WAIT is a Four Letter Word

I read a thought provoking print ad the other day with the headline: WAIT is a Four Letter Word.

Businesses and business people can deal with, Yes or No. What is extremely challenging for anyone to have to deal with is when the answer is, "I don't know-Not now-or We are going to WAIT. "

Giving careful consideration to any decision makes good sense. Once the facts are presented, the decision becomes much easier and making sure you have all the information you need is vital. However don't get so involved in the analysis that you are driven to paralysis. The opportunity may not be as potent if you WAIT too long to decide, especially if the decision is YES.

The emotional piece of any decision is often deepest in the beginning. It is then that everyone is excited about the possibilities that are manifest when the choice is made to move forward with something different. Every decision should be tempered with facts and emotion. When the facts are compelling enough to do something different don't WAIT so long to decide that you kill the powerful emotional commitment that is resident in the affirmative response. One of the biggest challenges we face is when we decide to say yes, which results in us having to make something different work to our collective advantage. The positive response must be accompanied with a commitment to do what is necessary to make it work!

Very few plans follow the path that is initially laid out. Situations, people and circumstances change and these changes will often require a strategic modification to every plan. Be prepared to make the modifications that you feel are best based on where you are in the process, but don't WAIT. Make changes quickly because the situation calls for changes and then continue moving. There will be times when you may move laterally or even back-up a bit. Don't get discouraged, keep moving and don't WAIT.

Well I Think...

Think about how frequently you tell clients and prospects what you think, and in response, they tell you what they think.

How different would your conversations be, and how much more productive would you become, if you kept your opinions to yourself and dealt with only the facts. Everyone you know is busy, at least they appear to be so, therefore if you can make your point without wasting their time, you can put yourself in a better position to achieve a desired result.

Business conversations should be a productive and progressive dialogue between people with common interest and goals. If you accept this as the objective of each business conversation you must endeavor to stay on track with your progress and not allow the discussion to move too far off the path. Of course you need to spice discussions up with the occasional personal experiences, etc. but you cannot allow valuable time to be consumed by what you think. Clients and prospects do not really care much about what you think, at least not until they are convinced that you really know what you are talking about. Conversations are indeed two-way, but the client should be doing most of the talking and you should be doing most of the listening. When your time to talk is afforded, speak to the facts and leave the opinions out.

Even though you may have been working with a particular business for a long time, the time you are spending with that client is still very valuable so don't take it for granted. You may be so familiar with them that you lose your edge and become complacent. The competition is not complacent and they are after your client by presenting factual reasons, not opinions, on why your client should become their client and do more business with them and less with you. The competition is not wasting valuable time by giving your clients their opinion. They know that sharing what they think is not a productive use of their time and certainly not in the best interest of the client.

Taking your opinions out of your pre-call preparation and business discussions will help to ensure that you remain focused on the reasons clients should use you and not your competition. Don't spend valuable time telling people what you think, tell them what you know because the harsh reality is that people don't care what you think.

Comfort or Confidence

Over the course of your career, you will hear people say; "As soon as I am comfortable with this or that I will can accomplish more and more..." This statement implies that comfort is the goal regarding a specific level of performance capabilities. Therefore as you grow more capable, you should enjoy increased levels of comfort. Nothing could be farther from the reality and do not fall for that misconception. Comfort is not the objective, confidence is. The more confidence you exhibit the more confident clients will be with you and then they will enjoy a greater level of trust.

A comfortable state of mind suggests that you are not in tune with the dynamic events occurring all around you. When you are comfortable you lose a degree of street-savy and that puts you in a compromising position. When you are confident you are fully aware of what is happening and what needs to be accomplished to move to the next level. Comfort will never get you to where you want to be, confidence will help to get you to the top of your game and keep you in a competitive and aggressive posture. You simply cannot afford the luxury of becoming comfortable. You are vulnerable and not growing when you are comfortable. Comfort takes the edge off and you need the edge to win. So don't spend any time looking for greater levels of comfort. Spend your time gaining a higher and higher level of confidence. Because confidence wins every time. People are drawn to confident people.

Resolve

Recently I was had the honor and privilege of serving on a panel of judges, to select the recipient of The Youth of The Year Award given by The Boys & Girls Club. In order to be considered and nominated for the award, each candidate needed to consistently demonstrate to the staff at the clubs, commendable behavior and qualities regarding; home & family, moral character, community involvement, school and service to club. Additionally they must detail obstacles they overcame or are in the process of overcoming, write two essays; one explaining what the club means to them and the other regarding why they feel post high school education is important. The final phase of the judging required the candidates to write and deliver a two-minute speech to the panel of judges.

