What having Covid taught me about EQ and running a small business
A lot has happened since last I blogged; namely I got Covid and it turns out that it really does knock you off your feet (who would have guessed???).
Whilst I do love to channel the inner introvert in me to be a fan of “alone time”; I have to say that having Covid and trying to run a small business is not really the best of combinations.
I was incredibly fortunate to be able to rejig all my client workshops and training sessions to deliver them remotely. That said, my head was constantly pounding as though Lego people were inside trying to get out, my throat felt like I’d cleaned it with steel wool, my voice was incredibly croaky (some said it had a delightful huskiness to it )and my nose was like a red tap that couldn’t be turned off.
I can only imagine what the participants on the other side of Teams and Zoom must have thought when they saw me!
All in all, it wasn’t a good look and I found myself having to take considerably more downtime (I haven’t napped so much in years). In fact, the only way I could make it work was by letting my usual business development activities fall off a cliff.
Yep — I went cold turkey on blogging, vlogging, podcasts, voice notes, following up leads, the lot. It wasn’t ideal but certainly it was the right thing to do; a bit of short time pain for a long time gain.
As the main/only business development individual in Shiageto Consulting (the rest of the team focus on delivery), for 10 days the winning of new work effectively ground to a juddering halt. Now that I’m back on my feet and looking at the pipeline of future work, I can certainly see the impact those 10 days had particularly coming not long after my holiday and time off for Easter.
In some ways, it does give me a buzz to get back into the business development arena to make up for lost time. Realistically though, I don’t intend to catch up on all the backlog of missed opportunities in one week (that would just be crazy) and one of my key takeaways from Covid is that I should be looking to get a Business Partner to share the load sooner rather than later.
Covid also brought up a lot of great EQ observations
One of the fascinating things about Covid is how others react to your news about having caught it. Sure, everyone is sympathetic but what I found fascinating was discovering their true feelings when they thought about the impact it had on themselves.
Just after I found out that I had tested positive for Covid, I decided to contact all the people I had been in contact with the 2 days prior to tell them that they might want to test.
Some were nonchalant, others were super worried; some blamed me, some said that’s ok; in the case of one friend he was worried about it but he had a very important meeting the next day so decided not to test until after he had attended that so that he didn’t have to face the moral dilemma of if he had tested positive.
Just as I was reaching the end of my illness, I was due to attend a big celebratory lunch (something that had been booked in months before). On the morning of the gathering, I decided to test myself to make sure I was all clear. I actually did 2 tests as the first one returned positive but the second one came out negative (the day before my test had been negative so it was all very confusing).
Being the conscientious person that I am, I decided to inform everyone due to be at the lunch on a communal WhatsApp group. The reactions were fascinating:
- One individual was a complete sceptic and just wanted the lunch to be full of people “The tests are all wrong, you shouldn’t be testing so much. Just come!”, they told me
- Another took a very fact based approach: “The official government advice is that you only need to isolate for 5 days, everyone at the gathering has been vaccinated so I’m fine with it as long as others are comfortable”
- Then we had the more cautious: “I haven’t had it so would prefer if you didn’t come”
- And finally we had the uninterested/sit on the fence: “I don’t care, it’s up to you”
Pretty much all the views of the different people at the lunch fitted into one of those above so it was a really interesting mix and made for quite a lot of debate back on forth as to whether I should attend.
The reason I say that those response are EQ observations is because at the heart of EQ is understanding the impact you have on others and flexing to meet their needs (the good old Platinum Rule). What each person revealed in that WhatsApp conversation was there WIFMs and WAMIs (What’s In It For Me’s and What’s Against My Interests)
It’s a similar way to how we work with businesses at Shiageto Consulting, for us to help groups buy into the same ideas (be it new strategies, new processes, or just better teaming), we always get to know the individuals first and then tailor how we communicate those ideas to make sure they land in the best possible way — it’s all about flexing our style to accommodate as required.
So, what was the end result with such a disparate range of views?
Well, you’ll be happy to know that I still went to the lunch but we had it outside to limit the chance that I might still be contagious. In addition, I made sure to particularly sit as far away as possible from the most cautious people.
At the end of the day we had a fantastic get together so everything really does have a solution.
As for me, I’m now feeling like a million dollars/pounds/euros* and back out the business development trail (so watch this space).
*Other currencies are also available
Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness.
Success = IQ x EQ x FQ
