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Janna's Blog
(Without one you can die!)
The best way to fail at a business is not having a plan; the best way to wander through your career and get stuck in a rut is by not having a plan; and--you guessed it--the best way to get lost on a mountain is not having a plan.There are tools that help us stay on-track in life. On the trail it is a compass, a map, and possibly even a GPS that, used in tandem, will generally keep you on course. For example, you can be in the woods with only a map and still get lost, but add in a compass and you'll probably find your way. Because the magnetized compass needle always indicates magnetic north, you'll consistently know how to find this direction even if you go in circles. So using a compass in conjunction with your map keeps you adapting to stay on the right track.
Your business and career plan, if you use it, accomplishes the same purpose. First, you step back from the day to day environment to create the plan of what you want to accomplish and how you'll do it. On a regular basis - at least monthly - you measure your actions against the detailed steps you of your plan. If you are straying off course, you step back again to review your plan, realign your focus, and redirect your steps.
How does this relate to business? Without a plan, you risk going off track. Are you heading into new sales situations, new markets, and new projects without doing your homework? Are you resting on the knowledge you gained last year or five years ago on how to sell? Did your education process stop the day you graduated from high school or college? Are you finding the new employee that was just hired is getting the better projects, the better office, and the better promotions?
The process of learning, growing your skills, and adapting to new environments are critical tools to stay on track and reach your goals, whatever they are.
One of my clients sells cars. This process is dramatically different today than it was even five years ago. Fifteen years ago, everyone cared about what was “under the hood.” What was the engine like; how did it run? What was the torque? (I learned from my advertising client that people used to care about torque. Yes, I had to look it up – so you can, too, if you're interested.) Today, anyone selling cars better know how to use a smart phone. They better know how to connect it to the car. They better be able to look up the competitor information on that phone and discuss it out on the lot. To close the deal, they better be able to talk accurately to the customer who has done the research and possibly knows more than them about the car.
When hiring a new sales person, the car dealership cares more about whether that person can understand and discuss the car's technology versus knowing how the engine runs. If you are an auto sales person who's selling the same way you did ten years ago, there is a good chance that your job might be in jeopardy. And it's not about age. My client has an 82-year-old sales person that is very successful. He owns a smartphone and knows how to use it. He created a plan and has learned how to adapt. Have YOU?
What is critical thinking? There are multiple definitions, some very complex, yet the simple definition is not just the possession of skills but the ability and habit to continually use them in new and different ways. Put another way, critical thinking means using the normal to create and then apply the new.Over the last five years I have often challenged clients and workshop attendees on their critical thinking skills. These are bright, qualified, skilled and hardworking business owners and executives who have accomplished significant challenges in their careers and business. They have worked through significant challenges and look at the world in ways that many of us don’t comprehend.
Yet, when posed with out-of-the-box types of problems they find it challenging to come up with not simply a good answer, but with that “best” answer. I wonder if the day-to-day challenge of running their business environments has reduced their ability to be creative critical thinkers.
I had the opportunity to be the guest speaker for a high school leadership training class. There were about 30 students from about five high schools. It was a fun time of encouraging them to consider their classroom and personal goals for the next school year. Don’t I wish I had that opportunity when I was 17! (But that is another topic.)
I presented them with two out-of-the-box scenarios and was looking for that elusive "best" answer. When presenting similar scenarios to business owners, they throw ideas at me for a couple of minutes – and then I give them the “best” answer. So it amazed me that within about 20 seconds a number of the students had thought of the “best” answer for my hypothetical situations.
I was surprised, yet it made me extremely hopeful. For all the criticism of today’s youth and millennials, maybe their critical thinking skills are a lot better than we think. Maybe their fresh way of looking at things is that advantage we need in our business. We do need to stop, listen and allow them the time to say things – even things that we may not fully understand.
Did we somewhere along the way - in running businesses, fighting the daily fight of life - stop thinking critically? Have we stopped being creative in our thought processes and now default to what is easy or normal? We believe we are the harder working and wiser generation, but we seem to have stopped using any critical thinking skills that are outside our comfort zone.
My challenge to you: Change your thinking process--start thinking like an 18 year old. It might revolutionize your business, you just might have some fun, and you'll ultimately prepare your business for the growth that comes with a new generation of leaders.
Curiosity is critical in business. Accepting status quo, what others tell you is right and looking at the world the way everyone else does will and does get you in trouble.
Instead we need to step back and watch a 2 year old. What do they do?
• The explore everything, hold it upside down and look at it in every way possible.
• They challenge what others say and ask WHY? and keep asking WHY?
• “I can do it myself” is their mantra (well maybe we need to moderate that perspective.)
• There is nothing they can’t do in their mind.
• They are ready to take on the world.
Have you lost your natural desire to be curious, ask questions, challenge how others think you should act? If so then stop, slow down and watch a 2 year old. Start exploring your own world. There is so much at our fingertips that passes us by every day.
Curiosity may have killed the cat – but it will grow your business!
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