Anu Sachar
My client, 40 years old , is a successful entrepreneur. He was visiting me for his Leadership Coaching Session. “I have it all - for which I am so grateful. My business is blessed with great loyal clients, who have been with us since the past 5 years..business has grown exponentially due to our premium products. My wife is my business partner with astute aesthetic sense. Our hand-made chocolates, cakes and cookies stand out with her creativity and unusual designs.“
“Lately, am kind of blank..you know unable to think clearly. We received a massive order from one of our reputed clients last week. Usually, we celebrate as a team whenever an order of such magnitude is received. This time I had a surreal feeling..as though floating above it all..forgot to celebrate..my wife brought it to my attention..am sure my team noticed it too..its kind of rattled me…am here to bring focus back on my business and myself”
“What else has been surreal lately?”
“The production area of our factory..where all our products are manufactured..seems so surreal”
“How does surreal feel?”
“Am kind of blank..feels strange like I am floating above it all.”
“Floating above it all….what else are you seeing?”
“Wow, thats interesting..haven’t seen beyond floating till now as this rattled me so much..now when I visualise myself floating, I can see myself clearly above my factory.”
“How do you feel while floating?”
“Free…kind of..hmmm….surreal”
“Anything that you wish to do while floating above your factory?”
Closing his eyes, he stayed with his visual image and after a few minutes said “You know, its making sense somewhat..need to explore this more..I have been toying with the idea of expanding our products base - have more offerings. For this, I need to personally make time and focus on many aspects like new recipes, tasting, feedback , appropriate machines required, probably expand factory for which I need to step away mentally from my current role temporarily.”
“How long do you think your new project will take?”
“6 to 8 months of dedicated time. “Pausing, he took a deep breath and said “I understand where I am now….away from day to day work mentally..which is not such a great place to be actually. It’s hampering my productivity.”
“Productivity, in what way?”
“The overall output - the products manufactured vs my time and effort”
“What gets hampered?”
“I think my time and effort gets hampered”
“In the current state, can you draw up a chart with % spilt of time and effort across activities you focus on?”
He made the following chart representing daily activities -
Current State
Activity Time (%) Effort (%)
Factory Oversight 40 40
Client Interaction 30 30
Procuring Material 20 15
Website Update 10 15
“For your new project, what does this look like ?”
Reflecting for a few minutes, he created his projected chart -
New Product Development (next 6 to 8 months)
Activity Time (%) Effort (%)
Factory Oversight 50 50
Client Interaction 0 0
Procuring Material 30 30
Website Update 0 0
New Product Planning 20 20
“When you look at both charts, any Priority Areas coming up?”
He updated the chart and said “Procuring and Website are also very important, and, that’s what bothers me…how will I find time for all of this in addition to new products development?”
New Product Development (next 6 to 8 months)
Activity Time (%) Effort (%)
Factory Oversight 50 50
Client Interaction 30 30
New Product Planning 20 20
Procuring Material
Website Update
“Lets move forward by 8 months, you have had a very successful launch of new products…orders have been pouring in…what do you see yourself doing then?”
“Wow..this feels so good..if I focus on this from now on, I can make it happen…8 months hence, I see myself managing all new products personally…ensuring quality is superlative…interacting with my clients for on-time deliveries, packaging is managed by my wife..she is on the design team.. “
“Can you now tell which of these activities on your chart did you focus on for the successful launch?”
Surprised, he said “Well….the same top 3!” Reflecting on his response, he said “So intuitively, I have known this already…”
New Product Development (next 6 to 8 months)
Activity Time (%) Effort (%)
Factory Oversight 50 50
Client Interaction 30 30
New Product Planning 20 20
Procuring Material
Website Update
“Can you look back from the successful launch of these new products and see how the other 2 important activities were managed?”
“My wife took over the Procuring material totally.. she is in fact much better than me in dealing with vendors and assessing all raw material that we receive..”
“What has come in the way of making this happen?”
He smiled “Me! Didn’t really think about it in detail…from where I am today, new products seemed daunting”
“So can you now think about what will really make it happen and address the gaps if any?”
Taking a deep long breath, he said “I now understand the gap between my desire and actually the goal…have been in the state of desiring without thinking through like we have now..it also comes from my need to oversee everything myself…which I want to address in our next session”
“Before we wind up our session today , can you please revisit the last chart and see if there is anything else for closure?”
“Indeed..the website update..thank you fo brings this up…again I am not thinking this through..I will be aware from now on…have a very bright young man who can take this over totally…my wife can oversee and provide him ideas, which I know he will develop independently..he is brilliant.”
“As I think again, which I am now in detail”, he smiled “ in the 8 months forward, I also saw my Factory Manager take over at least 10% of my Factory Oversight responsibilities…to be honest, in my mind, I am actually allocating his job to him without wanting to control that bit anymore..As I shared earlier, I need to work on my need for controlling / oversight in the next session, which will free me up for new product development..which now is 30% on time and effort.”
Updating his chart , he finalised it as
New Product Development (next 6 to 8 months)
Activity Time (%) Effort (%)
Factory Oversight 40 40
Client Interaction 30 30
New Product Planning 30 30
Procuring Material My wife
Website Update My team member
“What is the action plan for this week?”
“Beginning to allocate Procuring Material and Website Update to my Wife and Team Member and working on my next project ideas in detail.”
Let us check-in on your agenda for today "Bring focus back on my business and myself"
He smiled "Am back and how!"