Today marks the 37th day of quarantine. We are into our fifth week and I have prepared at least 65 meals for my family, made countless coffee cakes and baked what feels like hundreds of cookies. At day 37, the recipes are starting to repeat themselves and my kitchen cabinet is pushing the same ideas.
Yes, I’ve got kitchen cabinets on my mind – and so should you.
When businesses cycle, the thing to do is identify what we can control and put our efforts and energies into managing that. At times though, we don’t have the knowledge or experience to activate, so we seek outside advice or council. We consult our Kitchen Cabinet – our group of unofficial advisors that keep us in check.
After a tumultuous month, it is time to change course. We all have a better understanding of what’s to come and it is time for us to look to the future and start thinking about how to grow again. For many leaders, this is their first downturn, their first set of mass layoffs, the first time they are making strategic choices when headwinds feel at their strongest. But this is not my first downturn and I know the headwinds can get worse. This will be the third downturn in my career. First the dot-com bust when I was only a few years into my first management role, then in 2008 when I was hired to take a Series A company to market and now as an entrepreneur building my own company. Headwinds are part of business cycles. They may be taking a different shape or form this time, but headwinds have never been the same. They always seem to manifest themselves in unfamiliar ways.
This is where your Kitchen Cabinet comes in. Your Kitchen Cabinet is part of the infrastructure needed to build. They are the people that have the wisdom and experience to coach you as you and your business evolve. They care about you and they care about your success. Who are your closest advisors? Do they all have a growth mindset? Have they been through a serious downturn? Are they rational, supportive and forward thinking? Do they kick you hard when you need it? Do they make you look in the mirror and tell you that you are wrong? If they don’t do this and more, it is time to restock.
The people in your Kitchen Cabinet are allowed to change. You get to invite them in and you get to decide when they go. Your business is always going to morph and so should the people you surround yourself with. Some will stay steady with you throughout your career and some were meant only for a moment in time. The recognition of this evolution, and the wisdom to make change, is what matters most.
A new day, a new chapter, a new recipe for growth, needs a new Kitchen Cabinet.
