In this week’s blog, read how A Big Bear Hug from Tony Robbins at Business Mastery Inspired My Family Business to Stay Focussed on Our Vision.
A few years ago I and my spouse preneur Douglas Pinnell attended Tony Robbins Business Mastery. We decided to go after some major disruption in our business left us looking for new inspiration and wisdom, and we knew that learning from Tony and meeting new entrepreneurs would help. So, off to Las Vegas we went for 5 action packed days. I said to Douglas on the flight there , “Let’s try and have an interaction with Tony”. So, the intention was set, and we were ready for an amazing experience.
On the first day Tony talked about core values in business and how we make decisions based on our values. He started by interacting with some attendees about our personal values, and , just as we hoped, selected Douglas. Tony asked Douglas about how the vehicle he drove at the time was a reflection of his personal values. Douglas shared the reason for his vehicle choice was to ensure he had a way to pull our daughter’s horse around to her riding competitions. In other words, it was a decision based on being a good Dad to our daughter. Another participant, who drove a very expensive vehicle, shared that he drove it because he wanted to show off his financial situation as a way to attract “the chicks”. Douglas shared that he has already attracted the love of his life, myself, and didn’t feel the need to buy an expensive car. In other words, family was a core value. This response elicited a big hug from Tony, and the applause of the business owners in the room. What an amazing introduction to such an important topic! It certainly gave us the boost we needed at the time to pursue our Vision. While we are both intrinsically motivated, having Tony and thousands of other entrepreneurs applaud us was great validation. We felt like stars!
In my experience, being clear on core personal values leads to clarity in business values. After all, our family businesses are often expressions of who we are as people. Having said that, do personal values and our business values need to be the same? Absolutely not. For example, in family business being mindful, or frugal, with financial resources is often the case, as this helps to create financial security for the next generation. But that does not mean that personally one should choose frugality as a personal value. I find that being too frugal in my personal values doesn’t serve me well; I would far rather buy a middle of the line appliance that will last me many years than the cheapest, which ends up in landfill a few years later.
In the insurance business, putting clients’ interests first was our most important core value. When Tony talked about the importance of creating raving fan clients, I realized that we had done really well in this area and that this came from clarity around this value. Of course, as an achiever, I felt that there was more work to be done in this area, which led to further discussion with our team and asking for their insights about how we could continue to raise the bar. They had some great ideas, and we asked for their help in implementing them. Some of their ideas were implemented, others fell off track, but at the end of the day we continued to make progress.
Creating a business around values continues to be one of the best pieces of wisdom I’ve received, and one I encourage my family business consulting clients to adopt as well. This is what will allow a business to stay on course towards the Vision, especially in a period of disruption.
Let me know if you’d like to connect and chat about core values in your family business.