Power of Community

How do you define "community"? Is it the houses or apartments in your neighborhood? Is it the people in your neighborhood? Is it the people who support you personally and professionally? Is it "yes" to all of these?

I'm writing about the later in this article – the people who support you personally and professionally. These are folks with whom you can collaborate to help you make your ideas reality and who can support you when you need support emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. You may have two separate support systems – personal and professional. Some of the ways in which you experience your professional community supporting you and your ideas include networking, meeting colleagues for breakfast/lunch, happy hour events, 1-on-1 or small-group masterminds, actual coaching, joint ventures by project or as businesses, co-facilitating events or co-authoring books and products, and many more. If you are in business for yourself and consider yourself a solopreneur, you still need not work alone at all times.

I love my office which is based in my home. I like my neighborhood where I can leave my office in the middle of the day and take a walk with my dog around the neighborhood. I meet people who are retired or stay-at-home parents homeschooling their children and appreciate the community where "everybody knows your (dog's) name". Yet I miss the corporate environment only in that I used to walk down the hallway, pop into a colleague's cubicle, and run an idea past him. Or several of us spontaneously gathered in a communal area with a whiteboard and developed strategies for implementing an idea. To make up for such collaboration and to be around a supportive professional community, I joined a shared office plan and dedicate my Fridays to spending time there. I also schedule 1-on-1 time with trusted colleagues for lunch and masterminding. I hold space for my own clients – and potential clients – for such collaboration and learning by scheduling Idea Labs and forming Idea Success Teams. (Contact me about scheduling something for you!)

March is International Ideas Month. Check out Chase's Calendar of Events online or at your local library (yes…it's an actual reference book at the library, too) if you don't believe me. I ought to know, however, because I created the month! Everyone has ideas. For some, the challenge is too many. We need to be encouraged &  motivated; to build skills; to communicate our ideas for consideration; to be in action and accountable to implement them. This month is dedicated to our ideas – large, small, great, forgettable, past, current and ideas yet to come. Without constant new ideas, progress and people stagnate. Make an IMPACT(c) with your ideas!

DOWNLOAD the brochure for International Ideas Month HERE. Try the "Make a Perspective Pyramid(c)" activity on the inside of the card to look at your ideas from different perspectives. Make time with someone in your support community to work with the Perspective Pyramid(c). You'll be pleasantly surprised at the ways in which the power of community helps you see your ideas in ways you might not expect. Employ the power of community to help you position your ideas for profit.