DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS!
A Better Business Decision
Decisions, decisions, decisions! They are continuous. How do you go about making them when developing and growing your business? Consciously or unconsciously?
Continually, you’re faced with making choices the results of which will have critical impact on many levels and across the entire scope of your business. For example, you might be making a decision about whether or not it will be worth the time and effort to expand your product line or start a new venture? Perhaps you’re wondering whom to hire, and whether the selection will end up helping or hurting the business? Or, should you expand or stay put for the time being? Maybe more personal questions are gnawing at you?! How can your time be arranged and managed more effectively, accomplishing what needs doing, still with relaxing and recreational time left? Or how can you build confidence and eliminate your anxiety and fear of failing? These and many other weighty questions, the answers to which, and the quality of those answers, are essential – maybe even monumental!
Most business people examine facts and opt for what seems best in light of seemingly available information. Though hitting the bulls-eye is where you aim, sometimes important decisions end up being made by default and you miss the mark!
Risks are too high to bet on best results by shooting from the hip or making decisions by relying solely on knowledge from past experience or through an analytical or psychological process. These common routes do have merit but aren’t enough to produce the finest outcomes. A hidden asset exists in your business that when untapped is unsurpassed for making necessary and critical, as well as day-to-day decisions!
But before I tell you about this asset and the way for finding it, there’s more to consider. Information is a key. Information you have about situations when trying to make decisions is limited by your perceptions, beliefs and personal inclinations. Accessing information from beyond what you currently “know” improves your ability to make the most advantageous choices. To help people who run a business and for people who help people run a business choose which path to pursue for achieving uncommon breakthroughs and impressive success, there is an ingenious ancient practice that when applied to modern business accesses a deeper, hidden level of information just waiting to be tapped for providing you with information, guidance and direction not otherwise available.
This asset, and finding the way to it, offers you nothing short of an “unfair market advantage” or “unique competitive advantage.” I like calling it a “fair market advantage” because every modern business person has the right to know about and experience this multi-millennial way of operating. This hidden asset, when tapped, has proven to bring success for everything from discovering your wildest dreams and purposes for your business to solutions for everyday business challenges, and for strategizing, planning, staffing, implementation and evaluation. Team building, mediation, and mergers also yield positive results when applying this way at the heart of your operations. Once tapped, this hidden asset can even bring beneficial personal improvements and direction, thereby eliminating a common dilemma in the workplace – personal limitations negatively effecting business success.
So what is this unsurpassed way, this fair market advantage? It is sometimes called “the shamanistic way” and often called “corporate shamanism.” This is an ancient way found in every culture on every continent in the world. It is an ancient spiritual way that proves to be extremely useful in this day and age. It is a way of seeing, hearing, feeling, knowing, understanding and experiencing hidden or unseen spiritual aspects beyond what is obvious in the everyday experience and by your ordinary eye. It specializes in the healing of soul and is a way of perceiving the spiritual nature of everything in the universe – including your business.
Since your business is filled with spirit, and since the shamanistic way or corporate shamanism addresses the spiritual aspects of business development and expansion, including transforming obstacles and limitations, it follows then that when businesses are struggling or wanting to grow, corporate shamanism is the way to go. Your business is not just a business, but an entity made up of people, spirit and soul connected to all of life.
One goal of the shamanistic way is to reunite your business with its lost spiritual power. When there is a disconnect between your business and its spirit the results can include cash flow problems, low staff morale and productivity, burn-out, inefficiency, blocked creativity, trouble meeting goals and deadlines, decrease in sales, general misfortune and many other problems. From the perspective of the shamanistic way, these circumstances are considered to be the result from lost spiritual power. The spiritual power of your business often reveals itself in forms you are familiar with from nature, such as animals, trees, amphibians, mountains, etc. Examples of this spiritual power showing itself in these forms is prevalent as mascots whose qualities and characteristics or geographic identity are desirable for sports teams and cinema studios. Everyone understands the meaning of the lion who roars at the opening of a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film, or the mountain at the center of Paramount Pictures’ logo. San Francisco Giants or the Baltimore Orioles leave no doubt about their intention. And when we think of Merrill Lynch, what comes to mind is the bull. Starbucks’ certainly understands this spiritual power to be its partner. Its mascot is a twin-tailed mermaid, Melusine, an alchemical figure of European legends and folklore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.
Here is one example of what can occur when applying the shamanistic way: The owner of an accounting firm contacted me to connect her business with its power animal spirit to help her make a decision about a potential new employee. The candidate tested positive in the psychological evaluations administered to him, meaning he scored particularly high in loyalty, which was a top value in her business. The owner wanted to hire him but something was bothering her and she couldn’t put her finger on it. To help her make the choice, I used the shamanistic way and inquired what her business might encounter if he was hired? The information I received was this: yes, the person was in fact extremely loyal, as the test had indicated—but his loyalty was not to work. It was to his family, and therefore his work responsibilities would go unattended because he would be absent too often. I relayed this information to the business owner. When further exploring references given by this potential hire, my client learned that his absenteeism was excessive and those companies would not rehire him. I’m sure you can imagine her decision?
On another occasion, I was called to Arizona to facilitate a meeting aimed at the merger between an IT business and a research and evaluation consulting firm. I taught the potential partners the primary method in the shamanistic way called “journeying” so they could find for themselves the spirit animals for their businesses. While sharing information from their journeying, it became evident to both of them that their personalities were not suited to a partnership. They were so grateful not to have spent a lot of time and money only to later make the discovery, when it would have been too late, that they weren’t a good business match, a match which likely would have resulted in a painful and failed venture. During our debriefing at the end of our meeting, one of the owners said that I saved her a quarter of a million dollars!
Some additional sample questions you might ask when using the shamanistic way are:
1. Who is the power ally or mascot of my business?
2. Where should I locate my business?
3. Which products and services will bring the most success for my business?
4. What changes do I need to make in my business to increase revenue?
5. What simple practices can my staff use to fortify their energy and focus?
6. What are the next three steps to take to realize a successful third quarter?
As you might imagine, there are many more. Unlimited number, actually!
Although the shamanistic way may appear extraordinary, the truth is that everyone has the inborn ability to untap the hidden spiritual assets in their business – and everyone does include you. You carry knowledge, gifts and talents from your ancestors. If ever you research your ancestry you will discover that they lived the shamanistic way. You are capable of learning this way and becoming part of a revolutionary change for the way business is conducted!