Is People Pleasing Ruining Your Business?
One of the quickest ways to lose yourself in your business? Try to become everything to everyone, set zero boundaries, and try to make sure that EVERYONE is happy with you at all times.
People pleasing will ruin your business, and in this episode, we’re going to get into strategies to stop doing it, make peace with your decisions, and learn to lead and lean in.
I’ve been a chronic people pleaser for all of my life, and I can tell you, this has never led me to where I want to go. I’m on a mission to redirect my people pleasing tendencies, and want to take you along with me.
Why do I think this matters so much?
It takes courage to be who you are, and to bring what YOU believe matters to the world.
It also takes courage to really hear other people, absorb their feedback, and utilize it productively. You can’t do that if you’re in people pleasing mode.
The more I deconstruct what people pleasing really is, I find that at its core, it’s a desire to make myself smaller. To absolve myself of the responsibility of control over my own outcomes. By people pleasing, I can put that ownership to someone else. Or, at least, for a tiny moment, it feels like I can.
But here’s the problem: At my core, I don’t want to make myself smaller. In fact, I made myself a personal promise about a decade ago that I would stop doing that. Even there are so many parts of me that still struggle, I’m committed to the journey of showing up authentically and wholly.
I belive that if it’s wholehearted, it can’t lose. Not really, not in the end. Not if you are absolved in your actions, open to others, and still showing up.
So how do we unroot people pleasing tendencies from ourselves as we navigate our businesses?
This is the real hot take today: people pleasing will absolutely ruin your business.
It might be slow at first, but over time, your desire to make everyone happy will undercut your ability to lead. We must be able to have the hard conversations. We must be able to make the hard calls. We must be willing to disappoint, be misunderstood, and even be disliked at times, for the sake of what we want to build.
As leaders in our businesses, we must be willing to take risks. At its core, people pleasing is an aversion to risk.
I deeply believe that all great things are born from someone that showed up as their authentic self with a willingness to risk.
Your takeaway practice from today’s episode is to consider these questions: Where am I making decisions out of people pleasing? Where am I letting fear hold me back?
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Michelle Kline is the founder of DogCo Launch, and the host of the DogCo Secrets Podcast. Michelle spends her time helping pet care companies in the industry grow and scale their teams, increase their revenue, and increase personal profits - all while protecting their time. Learn more about Michelle here.
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