Ludmila is 28 years old, has a master`s degree from Oxford University and started her own consulting company 2 years ago. She now has 4 employees. Her company started off very well, but business has slowed with COVID-19. Recently, she received an offer to join EY-Parthenon, one of the top players in the industry. Excellent salary, good title on the business card, nice office in a glass tower.
Her question: Should I stay (and try to continue growing my company) or should I go (and join an established, thriving organization)?
Ludmila was not able to decide. On the one hand, she could have prestige, reputation and be on the fast track to success. On the other hand, she could continue working on something that was her own, something she could pour her heart and soul into growing.
As a head hunter, my job is to guide candidates in making their best decision. A decision is not immediate. Bernard Bougon and Laurent Falque, consultants at L`Institut de Discernement Profesionnel (IDP) have identified several steps on how to make a “Decision by Discernment”.
Step 1: Express your reason of being.
Some questions to help express your reason of being include:
- What is an example of something you achieved naturally and did not require a lot of efforts?
- What was the benefit for the people around you?
- What did people feel?
- Why did you do it?
- What does it brings to the society?
- What is your talent?
The reason of being is something far away on the horizon, you can see it and you can move toward it, but you will never 100% be able to reach it. Ideally the reason of being should be 1 talent, 1 active verb and no words like “and,” “or,” etc.
Ludmila expressed after an hour of coaching: Support people by connecting with them to help them make decisions for a better quality of life.
Step 2: Define the real question.
Understanding what is at stake helps the person to define the real question.
Ludmila had made a commitment to her team. So, when her company entered into a difficult financial situation, she was no longer able to travel abroad to visit her friends, dressed in the latest Chanel Haute Couture collection, because she had financial obligations. The challenge Ludmila faced was whether she should chase a short-term financial gain or make some personal sacrifices now and hope for a future pay-off.
Ludmila`s question was: Should I stick to my start-up or not?
We are here in front of a dilemma: the question can be answered by „yes“ or „no“, “shall I do or not”. The question “Shall I” invites the person to take a step back and not to have an impulsive / immediate answer and to say immediately “yes” or “no”.
Step 3: Identify “attractors” to get to a position of inner peace.
Being able to identify attractors makes them less powerful and the person can be in a better position of “free will.”
Attractors identified:
- Ego: if she leaves the start-up it will make her feel that she failed.
- Material comfort: if I take the job I will be able to live comfortably.
- Emotional investment: I invested a lot in the business.
- Stability: if I take the job things will be more certain.
- She felt disloyal leaving partners and customers behind.
- Family thinks she was crasy to be entrepreneur instead of having a stable life.
- Not giving gifts to the staff at home because of low income was hurting her the most.
Step 4: Ask the question according to your reason of being.
According to my reason of being (Support people by connecting with them to help them make decisions for a better quality of life), Should I stick to my start-up?
|
| Inconvenients |
| Advantages |
| 1 | Less passion | 4 | Immediate financial comfort |
| 2 | Good money but not high return on investment on a long term. | 5 | More stability and certainty |
| 3 | Less flexibility (corporate hours) |
|
|
According to my reason of being (Support people by connecting with them to help them make decisions for a better quality of life), should I NOT stick to my start-up?
|
| Inconvenients |
| Advantages |
| 6 | Dealing with instability at work | 8 | Being an innovator and creative * |
| 7 | Financial unstability | 9 | Thrill of being an entrepreneur * |
|
|
| 10 | If she did right she can go big |
Compare the weight of: 1-2-3-8-9-10 and 4-5-6-7
*Ludmila gave a lot of weight and importance to her faith and passion. Money is also very important to her, but she knew that if she puts a lot of energy into her company, it will return more in 3-5 years.
Step 5: Validation, confirmation of the choice.
For Ludmila, the validation was internal.
- Her close friends know that remaining in her business is what she wanted to do.
- A friend rented an office and got a free membership: so Ludmila had a free office!
- While Ludmila was sitting in the office, a guy in the corner heard Ludmila mentioning that her company is turning 2 year old so he came to Ludmila and offered to develop a high-quality website for free.
- A colleague of Ludmila joining as partner decided to financially contribute and so the company healthy for a few months.
Ludmila mentioned: “Everything is suddenly working out for me.”
Step 6: Decision and application.
The decision is the implementation of the choice. This implementation leads most of the time to an act of informing those around. The decision-maker will communicate what he considers important or useful to say about the reasons for his decision, that is to say one or two main reasons which motivated his choice. Then, with regard to its purpose, to remain faithful to its choice, faithful or consistent, it will ask itself what will be the best practical ways of implementing it.
Ludmila communicated her decision to the organization who had made her the job offer that she preferred to continue working on her own company. To her surprise, the company came back to her with a suggestion to collaborate and work on business together. This created mutual benefit for everyone because it gave Ludmila the opportunity to continue to create and innovate, while being able to reap the benefits of working in a large company.
When you create something, you bring something new to the world. With her business, Ludmila creates something.