Creating a Sense of Urgency in Business Transitions with Elizabeth Ledoux

Episode Description:

In this episode, Elizabeth explores the importance of creating a sense of urgency in business transitions. She discusses the mindset shifts necessary for a successful succession and shares insights on overcoming common roadblocks like commitment phobia. She also emphasizes the value of envisioning a long-term future and offers strategies for guiding your business and yourself into the next chapter. Tap or click the play button below to listen to Creating a Sense of Urgency in Business Transitions with Elizabeth Ledoux.

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Join Elizabeth on a monthly 50-minute online forum, “Collective Conversations”: https://transitionstrategists.co/collective-conversations

Chapters in this episode:

02:30 – Importance of Commitment in Business Transitions
07:14 – Exploring Commitment Phobia
12:42 – Shifting from Scarcity to Abundance Mindset
16:43 – Catalysts for Business Transition Decisions
20:11 – Invitation to Collective Conversations, by Elizabeth and the Transition Strategists
21:38 – Closing Thoughts on Urgency and Vision

Connect with Elizabeth Ledoux and the Transition Strategists:

Website: https://transitionstrategists.com/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetransitionstrategists 
Elizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethledoux/ 
Transition Strategists on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/transitionstrategists/ 
Transition Strategists on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@transitionstrategists

Subscribe to “The Business Transition Roadmap with Elizabeth Ledoux” on your favorite podcast player: 
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3MxSYA2 
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3IhMMux 
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/BTR-Google-Podcasts 

Get Elizabeth Ledoux and Laura Chiesman latest book, “It’s A Journey: The MUST-HAVE Roadmap to Successful Succession Planning”: https://amzn.to/3oq2LQv 

This episode was produced by Story On Media & Marketing: https://www.successwithstories.com.

Creating a Sense of Urgency in Business Transitions with Elizabeth Ledoux Transcript

(0:02 – 0:54)

I think a commitment is important. I also think as an entrepreneur you’re able to shift and change what your commitment is over time. As long as you’re moving towards that goal, towards the end of the game and towards winning whatever that game is, sometimes your commitment has to change. 

You either have to dive deeper because things aren’t working, you make a greater commitment, or you realize that you’re on the wrong path and you shift your commitment to get you, the company, the people to where you’d like them to be. Welcome to the Business Transition Roadmap. My name is Elizabeth Ledoux and through my years I have seen how communities thrive when business succession and transition are done well.

(0:54 – 1:13)

Me and my team at the Transition Strategists have been helping business owners develop and implement transition strategies for over 30 years and on this show we want to help you by giving you the roadmap to a healthy business transition. Let’s get started. Hi everyone and welcome back to the Business Transition Roadmap.

(1:14 – 2:38)

Today I am going to be doing a solo episode with you and the focus of this episode is going to be on creating a sense of urgency. This has been a topic for quite some time and it’s interesting to me that people don’t have a sense of urgency to start to think about their business transition. They think of it at times, you know, just being so far away and we have so much time and I’ve got so much to do right now. 

I’ve got to keep building and growing the business. I’m enjoying it while having, of course, all the challenges that go with building a business. For an entrepreneur it’s the project, it’s the fun. 

It’s sometimes the fun of life is to figure these problems out, solve them, have the relationships and all the cool stuff around us. And so thinking about a transition is seems like a long ways away and I do liken it to the concept of a will. It’s hard to get people, I’ve spoken with many, many estate planning lawyers and it’s hard to get people to start to think about transitioning off the planet if you want to call it that.

(2:38 – 4:22)

How do we get our wills in place and how often do we put those off? The same thing happens with these transitions. We tend to put them off and think that we’ve got all the time in the world. So talking about a sense of urgency, I thought I’d touch on a couple of different things. 

When you think about a transition, it’s helpful to start to think in decades. So if you can imagine yourself a decade from today, a decade from today, where are you at? How old are you? What are you doing in your life? How are you spending that time? And are you doing it well? Are you doing it with intention and are you doing what you love? It’s something that as an entrepreneur and as an owner leader, you do have the choice to spend your time the way you want to. And you do have a choice but you also have responsibilities. 

So if you think of yourself a decade from today, what does life look like? What are you doing? How are you spending your time? And are you spending your time exactly the way you’re spending it today? I’m hoping that most of us would say no, because we love some change and new variety in our lives. And so I’m hoping that most of us would say, no, I’m not spending my time exactly the way I am today. And I’m not spending my weeks the way I’m spending them now.

(4:22 – 7:12)

Maybe my vision is to be traveling more. Maybe my vision is to be spending more time with my family. Maybe my vision is to be continuing to be healthy and strong. 

And that might take a little bit more time. And maybe the business has evolved. So I’ve created more opportunity for others. 

And my role has shifted. Maybe my role has shifted to being doing more of what I love and what my if you want to call it unique ability is thinking of Dan Sullivan and the strategic coach. When I did that training and did all of that work, we talked about that people are happier when they’re spending time in their area of unique ability. 

So maybe you’re doing that. And in order to get from here, where you are today, to a decade from now, and create that vision, there is a sense of urgency to it. You know, if you think about a football game, for instance, there are four quarters in a football game. 

