Lets look at the impact of this statement, and we will all have heard the comment, “Do as I tell you” from our parents when we were kids. I am sure you – as well as me – would have latched on a bit more to this as we grew up, seeing our parents telling us to do something and yet they were not doing it themselves. On the other hand if you had parents who told you to do something and there was a good reason for it and you saw your parents doing it themselves, you had a great deal of respect for them as they were living their lives by doing what they were saying.
Now let’s fast forward to where we are today, maybe running a business or holding down a senior position in a company and how important this statement is. As leaders in business we have to pave the way, and we can only do it by doing what we will say we are going to do. Talk is very cheap and if you are telling your staff or colleagues to do something and yet you do not do it yourself, how long is it going to be before they never believe you again. We have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. To gain respect from anyone you have to follow the message of this article, “You are what you do, not what you say you will do”.
Every time I write an article, it is based on my business perspective having run businesses for 40 years or how I feel about the impact on businesses because of certain decisions. If we are business owners we have to make decisions for ourselves and for our families. We have to look after our mental health and our futures. I am 64, not now reliant on running a business for my income (thankfully) so can now look at things from the outside and can clearly see the knock on impact of recent government decisions.
Now I know some of you will totally agree with me on the next part of this article and others may not but I want to go through the impact of government decisions last night. Today is 9 December 2021 and we enter probably the busiest time of the year for so many businesses and it is literally make or break time for many. We have seen the government tell us for months to do something and yet they are not doing it themselves. So let’s look at the impact of some of last night’s briefing.
Work from home – I am not overall saying working from home is a bad thing, but I do believe it has made us very lazy and so many people looking for new jobs are not going to take one unless they can work from home a substantial part of the time. This has massive impact in so many ways. If you work from home, you are not building relationships with your work colleagues, you are not putting money into the economy in the area around where the business is located which has a knock on effect financially to all those businesses. Working from home can be a lonely place to be so it can also have an impact on your mental health. I think working from home needs to be a nice thing to do now and again but I certainly don’t think it should become the norm. I know of some companies who have already changed their employee contracts with the working from home as part of these contracts. Some of these businesses I believe are going to regret decisions based on a knee jerk reaction.
Impact on hospitality – over the last 21 months the impact on the hospitality industry has been massive and yet this has now been compounded at the busiest time of the year for so many hospitality businesses. If these businesses cease to survive then this will have a knock on effect to us as individuals as night clubs, sporting events and socialising with friends and family are a massive part of protecting our mental health. Without this, what will we become? I hate to think.
We have a responsibility to look after ourselves and our families, look after our mental health, look after the source of our income, and we need to make decisions that work for us and not based on decisions by people we longer trust or respect. I will do anything to protect my family and I am sure you would do the same.
The impact of decisions we make or others make on our behalf do not just have an impact for a few days or weeks but many years in some cases. So please be so careful of any decisions you make. You may not notice the impact of these for months or years
This article was first published on LinkedIn by Richard Knight on 09/12/2021