Lessons for leaders and sales people for coping with abundance in your business. How to deal with abundance.
We have been so successful growing lettuces this year that we already have a bountiful harvest. We have lettuces in such abundance that we have been giving them away to friends, family and neighbours whilst also thinking of all the different salad options we can.
I sowed another batch of seeds a month after the first and we are planting them out in gaps that are created when we pick the others.
Last weekend I sowed a third batch so that we have more for later in the summer. Chris said, “Why do you need to sow more when we don’t have room for them?
A good question!
Knowing how to deal with abundance is a nice problem to have and, like with lettuces, we are often unsure as to how long this abundance will last.
In a lot of my work helping professionals to be more effective with their business development, often the fear of having too much work – of abundance, holds them back from doing as much business development work than they could.
Is the fear of having too much familiar to you – perhaps as a leader or in the sales arena?
Some of the lessons from my gardening success that I have been reflecting on are:
- Sowing little and often
- Having a back up plan for when we are more successful than planned?
- Deciding not to nurture all the lettuces and discard some of them earlier in the process.
- Adjusting the approach as I go along
- Not becoming complacent and remembering when we are busy now to still plan for when we are not so busy
- As a leader not starting lots of projects at the same time. Staggering them and being realistic.
- In sales, constantly topping up my pipeline even when I am busy later on in the sales cycle
What lessons can you take from this and what experience can you share?