And the goal is, you know, I mean, the team obviously wants to win one’s going to win and one’s going to lose. If you play the first quarter of the game poorly, and you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, then you do not put the odds in your favor of winning the game. Because you played that first quarter poorly. 

And so then you got to catch up in the second, third and fourth. If you play the first half poorly, or not knowing what you’re trying to accomplish, then you got to catch up in the last two quarters, etc. So what the goal is for this thinking, I guess, is to get yourself to have a longer term vision, with a longer runway, with more time to and more choices to be able to achieve that 10 year vision. 

Now, I just asked you think in decades, you can think in, you know, five years, six years, it doesn’t matter what the timeframe is. What matters is that you’re starting to envision what you’re doing in the future and how you can get there. Because if you want to keep the business healthy, and you want to move forward in your own world, or help others do that within the business, you can’t do it alone. 

You can’t just go, Oh, I’m going to go and, you know, choose to live my life like this. You actually need other people. And so other people are relying on you to guide the way.

(7:14 – 7:35)

So when I was thinking about this sense of urgency concept, and how we create sense of urgency, even to just get started, just start on the road. I think there’s a commitment phobia, I was reading a book called the creative act, a way of being. And it’s by Rick Rubin.

(7:35 – 8:27)

And I have been reading that book just over the last weeks. And it talks about commitment phobia. And it also focuses in on art. 

So commitment phobia on a piece of art. If you think about the business, your business as kind of a piece of art, then when is it ever? When is it finished? And the answer is that it may never be finished. If you want to leave a legacy for others, and you want others to move forward with the business, um, the business is going to continue to evolve, and you’re going to get it to a certain place where you call it finished, um, as much as you want to contribute and put into it.

(8:28 – 8:58)

And then someone else is going to take what you created and, and what you have, and they’re going to evolve it even further. So what’s the commitment? When we build a plan, in our minds, many people think of a plan as being a commitment. So we’re making a commitment on paper, an intention to do something.

(8:59 – 9:17)

I think a commitment is important. I also think as an entrepreneur, you’re able to shift and change what your commitment is over time. As long as you’re moving towards that goal, towards the end of the game and towards winning, whatever that game is.

(9:18 – 9:38)

Sometimes your commitment has to change. You either have to dive deeper because things aren’t working. You make a greater commitment, or you realize that you’re on the wrong path and you shift your commitment to get you, the company, the people to where you’d like them to be.

(9:39 – 12:42)

So I think sometimes there’s a commitment phobia when we talk about sense of urgency, because you’re not ready to commit to leaving and you’re not ready to commit to a timeframe. So we just avoid that. If we have an abundance mindset, so in the commitment, you are narrowing your focus. 

You’re saying, I’m going to try to go here. I’m going to try to win this game. I’m going to try to create the company like this. 

And there is a little bit of fear there because, you know, I’ve talked to so many owners and they’re like, well, what if we can’t make it happen? And what if it doesn’t work? And we can ask that as entrepreneurs every day, because we wake up every day and wonder how our day is going to be and whether or not the day is going to go well and what kind of troubles we’re going to run into and or challenges and how we’re going to navigate those. This is just a longer timeframe to be able to do that. If you have an abundance mindset, there isn’t really an end to the fun in life and to your engagement in life. 

I literally just got off a call with a gentleman whose son is taking over his business and he’s doing the son is doing a terrific job, just really hitting it out of the park. And the father said, I said, how long do you want to be in the business? And he said, until I’m no longer useful. And he is moving into an executive chairman role. 

And he’s excited about continuing to be the thinking strategist person. So instead of being the builder, right. And hanging on to being the builder, hanging on, hanging on, hanging on. 

So what he was able to do is to expand his mindset from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. And in a scarcity mindset, hanging on to being that builder, hanging on to wanting to stay in my place and stay in my role. And we all know that the world is changing around us. 

So even the idea of being able to keep stability and keep something the way it is, is virtually impossible to do. So in the scarcity mindset, the person hangs on and says, I’m afraid of the next chapter. I don’t know what the next chapter is. 

I don’t know what that looks like. And so I need to hang on. I need to, you know, keep this life the way that it is today, versus an abundance mindset says, there is more than enough opportunity for this business.

(12:42 – 14:07)

There are more than enough people out there who would love to work in these jobs, and who would love to do this. There are owners in the world that would, you know, entrepreneurs in the world that would love to own this business. There’s more opportunity out there. 

And by expanding our thinking and our mindset from a scarcity to an abundance mindset, we open up so many possibilities for ourselves, and for the business and for the people that we care for and love and serve. So every mindset that you have, has a universal rule. And it is that whatever you concentrate on, you’re probably going to get. 

So if you’re concentrating on trying to keep the business where it is today, you’re probably going to get that as best you can and things around you may change. But if you shift to this abundance mindset, where you’re looking out and you’re looking farther, in a very positive way, not a frightening way, where you’re worried and you’re afraid to have a sense of urgency, because your runway is getting shorter as you get older, you shift and you go, man, I can’t wait to look at this. And I like this quote from Rick Rubin.

