As the financial year draws to a close, I took time out to reflect on my conversations with business owners over the past twelve months. The conversations ranged from the dangers of chasing perfect plans, to the power of networking with curiosity, to understanding when to persevere, to dealing with the impostor syndrome, to recognizing that sustainable growth comes from authentic relationship-building and many more.

As I reflected on these conversations what struck was that while fundamentally each of the conversations was about challenges and setbacks, the business owners involved showed a remarkable resilience and adaptation in dealing with them, which they themselves often did not recognize.

In the context of the start of a new financial year, the temptation for business owners is to rush straight into setting goals for the coming year.  However, I challenge business owners to pause and first reflect on the challenges and setbacks they faced in the past year and to celebrate how they successfully dealt with them.  I am not talking about the obvious wins such as hitting revenue and profitability targets or the growth in the client base.  I am talking about the less visible but more valuable growth.

These less visible changes will come from asking questions such as: How many times did that “perfect plan” meet unexpected reality, and yet the business still went forward anyway? When did relationships, rather than strategies, provide the needed breakthrough? How often were decisions made with incomplete information and still the business moved forward?

In my view the answers to these questions are not stories about survival. They are stories about how business owners built on their resilience, skills, and capabilities.  These are the achievements to be acknowledged and celebrated.

When business owners start thinking about the year ahead, the obvious question they will be asking themselves is “What do I want to achieve in the coming year?”.  Instead, I encourage business owners to start the planning process with this question “Given what I learned about my ability to navigate challenges and setbacks, what becomes possible in the coming year?”

Business owners should see the challenges and setbacks faced in the past year not as obstacles to growth but as the mechanism to help them grow personally.  As the business owner grows personally, they will be better equipped to contribute to the growth of the business. The development of resilience, adaptability, and relationship-building skills are the basis for real competitive advantages going into next year.