My wonderful coach, Roger Dewitt pressed me the other day. Now that my business is working and the divisions of the company are growing, I have realized that I need to control less. The insanity of getting the business off the ground has lessened and I found myself actually feeling a bit depressed, a bit unnecessary at times even. I had thrived so long on spinning so many plates and now we have plates spinning left and right that do not require my attention. So where do I fit in?

That was the subject of my conversation with Roger. And what he asked me to was to dream again. To dream of what I wanted, not just for my business, but for my life. 1) what do I want for my company? 2) What do I want for myself as the president of the company? 3) What do I want for myself as a person?

Building a successful business is about taking care of everyone else - clients, empoyees, vendors, freelancers, investors, etc. But what about the leader? I am feeling that this is a big jumping off point for me.  I have to find new inspiration and feeding my own needs and taking care of the individual that I am and what fills my “emotional well” will inevitably help the business to continue to grow and thrive. This has been on my mind quite a bit since I talked with Roger last Thursday and while focusing on myself is not easy and I can only do it for a short while each day before I start into my old habitual patterns, I think there is something profound here for me to find. I’m honoring the recommendation and though I have no idea where this will lead, keeping these questions alive feels good. I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Trina Roach has a great blog: Creating Tomorrow. I just love the name!

She has a particularly good post from June 7 on exit interviews.

This is an area where I find most leaders and managers struggle. They say that they just don’t want to hear the bad news. I always wonder if this is more about a leadership or personality trait…the employee leaves because they have been working for a difficult boss, and to hear anything negative is unnerving. Yet as Trina points out, the exit interview can provide you a gold mine of information.

If you are reading this blog post today, I challenge you to consider the last time when someone left your company. While your employee may have told you he/she was moving on for another career opportunity, what other reasons caused them to leave? What about your leadership style created the desire for talent to walk out the door?  And…how can you get to the root of the situation during an exit interview so that you grow as a leader?  It will take guts for you to hear it, but the risk is so worth the reward.

Check out Trina’s post today…great stuff!

Young consumers in the US wield considerable buying power. Among 13 to 21 year-olds alone, over $120 billion was spent in 2007, according to The Harris Poll.

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