(14:08 – 14:21)

Our life’s work is far greater than any individual container. The works are at most chapters. Our objective is to be free to close one chapter and move on to the next.

(14:22 – 16:40)

If you think about that, it’s so inspiring. It’s so enlightening to be able to think of this beautiful chapter that you’ve had with your company today. And your chapters probably not over with the company yet. 

And also be excited about exploring what’s the next chapter for you. And what also is the next chapter for your successors? What’s the next chapter for this business? How does it work? I think that helps you to create a little bit of a sense of urgency for you to explore what’s necessary today. How do you want this business to work and give yourself enough of a timeline that you can actually achieve what you want, that you can achieve what’s most important to you. 

Because the sad things that happen and all the stories that you hear out there are from people who did not have a sense of urgency, who did not take a first step. They waited and waited and waited and waited. And then all of a sudden, you know, something spurs the shift. 

It’s like you have to have this catalyst to get you going. I will tell you some of the catalysts are good and exciting. And some of catalysts are not so good and not so exciting. 

One of the catalysts is health and well being. So we’ve got health and well being. You get sick, you pass away, leaving the business unprepared completely, potentially for the next generation to take it on or your family to deal with it. 

Those are the horror stories. You know that I believe that the reason why the statistic is so high on businesses failing as they move into the next generation. I think a foundational reason for that is because the owners leave too soon. 

They leave too quickly and the people taking over the business as well as the business. They’re unprepared. They’re not ready.

(16:43 – 20:11)

So another catalyst, if you want to think about that, is a kid, a son or a daughter moving into the business where, gosh, stories, you know, they come out of college, they can’t find a job, they show up in the business. We obviously create an opportunity for them. And you know what? They start to shine. 

People like them. Employees are following them. And they’re really good at what they do. 

So 10 years later, fast forward, they’re still in the business. And it’s like, okay, I’ve got to do something. But what am I going to do? So that’s another catalyst that can happen. 

In addition, could be a partner, a partner that unexpectedly gets ill or a partner that just wants out. It could be you who wants out at this moment. And you know that you’ve been thinking a long time about how you were going to get out of the partnership or how you were going to leave the business. 

And now you’re really ready. And part of the catalyst is you turn 60. Could be an age. 

So we’ve got all of these different milestones or mile markers. Some that could be in our control, but most of them, if not all of them, are out of control. It’s part of the environment that’s happening. 

A kid coming in, a partner deciding that they want to do something different, illness that happens, things that go on around us that we normally have to react to. So the thought for you is that by having a roadmap, having some kind of a strategy, having a longer timeline, you create more choices. And what you’re able to do then is start to narrow what you might want to have happen. 

Start to really do a little bit of work yourself in what you want and what the next chapter for you might look like, but also what the next chapter of the business might look like so that you can leave people well and enjoy that. The recognition of abundance, it fills us with hope. And it fills us with hope that our work is the greatest work yet to come. 

We are not leaving behind a business and leaving behind our lives. What we’re doing is creating that next chapter and we’re creating our next greatest work with that abundance mindset. So I want to leave you with those thoughts of just how do you do that in your life? And how do you do that with your business when you’re immersed today in building and running it, when you’re not thinking about that? And when the number one thought I hear from people is, I’m not ready yet. 

I don’t know what I want. And what I want to say to them is that’s exactly why you should have a sense of urgency to just start. Just take a first step. 

Just start to explore because when you’re not focused on it, you probably are not going to get it. That’s the bottom line. I’d like to invite you to a new thing that we’re doing here at the Transition Strategists.

(20:11 – 21:38)

It’s called Collective Conversations. And I am so excited about it. We are going to be doing once a for 50 minutes, a drop-in for transitioners, entrepreneurs, successors to start to have conversations about transitioning. 

And it’s a place where people can bring their curiosity, they can bring their questions. The whole event will not have an agenda to it other than to discuss what is on the table and what people bring. I am going to be leading that and I’m excited to be doing it. 

So I would like to invite you to consider coming and you can check it out on our website. I think it’s going to be wonderful and a great learning opportunity for many, many people. So I want to wish you the best on your transition journey. 

And to again, think about a sense of urgency and look into the future. What’s a decade look like for you? Thank you for listening to this episode of the Business Transition Roadmap. If you are listening to this, and you find yourself wanting to go deeper into these topics and start the process of putting together your transition strategy, I’d love to offer you a free initial strategy session with my team, where we’ll help you to explore the future transition of your business.

(21:38 – 21:51)

Head over to www.transitionstrategists.com to schedule a call. Thank you again for listening and I’ll see you on the next episode of the Business Transition Roadmap.

SCHEDULE A COMPLIMENTARY CONSULTATION

The Business Transition Roadmap with Elizabeth Ledoux

How do communities thrive? When businesses experience healthy growth and transition. Join CEO of The Transition Strategists, Elizabeth Ledoux as she and her guests identify what makes a successful business transition roadmap. If you know you want to transition or exit your business “one day”, today is the right day to start planning. This show will give you the roadmap.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, you can check out other episodes here: Podcasts – The Transition Strategists

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