We’re going to make this a regular feature of the website. Every day, it seems, we’re getting emails from business owners who ask us “what should we do about this” or “what should we do about that?”
Today’s Perplexing Question came from an email received from Todd. Todd, I have your URL address, but I don’t have any other information, so I’m simply going to answer without knowing all the elements that might exist. I hope we’re close in helping you solve the problem.
Today’s Perplexing Question: What must you do as a business owner when you see the goal you must reach for a specific achievement, but haven’t a clue how to get there?
Great question. Let me make some assumptions.
What you’re referring to might be a sales goal, or a development opportunity; it might be a P&L objective, or one of those perplexing “people” items where you aren’t sure which person you should hire for a key growth position. This is one of those “I’m lost, I don’t know what to do, and I need another set of eyes or an alternative thinker” times in your business career. Everyone has them, even consultants!!
I’m reminded of my good friend Tom Lambert, who was known for years as “The Consultant’s Consultant.” Tom and I taught together online for several years, until his untimely death. Tom was “the master” of what I came to know as “reverse logic.” He would say to me, when I hit the same type of “wall” you’re hitting–“Back up, Guinn, and look at where you’ve been.”
Todd, you may be the most effective business owner, the most efficient manager, the most inspiring leader–but everyone has “those” moments. So first off, don’t beat yourself up about seeking answers and secondly, my hat is off to you for having the courage to reach out to solve your challenges. Moreover, thanks for trusting in our ability to help you find a solution.
What’s even more important, however, is to realize that the longer you’re in business, the more of these moments you’ll have!
It’s one of the truisms of business.
When we start our businesses, we assume that we know more than enough to be successful. But as we become more and more tenured in our business dealings, we realize that our growth, our successes, our profits…are principally a result of the fact that we learn new items everyday, and integrate those into our knowledge base.
When I first was promoted from Unit Manager to Area Manager in one of the first management jobs I had, I thought I knew everything there was to know about running a unit. After all, I’d managed the third most profitable unit in the entire company for over a year! Some months, I was actually Number 1 in unit level profitability. That must mean that I’m confident, capable, and fully successful in running the business. That was, until someone else became # 1. And, for the year, I was only # 3. Out of 1500 or so.
I ran my unit successfully, I managed the learning careers of other managers, I had multiple people promoted out of my unit into their own units, their own districts…even one of them, to his own region.
Fast forward to now. I’m absolutely astounded that I achieved the success I did– as little as I knew, then. I was sending those poor trainees–those guys and gals that thought they knew so much– out into the world ill-prepared; but man, were they confident!
See, Todd, the scope of learning tends to exponentially increase as you gain tenure in your position. What you believe you can’t see right now is fully within your grasp, and is simply waiting for you to grasp it. You just need to push the cobwebs away so that you can see it more clearly. Say you can see it already but can’t quite get there? What’s blocking your pathway?
What’s blocking your pathway and frustrating you at this point in your career is finding the way around the challenge, and the best way to do that is to reverse course and find a way to address your needs from a different perspective. Solve challenges by moving away from the challenge head on, and come at the problem from another direction. Tom Lambert was right. “Back up, Todd, and look at where you’ve been.” Find another way to the prize.
Often, others will tell us that we’re wrong for backing away from a problem. I remember the logic applied in several management training courses I attended: “Always attack the problem.”
I never understood how frustration was supposed to help me solve a difficult and thorny issue. A frontal attack rarely succeeds unless you have a huge advantage, and if you have the advantage, you rarely are concerned about the way to achieve the victory. Better, then, to find a different pathway.
Visualize yourself climbing Mt. Everest, like my friend Dr. Ania Licota has done– several times. Gotta admit, I’m jealous. But she is always well prepared. I’d just charge forward, and probably kill myself falling down a crevasse! If the pathway is blocked, do you think that Ania simply charges over the pathway, willy-nilly, trying to move forward? No, of course not. She finds a way around the problem. And from that approach, we can all take heart.
That’s what I’m going to suggest you consider today. Don’t focus on the end result, but rather a different and alternative–and maybe, even easier, and more fulfilling way– to reach what you see, but believe you can’t touch. You’ll be there sooner than you think.
