Find. Build. Sell.

CHAPTER 7Build your resilience

There is no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it.

Ovid

At some point in your business journey, you'll need to have conversations you don't want to have. ‘Speaking the unspoken' is what I call it. These unpleasant little chats are also called ‘tough conversations'. They're just part and parcel of being a business owner. Whether you're leading a two-person operation or a team of hundreds, a time will come when you need to hold people to account.

I had to have a tough conversation with Terry, a trusted staff member of 15 years' standing, about the theft of a significant amount of money. He had not been discreet in the way he took the money so it was easy to detect, and our systems were so robust that it didn't take long for the anomaly to show up. He was probably wanting to be found out. Sarah, one of my administrative team staff, noticed the money being moved around and told me. That, in itself, was a brave move on Sarah's part, as she knew Terry was a long-standing member of my team and that it would be a tough conversation for her to have with me.

I dreaded having the conversation with Terry, but it needed to be had urgently. As always, I prepared extensively for the meeting using — ironically, considering the subject matter — my LOAN process. I called him in, sat him down, told him what we had suspected and then gave him time to explain himself. I listened, observed, asked questions, made notes and, having given him ...