What were you like in your early teens? And if I asked your parents what you were like when you were a teenager, what do you think they’d say? We’ve met some fascinating teams recently, and one in particular is really impressive in a very different way. They’re looking after an exceptional business. And just recently, they’ve done something exciting that many businesses miss until it’s too late. They’ve realised their business is growing up. What’s different is that they’ve decided to replace growing pains with growing panes.
Instead of focusing on what’s not right, this business is excitedly staring through windows at its own people. And what they see is something beautiful growing. As they look through the panes, they recognise pure, limitless potential. And they’re excited about making this ‘potential’ actually happen.
Think back for a moment. Remember that time when your toys or dolls were starting to become, well, a bit embarrassing when your ‘mates’ came round? And what about that first time you went to buy your own clothes … with your own money… remember how that felt? And then, in the following years, do you remember how your moods changed as you reached adulthood? Facial hair, make-up, music, posters… being cool? The good news is that you’ve made it. You’re here now.
But what advice should we give a young person starting to go through this? And what if it weren’t a young person at all? What if it were a business going through an exciting kind of adolescence?
The business we’re talking about is a brand all of us will know. They have a delicious offering and there’s no-one on the high street who creates quite the same in-store experience. And when you meet the people running their business, they’re even more unique. This business has grown quickly and its successes have been achieved wholly, exclusively by the devotion and heart of the people they’re proud to employ.
This business is about love. There’s love in everything they do and sell. But it’s more than that. It’s one of those businesses where in the lift, you feel something. It’s unique and so fertile. You smile as you realise that their people are enjoying chatting to colleagues they don’t know. When rather than politics or ego, they’re genuinely ignited by the conversations they create and the connections they make inside the building. They’re buzzing. And they’re interested in each other. As you walk around the floors, people are smiling as they talk to each other. Though they don’t know you, they smile. Every time. And each person you walk past says hello. This business is about love.
And all this has made them so successful that they’re now getting bigger, bigger and bigger – expanding around the world with an excitement that’s so rare for businesses at the moment. They deserve every penny of their successes in the years ahead.
But what happens when we start getting bigger? On the one hand, those lovely ‘uniques’ that got us this far are a key part of who we are, so let’s not lose them. But on the other hand, as we get bigger, we need to learn to behave a little differently. As we change in size, people start treating us differently too, and we need to handle challenges in a new way.
So I’ll end this with a few brief questions:
- What if, instead of telling you to ‘change’, your employer recognised how brilliant you’re going to become?
- What if you then tasted the exciting potential of what only you can be?
- What if change weren’t about ‘not being good enough’, but about excitement, recognition, growth, adventure and “hell yeah!”?
- What if people started to feel a new confidence that makes them just go for it?
- What if change meant we could be who we are, just in a bigger, exciting, completely natural new way?
- What if you could replace any possible fear of change with an ignited, inspired appetite for the unknown?
- What if you began to ooze an instinctive desire to do things differently and better in each moment simply by wanting to have a go?
- What if change felt less like letting go of yesterday and more about getting to bed early so that the exciting tomorrow comes that bit quicker?
- What if being a bigger you felt simply incredible?
These questions were asked by the team we love. They’re looking through the panes at their colleagues. And they see the excitement of the future. Not growing pains, just brimming potential. Inside that business, things are about to change. In a big way. And it’s a kind of change no-one will ever want to change. No matter what changes.
Up for a bit of shopping?
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