What I found remarkable from every one of these teen age candidates was, even though they were dealing with extremely difficult circumstances including poverty and abuse, they all had infectious resolve to change their situation for the better by doing the things necessary to make a difference in their lives. They determined that the challenges they faced, were not going to stop them from achieving a better life.

Incredibly, they were also resolved to help others. I found it deeply moving to listen to these remarkable individuals talk of how they intended to help others. "They who needed help the most, were dedicated to helping others! "

They were resolute in their resolve...are you.

Still We Must Act

What is your current and continuing success really made of ?

Are you the recipient of great fortune by being in the right place at the right time or do you attribute your success to something else. The achievements you have made can be directly associated with the effort expended. There is such a thing as "luck" but these uncontrollable events called luck have far less to do with your success that want happens when lucky things happen. There are good and bad things that happen that you had nothing to do with. The issue is singularly focused on what happens when these unpredictable things happen. How do you respond? That is the pivotal question. When good things happen you can certainly take credit for being ready to make the most of the good fortune. Conversely when bad things happen, you need to be prepared to rapidly make the moves that will mitigate the effect and turn lemons into lemonade and you can take credit for that as well. You are going to have to take ownership either way.

Take the time to analyze what has happened that is directly attributed to your actions and take time to analyze the things that are not. Then you can draw a clearer conclusion how to build upon the events that are part of your continuing and increasing levels of success. You must act no matter what happens and to the extent that you are prepared to respond and build upon the events, you will find yourself so busy "doing" that the impact of the uncontrollable events will either be positively greatly expanded upon or you will significantly diminish the negative impact of less fortunate events. Some of the greatest victories are going to be those victories where you can look back at the bad events and calculate just how well you preformed in less than desirable circumstances. Robert Trent Jones Jr., one of the greatest golfers of all time was quoted as saying: "I never learned anything from a golf tournament I won."

So it does not really matter if it is good or bad, still you must act.

Of Brine & Swine

Surprisingly more people are killed each year by pigs than are killed by sharks.

Businesses often spend a great deal of their resources, human and financial, on figuring out a way to get ahead of the competition, the sharks. They focus on the sharks outside the business and rightfully so. You cannot ignore your competition and viewing them as sharks will motivate you to swim faster, else that will eat you up.

But sharks are not what kills or damages most businesses. The pigs inside the building are the real threat to the business. The are also the part of the business that is completely within control of the management. Allowing the pigs to destroy by tolerating their lazy and ineffective work ethic happens far too often. When a company becomes so consumed with the sharks they allow the pigs to run wild, a death spiral is inevitable. Pigs run wild, at times, without running at all. When management allows the pigs to lower the overall expectations by accepting their mediocre efforts and results, they are in effect saying that this behavior is acceptable. Pigs are crafty and will appear to be making progress when is fact, they are simply working dilligently at not working. Others in the company see the pigs performance and reasonably think that if the pigs can behave as they do and still get paid, why should I make the effort to meet expectations. The pigs don't, so I am not going to.

Allowing pigs to wallow in their sty of deplorable results while expecting others to make up the difference does the company considerable damage and will eventually take a toll on everyone. Once a pig is identified, get the pig help and try to turn the pig into a productive member of the team by insisting that they perform at a higher level. If they chose not to take advantage of the opportunity, call the butcher.

Thank You

Often the most simple words are the most meaningful. All to often we get so wrapped up in what we are doing to move the business forward we forget to consider the considerable-contributions of all of the people around us. Considerable-contributions does not necessarily mean large contributions. What it means, is that in some meaningful way, the people were involved in our achievements and we would have not been as successful had they not been involved.

No one can be successful in a vacuum. You cannot achieve anything meaningful without the help of other people. While you may be the person who gets the attention, I assure you your efforts are not the only individual efforts that contributed to your achievements. Many other people helped you. (From the doctors and nurse who aided in your delivery, to your teachers and your friends who gave you advice even when you didn't want it.)

Take the time to look around and consider where you would be if you didn't have other people helping you. You may subconsciuosly look to they that set fine examples by what they do well, and you follow their lead. You may learn from the mistakes others have made, because indirectly they paid a price you didn't have to. All of these people deserve your thanks. One of the best means to say thanks to those people who helped and may not be around anymore, is to make the best of what you have because of the opportunities you have been given. Of course the very best way say thank you is to simply say; "thank you, I really appreciate what you have done for me."