the company:

You’re doing something new. You have a vague sense that you may not know what you don’t know. You understand your foundation technology, but you feel that there may be business blind spots as you grow to the next level. That’s a good time for guidance.
You’re stumped. You’ve hit the wall and run out of ideas. Or, you just have a vague feeling that you’re not performing up to your potential. What you’d really like is an objective person with no particular axe to grind, no pet agenda; someone who’s skilled, experienced, and trustworthy. Someone with whom you can be totally open and kick around ideas. A confidante.

Helpful Help...And Not So Helpful

Some professionals will directly and simply answer your questions. And sometimes that’s exactly what you need. “My computer’s broken! Don’t tell me about megabytes, just fix it!”

But experience has shown that there’s a deeper approach that might better serve your deeper needs.

The best helpers are catalysts, not encyclopedias. They recognize that you know your business better than anyone, so they work to draw out your deepest and most powerful insights, to stimulate your creativity, and to facilitate your team to find and implement your own solutions…solutions the team is truly enthusiastic about.

The secret sauce is the fact that the person is an outsider who’s also skilled at involving your team. The payback from that kind of help is huge and long-lasting.

John@LamyConsulting.com

541-778-2252